UNIVERSITY 
 LOS 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA. 
 ANGELES 

 
 JUL 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, 
 
 M.P., D.G.L., &c.
 
 OF 
 
 THE BIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 . 
 
 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, 
 
 M.P., D.C.L., Ac. 
 
 BT 
 
 GEORGE BARNETT SMITH, 
 
 ^^^^i 
 AUTHOR OF " SHELLEY : A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY," " POETS AND NOVELISTS," &C. 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
 CASSELL, FETTER, GALPIN & Co.: 
 
 LONDON, PARIS $ NEW YORK. 
 
 [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED."]
 

 
 DA 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 SINCE the first edition of this work went to press, the hopes and 
 predictions expressed in its closing chapters have been signally ful- 
 filled. In writing those chapters nine months ago, I ventured to 
 observe that " in happier seasons, and when the results of Imperialism 
 are calmly reviewed, our recent policy will receive the strongest 
 condemnation. It may be that this time is close upon us. Even in 
 the midst of the saturnalia over our foreign triumphs, the hand- 
 writing begins to appear upon the wall." The nation has arisen, and, 
 with sudden and overwhelming force, has overthrown the Beaconsfield 
 Administration. The system of Imperialism, as distinguished from 
 the Constitutionalism of previous Cabinets and Prime Ministers, has 
 fallen with its author. Those journals which attributed the Con- 
 servative defeat to a mere desire for change on the part of the 
 electors, failed to touch the root of the matter. Two simple facts 
 prove this, and at the same time conclusively point to the real cause 
 of the great Liberal victory. First, making due allowance for the 
 increase in the electoral body, the Conservatives polled in exactly the 
 same proportion at the election of 1880 as they did in 1874, when 
 they carried everything before them. Secondly, and this is the real 
 solution of the question, after making due allowance for the increase 
 in the electorate, there is still an enormous increase, amounting to 
 nearly twenty-five per cent., in the total Liberal vote. The bulk ot 
 the people of this country are unquestionably Liberal at heart. In 
 1874 a large number of Liberals were apathetic, and stood aside 
 from the conflict; in 1880 the whole Liberal party was united and 
 homogeneous. Herein lies the moral of the recent elections. This 
 universal awakening of the popular feeling is due almost entirely to 
 Mr. Gladstone. By his marvellous energy and eloquence he sapped 
 the foundations of a Government which many of its supporters in 
 the press declared up to the very last moment to be one of the 
 strongest governments ever seen. Mr. Gladstone brought back the 
 
 433397
 
 PREFATORY NOTE TO FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 nation to those time-honoured principles of equity and justice in 
 our foreign relations, and of domestic and national progress, which 
 were for a period in abeyance ; and he stands again to-day high 
 in the affections of a grateful people. The Liberal party may now 
 gracefully cease to vaunt its triumph, and should address itself to 
 the task indicated in the words of its great Leader, after his now 
 memorable return for Midlothian, viz., that of "establishing the 
 external policy of this country upon the lines of peace, justice, equal 
 right, and sympathy with freedom, and towards the direction of its 
 internal government and legislation in the method and spirit which 
 during the last half-century have done so much to relieve the 
 people, to gain respect for the laws, to strengthen the foundation of 
 the Throne, and to consolidate the structure of this great and noble 
 Empire." For the accomplishment of this high and onerous mission, 
 the new Liberal Ministry with Mr. Gladstone as its head and 
 energising force is especially fitted. In 1865 Lord Palmerston 
 enjoyed a majority of 77 ; in 1868 Mr. Gladstone had the far greater 
 majority of 112 ; while in 1874 Mr. Disraeli came into power with 
 a majority of 106, exclusive of Home Rulers : but in 1880 the 
 Liberal majority stands at the very high figure of 118, not including 
 the Home Rulers. The Liberal party have come into a splendid 
 inheritance ; may they use it wisely, and for the contintied well- 
 'jeing and prosperity of the Empire 1 
 
 G. B. S.
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 THE leading purpose of this work is of a biographical and 
 historical, rather than of a polemical character. It has been my 
 object to place before the reader the story of Mr. Gladstone's life 
 and his relations to the great movements of his time through 
 the medium of his writings and speeches. In the Parliamentary 
 portion of the work, I have been sparing of comment, for two 
 reasons : first, to have discussed at length the manifold political 
 acts of this eminent statesman would have expanded this 
 biography greatly beyond its present dimensions ; and, secondly, 
 the period has not yet arrived when it is possible to estimate 
 (even were I competent to do so) the full effect and influence 
 of those great legislative measures with which Mr. Gladstone's 
 name is associated. In a work of this kind it would be 
 impossible for the author to conceal the nature of his political 
 sentiments; neither have I the wish to do so; but a high 
 admiration for the subject of this biography is not incompatible 
 with an impartial recognition of certain errors of judgment. 
 Nor, in sometimes strongly condemning the action of his oppo- 
 nents, have I endeavoured unduly to asperse them. Amongst 
 such opponents, during the last forty years, have been men 
 entitled to the respect and gratitude of the country; and 
 England is proud of all her sons who have rendered her distin- 
 guished service, be their party name Whig or Tory, Liberal or 
 Conservative. 
 
 There are few, I believe even amongst those who most differ 
 from him who would deny to Mr. Gladstone the title of a great 
 statesman. With regard to his course on recent Foreign policy, my 
 conviction is that ' time is on his side,' and is even now working 
 out his justification ; but be this course approved or disapproved, 
 nothing can blot out the memory of his past achievements. In 
 many respects, the long roll of English statesmen bears no name 
 more illustrious than his. The purity of his motives and the
 
 ri PREFACE. 
 
 disinterestedness of his character stand confessed; and it may 
 be said of him, as was said of Burke, that * he brought to politics 
 a horror of crime, a deep humanity, a keen sensibility, and a 
 singular vivacity and sincerity of conscience.' The most 
 conspicuous figure, perhaps, in the public life of our times, 
 and universally esteemed for his talents, his eloquence, his high 
 and pure feeting, and his personal worth, I commit to the 
 reader, without further apology, this record of his career. 
 
 G. B. S.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. BIBTH AND ANCESTRY 1 
 
 n. AT ETON AND OXFORD . 13 
 
 .. III. MEMBER FOR NEWARK 32 
 
 IV. EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT . . 42 
 
 V. MR. GLADSTONE ON CHURCH AND STATE . . .65 
 
 VI. A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-50 . . . . .77 
 
 VH. THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS 120 
 
 "VTU. MR. GLADSTONE'S FIRST BUDGET . . . . .133 
 
 IX. THE CRIMEAN WAR 150 
 
 X. THE CRIMEAN WAR (continued) 167 
 
 XI. THE CRIMEAN WAR (concluded) 184 
 
 XIL DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY 1856-58 . . . 196 
 
 XHL HOMERIC STUDIES 225 
 
 XIV. THE SESSION OP 1859 THE BUDGET o 1860 AND 
 
 THE FRENCH TREATY 244 
 
 XV. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63 .... 273 
 
 XVI. ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL REFORMS . . 309 
 
 XVn. MR. GLADSTONE'S REJECTION AT OXFORD THE REFORM 
 
 BILL OF 1866 322 
 
 XV 111. THE REFORM AND IRISH CHURCH QUESTIONS . . 350
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 MM 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM .... 374 
 
 XX. THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM (concluded) . . 400 
 
 ,, XXI. THE ALABAMA CLAIMS THE BALLOT IRISH UNI- 
 VERSITY EDUCATION 42 
 
 XXII. PALL OF MR. GLADSTONE'S MINISTRY . . . 454 
 
 ^/^T XXm. SPEECHES ON PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION . 464 
 
 ,. XXIV. RESIGNATION OF THE LIBERAL LEADERSHIP . . 483 
 
 XXV. RITUALISM AND VATICANISM 490 
 
 XXVI. MR. GLADSTONE'S FINANCIAL POLICY .... 503 
 
 XXVTI. THE EASTERN QUESTION 512 
 
 XXVm. FOREIGN POLICY 1878-79 532 
 
 XXIX. MR. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS, ETC. . 555 
 
 XXX. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS CONCLUSION. 571
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, 
 
 M.P., D.C.L., &c. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 
 
 The Gladstones and the Middle Class Sir John Gladstone His Characteristics 
 Origin of his Family Its Settlement in Scotland for several Centuries Its 
 Ramifications John Gladstone, the future Premier's Father, born at Leith 
 Removes to Liverpool His Business Aptitude Anecdote Illustrating his 
 Enterprise A Merchant Prince His Relations with Canning Philanthropic 
 Efforts A Member of the House of Commons Created a Baronet by Sir 
 Robert Peel William Ewart Gladstone's Scotch Descent Illustrious Pedigree 
 claimed by Burke The Early Training of Mr. Gladstone Surrounded by 
 Conservative Influences His Genius and Endowments His Career an 
 Interesting Study. 
 
 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE statesman, orator, and man of 
 letters sprang from the ranks of that powerful order which has 
 justly been regarded as the backbone of England namely, the 
 middle class. This class has not only given stability to the 
 country in the midst of social and political convulsions, but has 
 contributed more than any other to the intellectual growth and 
 eminence of the English-speaking race. The adventitious cir- 
 cumstances surrounding an aristocracy tend to produce habits 
 of lethargy and indulgence, though there are illustrious examples 
 in statesmanship, art, and letters, where the temptations to a 
 life of ignoble ease have been successfully overcome while, if we 
 descend to the lowest grade in the social scale, we shall find that 
 the evils of poverty have arrested the development of many men 
 of original talent, who might have risen to be a power in and 
 an ornament to the state. The middle class have been subjected 
 neither to the temptations of the aristocracy nor the priva- 
 
 8
 
 2 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 tions of the order beneath them ; and it is to these we owe, in a 
 large measure, the prosperity and greatness of the empire. They 
 are men of shrewd, penetrating, and active minds, men who 
 have acquired a stake in the country by their own indomitable 
 energy and foresight, and they have ever been the most ardent 
 defenders of individual and national liberty a check upon the 
 power of kings and nobles, and a breakwater against the threaten- 
 ing tide of democracy. 
 
 Typical of this race was Sir John Gladstone, father of the future 
 Liberal Premier. Amongst all the merchant princes of Liverpool 
 and the records of the town are full of striking examples of 
 self-made men there are few whose career was so remarkable as 
 that of the man who, originally the son of a corn merchant or corn 
 dealer at Leith, near Edinburgh, ultimately became one of the 
 most eminent merchants and shipowners in Lancashire. We 
 shall the better approach to some understanding of the states- 
 man's complex character by briefly tracing the history of his 
 father. In him were developed those practical qualities which 
 have since been reflected in the son tenacity of purpose, 
 strength of will, the power to grapple with opposing circum- 
 stances, and a breadth of mind which grasped the various aspects 
 of a difficult problem at a glance. ' Diligent in business ' was 
 Sir John Gladstone's motto, and his distinguished son, so far 
 from being ashamed of the means by which his family rose to 
 opulence, not long ago, in frank and manly words, and words 
 worth remembering, recounted his obligations to trade and com- 
 merce. In an address delivered at the Liverpool Collegiate 
 Institute on the 21st of December 1872, Mr. Gladstone said, ' I 
 know not why commerce in England should not have its old 
 families, rejoicing to be connected with commerce from genera- 
 tion to generation. It has been so in other countries ; I trust it 
 will be so in this country. I think it a subject of sorrow, and 
 almost of scandal, when those families who have either acquired 
 or recovered station and wealth through commerce, turn their 
 backs upon it, and seem to be ashamed of it. It certainly is not 
 so with my brother or with me. His sons are treading in his 
 steps, and one of my sons, I rejoice to say, is treading in the steps 
 of my father and my brother.' 
 
 Before alluding further to Mr. Gladstone's father, it will be con- 
 venient here to cite certain interesting facts as to the ramifications 
 of the family. The chief stock of the Gladstanes or Gladstones 
 for the latter orthography is of recent adoption were originally 
 settled in the parish of Liberton, in the upper ward of 
 Clydesdale ; but many generations subsequently a branch of the 
 stock effected a settlement in the town of Biggar, in Lanarkshire.
 
 BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. S 
 
 Through the name of Gladstanes or Gledstanes has been traced 
 a custom in connection with the tenure of land, prevalent 
 centuries ago in certain Scotch counties. It may also be noted 
 that Gled is Lowland Scottish for a hawk, and that stanes 
 signifies rocks. The estates of Arthurshiel and of Gladstanes, 
 in Clydesdale, were held by a branch of the family of the 
 Gladstanes through whom the subject of our biography traces 
 his descent. Evidence exists of the former estate being held by 
 William Gladstanes early in the sixteenth century, and there 
 are references to descendants of his in legal documents executed 
 in 1623 and 1641 respectively. Some time before the year 
 1680 the estate of Arthurshiel was sold by John Gladstanes to 
 James Brown, of Edmonstoun. At Biggar, William Grladstanes, 
 son of the laird just named, pursued the business of a maltster, 
 and died in 1728. He left three sons and one daughter. Of the 
 sons, John, born in 1693 or 1694, followed the occupation of his 
 father in the town of Biggar. He was an active man in the 
 district, and a kirk elder. Being successful in business, he 
 acquired a small property, to which he retired, dying in the 
 year 1756. This John Gladstanes had a large family, consisting 
 of five sons and six daughters. The third son, John, took the 
 patrimony of Mid Toftcombs, and, marrying, received with his 
 wife, Christian Taverner, a dowry amounting to seven thousand 
 merks -a not inconsiderable sum at that period. The fourth 
 son of this marriage was Thomas Gladstone grandfather of the 
 statesman who was born at Mid Toftcombs on the 3rd of June, 
 1732, and lived until the year of William Ewart Gladstone's 
 birth, dying at the ripe age of seventy-seven. Thomas Glad- 
 stone, having early left the parental roof, became a corn- 
 merchant in Leith, and married Helen, the daughter of Walter 
 Neilson, of Springfield. Their union was very prolific, and of 
 sixteen children born to them no fewer than twelve grew up to 
 maturity. Thomas Gladstone's aptitude for business was so 
 great, and he was so enterprising, that notwithstanding the 
 numerous claims upon him he was able to make some provision 
 for all his sons in the adoption of their various trades or callings. 
 John Gladstone, the eldest son, was bom at Leith, in the year 
 1763. He entered his father's business, and on attaining his 
 majority an incident occurred which proved the turning-point 
 in his career. Being commissioned by his father to go to Liver- 
 pool, in order to sell a cargo of grain which had arrived at that 
 port, his demeanour and business capabilities so won upon the 
 mind of one of the leading Liverpool corn-merchants, Mr. Come, 
 that he desired his father to allow young Gladstone to settle at 
 that port. For some time, accordingly, John Gladstone became 
 
 B2
 
 4 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 assistant in the house of Corrie and Co. He was not long here, 
 however, before his tact and shrewdness manifested themselves, 
 and, by-and-by, the firm of Corrie and Co. became transformed 
 into that of Corrie, Gladstone, and Bradshaw. An anecdote is 
 related which illustrates not only the harassing nature of the 
 crises through which merchants in English ports are sometimes 
 called upon to pass, but also the prudence and determination by 
 which such crises are frequently met. To the conduct of John 
 Gladstone was due, upon one occasion, the preservation and safety 
 of the firm of which he was soon the most prominent member. 
 The utter failure of the European corn crops was regarded as an 
 excellent opportunity for doing a great stroke of business by Mr. 
 Corrie, who sent Mr. Gladstone to the United States to buy 
 grain. But America, too, had suffered in her crops, and no 
 corn was to be had. While in a condition of great perplexity, 
 Mr. Gladstone received advices from Liverpool to the effect that 
 twenty-four vessels had been engaged to convey to Europe the 
 grain he was despatched to purchase, but which he had not been 
 successful in procuring. The disastrous news soon became 
 known that there were no cargoes of grain, and that the vessels, 
 instead of being loaded with a rich freight, must return to Liver- 
 pool in ballast only. The prospect was ruinous, and the stability 
 of the house of Corrie and Co. was considered irretrievably 
 shattered. But Liverpool merchants had reckoned without their 
 host. Now was the time for John Gladstone to demonstrate 
 his business capacity and enterprise, by which he was able 
 to save the fortunes of the firm. While many would 
 have been helplessly casting about for means of recovery, 
 young Gladstone was up and doing. The ships must not return 
 empty. He made a thorough examination of the American 
 markets, ascertained what stocks there were which would be 
 likely to prove acceptable in Liverpool, and, by dint of 
 sleepless energy and activity, he managed to stock the holds of 
 all the vessels. The result was that the house was saved at a 
 very trifling loss. For many years after this the name of John 
 Gladstone was a synonym for push and integrity, first on the 
 Liverpool Exchange, and subsequently in other large towns, as 
 well as in the metropolis. 
 
 The partnership of Corrie, Gladstone^-and Bradshaw existed 
 for some sixteen years, and during a portion of this period the 
 tirm acted as the Government agents at Liverpool. Upon the 
 dissolution of the concern Gladstone was the only one who 
 remained in business, and he took into partnership his brother 
 Robert. Their operations became very extensive, and besides 
 opening up a large trade with Russia, they had large connections
 
 BIETH AND ANCESTRY. 5 
 
 as West India merchants and sugar importers. Mr. .Gladstone 
 afterwards became chairman of the West India Association, and 
 took great interest in the proposals for increasing the dock 
 accommodation of Liverpool. In coarse of time all the seven 
 sons of Thomas Gladstone of Leith had settled down in 
 Liverpool. The capacity to look ahead has been one of the 
 principal traits of the Gladstones as merchants, and when the 
 East India and China trades were thrown open beyond the old 
 limits of the East India Company's monopoly, in 1814, the 
 Liverpool firm of John Gladstone and Co. was the first to 
 despatch a private vessel to Calcutta. 
 
 The first ten years of the present century formed a period of 
 great trial and depression for Liverpool, and, indeed, for every 
 important port of the United Kingdom. In the year 1806, 
 Napoleon, anxious to cripple England, issued a decree declaring 
 all the ports of Great Britain in a state of blockade, and 
 prohibiting the importation into any part under his control of 
 the productions of either Great Britain or her colonies. Alarmed 
 by this bold decree, the British Government replied by issuing 
 orders declaring all the ports, either of France or her allies, or 
 from which the British flag was excluded, in a state of actual 
 blockade, and condemning all vessels trading to them as good 
 and lawful prize unless they had previously touched at a British 
 port, and paid customs duties to the British Crown. Napoleon 
 retorted, in his Milan decree, by declaring any neutral vessel 
 which had paid tax to the British Government denationalised. 
 The result of this policy of mutual recrimination was most 
 disastrous, especially as affecting English trade with America. 
 Indeed, the posture of affairs is perhaps unexampled in modern 
 warfare. The decrees of the British Government were much 
 more objectionable and embarrassing to the Americans than 
 those of Napoleon, which were practically inoperative. England 
 enjoyed the empire of the sea, while Napoleon had little or no 
 power to carry his edicts into execution. Diplomacy set to 
 work, but the breach between the United States and England 
 could not be healed. These disputes with America, combined 
 with the harassed condition of the commercial relations between 
 the two countries, led to great popular discontent in 1807. As 
 one effect of the policy of the British Government, it may be 
 stated that in the course of twelve months the commerce of 
 Liverpool declined to the amount of 140,000 tons, nearly one- 
 fourth of the entire trade, and there was a decrease of no le^s than 
 22,000 in the dock dues. Liverpool merchants trading with 
 America of course felt the strain severely, and John Gladstone 
 was amongst those who signed a requisition demanding a public
 
 6 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 meeting for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the 
 Orders in Council. Liverpool was divided in opinion, but a 
 petition was presented to the House of Commons, emanating 
 from the town, and praying for a conciliatory policy towards 
 hostile and neutral states, and especially in reference to the 
 United States of America. In the year 1812 that is, after 
 trade had been seriously crippled, and we had been precipitated 
 into a war with America the obnoxious orders were rescinded, 
 on the advice of Lord Castlereagh. 
 
 Mr. John Gladstone's earnestness was conspicuous in every- 
 thing he undertook. He was an ardent and yet practical 
 politician. At first a professor of Whig principles, he subse- 
 quently modified his views, and became an energetic supporter 
 of Mr. Canning. His principles later in life were those which 
 we usually associate with the name of Liberal Conservative. He 
 presided over a meeting called in Liverpool in 1812 for the purpose 
 of inviting Canning to become a candidate for the borough. The 
 election which ensued was a most exciting one, and is amongst 
 the most remarkable of political contests ever held out of the 
 metropolis. William Eoscoe having retired from the represen- 
 tation in October, Canning signified his willingness to stand. 
 At an open air meeting held in Castle street, Mr. Gladstone 
 delivered an address, in the course of which he reviewed the 
 commercial state of the country, and described in the most 
 flattering and glowing terms Canning's public and private 
 character. Mr. Gladstone agreed to support Henry Brougham as 
 the colleague of Canning, and was most anxious for the return 
 of these celebrated men. The other candidates were General 
 Gascoyne who belonged to a family of large property near the 
 town and a Mr. Creevey, a Radical of an advanced type. 
 Unfortunately, by one of those fits of perversity which some- 
 times characterised Brougham, the great advocate threw in his 
 lot with Creevey. In Brougham's Memoirs it is naively 
 recorded in connection with this election, that ' two or three 
 men were killed, but the town was quiet ' a striking commen- 
 tary upon the general character of the election of the period. 
 The alliance between Brougham and Creevey threw Mr. Glad- 
 stone into the arms of the acknowledged Conservatives, and he 
 now supported Canning and Gascoyne. Brougham and Creevey 
 were defeated. After the election the successful candidates were 
 chaired and carried in procession through the streets. The 
 procession finally halted at Mr. Gladstone's house, in Rodney 
 ' street, from the balcony of which Mr. Canning addressed the 
 populace. This election laid the foundation of a deep and 
 lasting friendship between Mr. Canning and Mr. Gladstone. At
 
 BIRTH AND ANCESTEY. 7 
 
 this time the son of the latter was but three years of age. 
 Shortly afterwards that is, as soon as he was able to understand 
 anything of public men and public movements and events the 
 name of Canning began to exercise that strange fascination over 
 the mind of William Ewart Gladstone which has never wholly 
 passed away. 
 
 In all the affairs of Liverpool Mr. John Gladstone took a 
 warm interest, and to his efforts much of its increased prosperity 
 was due. His public appearances were numerous, but with 
 municipal matters he persistently declined to meddle, as he was 
 a strong opponent of the self-elected municipal corporation of 
 the ante Reform Bill times. Whenever any movement, however, 
 for the good of the town required his support, it was always 
 ungrudgingly given. On the 28th of April, 1818, he addressed 
 a meeting called Ho consider the propriety of petitioning 
 Parliament to take into consideration the progressive and 
 alarming increase in the crimes of forging and uttering forged 
 Bank of England notes.' Although the punishments inflicted 
 for them were so heavy, these crimes spread at an enormous rate. 
 The Liverpool meeting passed resolutions recommending the 
 revision and amendment of the Criminal Law. So late as the 
 year 1823 the navigation between Liverpool and Dublin was in 
 a lamentable condition. Human life was recklessly imperilled, and 
 no one seemed willing to intervene. One example illustrating 
 the dangers which vessels ran may be cited. A sloop, the Alert. 
 was wrecked off the Welsh coast. She had on board between 
 100 and 140 souls, of whom only seventeen were saved. For the 
 rescue of every person on board the public packet-boat, there 
 only existed one small shallop twelve feet long. Mr. Gladstone 
 impressed with the terrible nature of the existing evil 
 obtained the introduction into the Steamboat Act of an impera- 
 tive provision requiring a sufficient number of boats for the 
 total number of passengers every vessel was licensed to carry. 
 By this humane provision thousands of lives were doubtless saved 
 which would otherwise have been lost, the victims of reckless 
 seamanship. Mr. Gladstone was also a warm advocate of 
 Greek independence. On the 14th of February 1824, a public 
 meeting was held in the Liverpool Town Hall, 'for the purpose 
 of considering the best means of assisting the Greeks in their 
 present important struggle for independence.' Mr. Gladstone 
 spoke impressively in favour of that cause which bad already 
 evoked great enthusiasm amongst the people, and enlisted the 
 sympathies and support of Lord Byron and other distinguished 
 friends of freedom. 
 
 In August 1822, Mr. Gladstone presided at a farewell dinner
 
 8 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 given to Mr. Canning by the Liverpool Canning Club. Mr. 
 Canning had been selected by the East India Company for the 
 appointment of Governor-General of India. After the dinner an 
 address was presented to the distinguished statesman at Mr. Glad- 
 stone's house. But although Canning retired from the represen- 
 tation of Liverpool, he did not leave the country. In conse- 
 quence of the death of the Marquis of Londonderry by his own 
 hand, the right hon. gentleman was invited to take office under 
 the Crown. On this accession of Mr. Canning to office in 1827 
 a crowded meeting of his former constituents was held to 
 celebrate the event. Mr. John Gladstone moved an address to 
 his Majesty, congratulating the Sovereign upon the formation 
 of the Canning Ministry. 
 
 On the Reform question Mr. Gladstone held peculiar views. 
 While not opposed to a greater enfranchisement of the people, 
 he desired to see any measure of reform which should be intro- 
 duced take the shape which should best consult all interests. 
 He was the principal speaker at a meeting called in November 
 18S1 to discuss this subject. He made no scruple in expressing 
 his views that he considered the projected reform was going too 
 far ; that due regard was not paid to the influence of property ; 
 and he maintained that the qualifications for the franchise 
 ought to differ in differing circumstances. 
 
 That such a man should make a mark in the town in which a 
 great portion of his life was spent is but natural. Mr. Jcfan 
 Gladstone was esteemed by his fellow-townsmen, irrespective of 
 class and of political opinion. The spirit of the man impressed 
 itself upon all with whom he came into contact. His energy, 
 his conscientiousness, and his philanthropic efforts in a variety 
 of directions, all tended to endow him with great popularity. 
 The high position he held in the public esteem was abundantly 
 manifested by certain very interesting proceedings which took 
 place in Liverpool on the 18th of October, 1824. On this day, 
 Mr. Gladstone was presented with a magnificent service of plate, 
 consisting of twenty-eight pieces, and bearing the following 
 inscription : * To John Gladstone, Esq., M.P., this service of 
 plate was presented MDCCCXXIV. by his fellow-townsmen and 
 friends, to mark their high sense of his successful exertions for 
 the promotion of Trade and Commerce, and in acknowledgment 
 of his most important services rendered to the to^vn of 
 Liverpool.' * 
 
 Whether mingling in the strife of politics had excited in Mr. 
 John Gladstone an ambition for parliamentary life, or whether 
 
 * For some of these details respecting Sir John Gladstone, the author is indebted 
 to Mr. J. A. Picton's very interesting Memorial$ of Liverpool.
 
 BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 3 
 
 it was due to the influence of Mr. Canning who early per- 
 ceived the many sterling qualities of his influential supporter 
 matters little, but he at length came forward for Lancaster, 
 for which place he was returned to the Parliament elected in 
 1819. 
 
 We next find him member for Woodstock, 1821-26, and m 
 the year 1827 he represented Berwick. Altogether he was 
 a member of the House of Commons for nine years. Mr. 
 John Gladstone never offered himself for Liverpool, although 
 he possessed great influence in the borough. This was 
 probably due to an opinion that so large a constituency as 
 Liverpool had special claims upon its members, and demanded 
 from them more important services in the House of Commons 
 than he could render. Sir Eobert Peel created Mr. John 
 Gladstone a baronet in 1845. He lived to enjoy his justly- 
 acquired honours for a short time only, dying in 1851 at the 
 patriarchal age of eighty-eight. 
 
 Sir John Gladstone was not devoid of literary talent. When 
 the Slavery question came to the front, he entered into a corres- 
 pondence upon the subject with Mr. John Cropper, and wrote a 
 pamphlet ' On the Present State of Slavery in the British West 
 Indies and in the United States of America; and on the 
 Importation of Sugar from the British Settlements in India.' 
 In the year 1830 he published ' A Statement of Facts connected 
 with the Present State of Slavery in the British Sugar and 
 Coffee Colonies, and in the United States of America ; together 
 with a View of the Situation of the Lower Classes in the United 
 Kingdom : in a Letter addressed to Sir Kobert Peel.' He also 
 wrote and issued in 1846 a pamphlet entitled 'Plain Facts 
 intimately connected with the intended Eepeal of the Corn 
 Laws ; or, Probable Effects on the Public Kevenue and the 
 Prosperity of this Country.' 
 
 On both sides the subject of our biography is of Scotch 
 descent. He alluded to this fact in mature life, and when 
 receiving an address in November 1865, from the Parliamentary 
 Eeform Union, in the Glasgow Trade Hall. He thanked those 
 who had signed the address for reminding him of his connection 
 with Scotland at large, and of Glasgow, through the county of 
 Lanark. 4 If Scotland is not ashamed of her sons,' he said, ' her 
 sons are not ashamed of Scotland; and the memory of the 
 parents to whom I owe my being combines with various other 
 considerations to make me glad and thankful to remember that 
 the blood which runs in my veins is exclusively Scottish.' Sir 
 John Gladstone who had no issue by his first marriage 
 married as his second wife Ann Robertson, daughter of Mr.
 
 10 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 Andrew Robertson, of Stornoway, and sometime Provost of Ding- 
 wall. She has been described by one who knew her intimately 
 as ' a lady of very great accomplishments ; of fascinating 
 manners, of commanding presence and high intellect ; one to 
 grace any home and endear any heart.' Her children were six 
 in number four sons and two daughters. Of the sons two only 
 survive, viz., Sir Thomas Gladstone, Bart., of Fasque, and 
 William EAvart Gladstone. Captain John Neilson Gladstone, 
 sometime M.P. for Portarlington, died in 1863, and Mr. 
 Robertson Gladstone, a prominent merchant and citizen of 
 Liverpool, died in 1875. Of the daughters, one, Anne McKenzie 
 Gladstone, died many years ago, and the other, Helen Jane, quite 
 recently, bo.th ladies being unmarried. 
 
 The enormous wealth of Sir John Gladstone enabled him to 
 make handsome provision for each of his children during his 
 lifetime a fortunate circumstance for the future statesman, and 
 one which left him at liberty to devote his energies to the 
 public service, undistracted by the necessity for business or 
 professional occupation. The Gladstone family belongs, 
 as we have said, essentially to the middle class and Mr. 
 Gladstone himself would claim for it no other honour but 
 the zealous Burke connects the marriage of Sir John Gladstone 
 with Miss Robertson to a royal descent from Henry III. of 
 England, and Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. This alleged 
 illustrious pedigree is thus traced Lady Jane Beaufort, who 
 was a descendant of Henry III., married James I. of Scotland, 
 who was a descendant of Bruce. From this alliance it is said 
 that the steps can be followed clearly down to the father of Miss 
 Robertson. A Scotch writer upon genealogy, also referring to 
 this matter, states that Mr. Gladstone is descended on the 
 mother's side from the ancient Mackenzie of Kintail, through 
 whom is introduced the blood of the Bruce, of the ancient Kings 
 of Man, and of the Lords of the Isles and Earls of Ross; also 
 from the Munros of Fowlis, and the Robertsons of Strowan and 
 Athole. What was of more consequence to the Gladstones of 
 recent generations, however, than royal blood, was the fact that 
 by their energy and honourable enterprise they carved their own 
 fortunes, and rose to positions of public esteem and eminence. 
 
 England was distracted by troubles at home and abroad when 
 he who was to be the greatest Liberal statesman of his time first 
 saw the light at Liverpool, on the 29th of December 1809. 
 Commerce was paralysed in many of its centres ; men had not 
 forgotten the horrors of the French Revolution ; and Napoleon 
 still bestrode Europe like a Colossus. The time was one to 
 make all men pause, and there is scarcely room for wonder that
 
 . BIKTH AND ANCESTEY. 11 
 
 men of property, merchants, and others, who had never hitherto 
 been suspected of Tory proclivities, should acquire a strong 
 Conservative bias. Probably this had something to do with the 
 gravitation of Mr. John Gladstone towards the principles of Mr. 
 Canning. At any rate, in following the public career of his son, 
 these influences must not be lost sight of. His politics and his 
 strength of will he imbibed from his father ; his sensitiveness, 
 and his power of receiving and susceptibility to impressions, 
 were doubtless acquired from his mother, Ann Eobertson. 
 Having his father for his teacher, and being constantly reminded 
 of, and indoctrinated in, the principles of Canning, it is not 
 surprising that Mr. Gladstone began life as a Tory. 
 
 There has rarely, if ever, been witnessed in statesmanship so 
 singular a combination of qualities and faculties. Without being 
 possessed of that highest of all gifts, an absolutely informing 
 genius, he has, perhaps, every endowment save that. Liverpool 
 gave him his financial talent and business aptitude, Eton his 
 classical attainments, Oxford his moral fervour and religious 
 spirit. H^, has thrown round the science of finance a halo with 
 which it seemed impossible to invest it ; and he has diffused a 
 light upon all great questions in which he has become interested, 
 which has revealed them to, and brought them clearly within, the 
 popular apprehension and understanding. Into every work that 
 he has undertaken, he has imported an earnestness described as 
 enthusiasm by his friends and fanaticism by his opponents. 
 Neither the world of commerce, the world of politics, nor the 
 world of letters has held him entirely for its own ; yet he has 
 trodden every stage with success. As a recent writer * well 
 observes, ' He cares even more than trades-unions for the welfare 
 of the working men; more than the manufacturers for the 
 interests of capital ; more for the cause of retrenchment than 
 the most jealous and avowed foes of Government expenditure ;. 
 more for the spread of education than the advocates of a compul- 
 sory national system ; more for careful constitutional precedent 
 than the Whigs; and more for the spiritual independence of 
 the Church than the highest Tories. He unites cotton with 
 culture, Manchester with Oxford, the deep classical joy over the 
 Italian resurrection and Greek independence with the deep 
 English interest on the amount of the duty on Zante raisins 
 and Italian rags. The great railway boards and the bishops are 
 about equally interested in Mr. Gladstone.' And again, from 
 the intellectual point of view, * Mr. Gladstone's mind mediates 
 between the moral and material interests of the age, and rest* 
 
 * Sketches in Parliament, by R. H. Hutton.
 
 12 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 in neither. He moralises finance and commerce, and (if we may 
 be allowed the barbarism) institutionalises ethics and faith.' 
 
 The acts and speeches of such a man are his best biography. 
 It is through these that we shall trace his career. Differing 
 largely as he does from all other public men, he must be his own 
 interpreter. We do not approach the subject from the merely 
 apologetic or panegyrical point of view ; our purpose is to nar- 
 rate the life of Mr. Gladstone, and to pass in review his literary 
 and political labours. From the youthful politician of 1832 to 
 the statesman of 1870 there are many startling changes and 
 revolutions of thought ; but it may not be impossible to trace 
 in these a natural sequence. He who began public life as * the 
 rising hope of the stern and unbending Tories,' in course of time 
 became the most popular leader of the Liberal party. Every 
 vaticination made in his youth he has defeated, while to many 
 of the most daring hopes of Liberal politicians he has given a 
 complete and a splendid realisation. From every standpoint his 
 extraordinary career is worthy of study ; it possesses passages of 
 enduring interest, alike for those who are most strongly in 
 political antagonism with him as for those who are his most 
 fervent supporters,
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 AT ETON AND OXFORD. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone entered at Eton Character of the School Fifty Years ago Education 
 and Discipline Eton described by Etonians Periodicals established by Dis- 
 tinguished Students Mr. Gladstone's Contributions to the Eton Miscellany 
 Eulogy of Canning He leaves Eton in 1827 Private Tuition Becomes a Student 
 of Christ Church, Oxford Character of the University High Church and Con- 
 servative Proclivities Life and Study at Oxford The Union Debating Society 
 Memorable Debates Presidents of the Society Effect upon Mr. Gladstone of 
 Oxford Training Close of his University Career Continental Travels Ascent 
 of Mount Etna Extracts from Mr. Gladstone's Diary Graphic Description of an 
 Eruption. 
 
 MR. JOHN GLADSTONE who early discovered the keen intellec- 
 tual powers of his son wisely determined upon sending him to 
 Eton. Immersed in the cares of business, and with numberless 
 claims upon him of a public and private nature, he found himself 
 unable longer to direct the developing faculties of the youth who 
 already gave promise of distinction. He likewise probably felt 
 that even where it is feasible, it is yet not advisable for parents to 
 take entire charge of the education of their children. They can 
 never impart to them that most valuable of all knowledge 
 experience, which is gained by mingling with the world alone. 
 Private tuition also necessarily fails in this respect, else had Mr. 
 Gladstone all that could be desired in his early years. The Rev. 
 William Rawson,* his earliest preceptor, was a man of the most 
 solid acquirements and sterling uprightness of character; but, 
 whether in youth or manhood, it is contact with others that best 
 stimulates the mind and urges it to the full and free exercise of 
 its powers. It is said that when his son was but twelve years of 
 age, Mr. Gladstone would discuss with him the public questions 
 of the day, teaching him to think for himself and to examine well 
 the bases of the opinions which he might have formed upon political 
 and other subjects. Precocity is not always the happiest augury in 
 a youth; it too frequently betokens one of two things either that 
 the flame of genius which burns so brightly will be quickly 
 extinguished for the lack of physical fuel, or that the quickness 
 and intelligence of childhood will degenerate into mediocrity as 
 manhood approaches. Mr. Gladstone was an exception to this 
 
 * The Rev. "W. Rawson was the first vicar of Seaforth, occupying that 
 position for the long period of fifty-six years. In addition to Mr. Gladstone, 
 the present Home Secretary and Dean Stanley were amongst his pupils. It 
 may here be added that Mr. Gladstone visited Mr. Rawson, at the vitarage cif 
 Seaforth, when his old preceptor was upon, his death-bed.
 
 14 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 rule, in so far as that solidity of judgment appears to have 
 accompanied perceptive and retentive powers of an unusual order. 
 His genius was not of the purely conceptive and imaginative 
 type, but he possessed an intellectual aptitude of a high order, 
 and was favoured in addition with an exceptional amount of 
 vital energy. 
 
 He was entered at Eton in September, 1821, and left there in 
 1827. This celebrated foundation has recently been the subject 
 of many virulent attacks, and it must be admitted that, in 
 proportion to other schools, there are comparatively few Eton 
 boys who go to the Universities. The system of education and 
 discipline pursued has undergone some modifications in recent 
 years notably during the provostship of the Eev. Francis 
 Hodgson but radical defects are still alleged against it. It is 
 not a little remarkable, however, that every Eton boy becomes 
 deeply attached to the school, notwithstanding the apprenticeship 
 to hardships he may have been compelled to undergo. In order 
 to afford a view of the inner workings of Eton, we will reproduce 
 the chief points of an indictment framed against it, shortly after 
 young Gladstone left its time-honoured precincts.* Eton College 
 is divided into two schools, the upper and lower. The former 
 consists of four classes, viz., the 6th and 5th forms, the remove, 
 and the 4th form. But there is another distinction besides that 
 of schools. Seventy King's scholars, or collegers, are maintained 
 on the foundation gratuitously, and sleep in the college. They 
 are also distinguished in their dress from the great majority of 
 Eton boys, who are called oppidans. These live in the town, 
 and a feeling of hostility has always prevailed between the two 
 classes. King's College at Cambridge having been founded in 
 connection with Eton, to receive as fellows the students upon 
 the foundation as vacancies occur at King's College, the King's 
 scholars at Eton are nominated to them according to seniority. 
 The evil here is apparent long residence and not merit deter- 
 mines the nomination to the fellowships. These scholars, who may 
 have been backward at Eton, have no inducement to work well 
 at Cambridge, seeing that they are exempted from the ordinary 
 university examination. As regards education at Eton, 'no 
 instruction is given in any branch of mathematical, physical, 
 metaphysical, or moral science, nor in the evidences of 
 Christianity. The only subjects which it is professed to teach are 
 the Greek and Latin languages ; as much divinity as can be gained 
 from construing the Greek Testament, and reading a portion of 
 
 * The following facts, together with others not so material, were stated in an 
 article published in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1830, and entitled ' Tublic 
 Schools of England Eton.'
 
 AT ETON AND OXFORD. 15 
 
 Tomline on the Thirty-nine Articles ; and a little ancient and 
 modern geography.' Touching the hours of tuition, they are 
 by no means burdensome. In every week there is one whole 
 holiday, when no work is done, one half-holiday, and on Saturday 
 there are three school-times and one chapel. On each of the 
 other three days there are four school-times, three of which last 
 respectively for three-quarters of an hour, and the fourth for one- 
 quarter of an hour. Altogether, school studies give a total of 
 about eleven hours per week. The manner of study is also 
 objected to. The scholar is not allowed to accustom himself to 
 the style of an author, whereby the study of the remainder 
 might be facilitated ; he is 4 hurried from Herodotus to 
 Thucydides, from Thucydides to Xenophon, from Xenophon to 
 Lucian, without being habituated to the style of any one 
 author without gaining an interest in the history, or 
 even catching the thread of the narrative ; and when the 
 whole book is finished he has probably collected only a few 
 vague ideas about Darius crying over a great army at Abydos, 
 and Nicias and Demosthenes being routed with a great 
 army near Syracuse, mixed up with a recollection of the death 
 of Cyrus and Socrates, some moral precepts of Isocrates, and 
 some jokes against false philosophers and heathen Grods.' With 
 this kind of preparation, the Etonian who goes to Cambridge or 
 Oxford finds he has nothing but a little desultory reading, 
 and that he must begin again. But the same writer who lays 
 this gravamen not only complains that the Eton system of 
 education fails in every point he calls in question the moral 
 discipline of the school. The number of scholars is so great 
 that proper supervision cannot be given to them ; hence 
 there is laxity as regards the older boys, while the smaller and 
 weaker are exposed, without hope of redress, to the tyranny of 
 their superiois in years and strength. The system of fagging is 
 the result. ' The right of fagging depends upon the place in 
 the school ; all boys in the sixth and fifth forms have the power 
 of ordering all below the latter form are bound to obey.' In 
 1820 the year before Mr. Gladstone entered there were at 
 Eton 280 upper boys, and 248 lower total, 528 ; the year after 
 he left there were 293 upper boys and 319 lower total, 612. 
 The system of fagging has a very injurious effect upon many 
 boys ; it finds them slaves and leaves them despots. A boy who 
 has suffered himself, insensibly learns to see no harm in making 
 others suffer in their turn. The whole thing is wrong in 
 principle, and engenders passions which should be stifled, and 
 not encouraged. The punishments at Eton are, moreover, 
 objected to that of flogging (performed by the Head Master)
 
 16 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 being especially degrading in its results. For the first two or 
 three times a boy feels the shame attaching to this kind of 
 punishment, but he soon becomes callous, and the flogging has 
 no effect, save a pernicious one upon the minds of others. 
 
 So much for the Eton of Mr. Gladstone's period. But the 
 account differs little from that given by one who attended the 
 school twenty years later.* He does not complain much of the 
 course of instruction until the boys reached the fifth form, but 
 then began * some of the greatest anomalies and absurdities of 
 the then existing Etonian system.' He was now safe from any 
 examination ordeal ; and the confession is made that the highest 
 form the sixth consisting ot the ten senior collegers and ten 
 senior oppidans included some of the very worst scholars of 
 both orders in its bosom. ' A boy's place on the general roll 
 was no more a criterion of his acquirements and his industry than 
 would be the " year " of a young man at Oxford or Cambridge.' 
 One reform has been instituted, however, in connection with the 
 collegers, or boys upon the foundation, viz., they are required to 
 pass some kind of examination in accordance with which their 
 seniority on the list for King's is fixed. With regard to the 
 hours of study, nevertheless, at this later period in consequence 
 of the regular holidays and saints' days, two whole holidays in 
 a week and two half-holidays were a matter of common 
 occurrence. Not only as regards time, but looking at the nature 
 of the studies themselves, it appears almost to have been a 
 system of playing at school. In 1845 the time devoted to 
 study did not amount to eleven hours per week. The same 
 writer an old Etonian thus speaks of the nature of the studies 
 pursued : 
 
 * The books used in the fifth form besides the Iliad, the ^Eneid, Horace, and I 
 think some scraps of Ovid for repetition merely consisted of three " Selections," 
 or " Readers " Poetce Graci, which contained some picked passages from Homer's 
 Odyssey, Callimachus, Theocritus, &c.; together with Scriptores Greed and Scriptores 
 Romani, which were similarly made up of tit-bits from the best Greek and Latin 
 prose writers. A lad would go on grinding at the above scanty provender from 
 the age it might be of twelve to that of twenty, with little or no change. Plautus, 
 Terence, Lucretius, Persius, Juvenal, Livy, Tacitus, Cicero, Demosthenes, the 
 tragedians (except in the Head Master's division), Aristophanes, Pindar, Herodotus, 
 Thucydides in short, all but four of the great authors of Greece and Rome, and 
 those four poets, were entirely unknown to us, except it might be through the 
 medium of certain fragments in the "Selections" aforesaid, where I believe that 
 the majority of them were wholly unrepresented. It seems almost incredible that 
 a young man could go up to the University from the upper fifth form of the first 
 classical school in England, ignorant almost of the very names of these authors. 
 Yet such was the case sometimes. It was very much my own case. 
 
 Lord Morley, being examined before the Public Schools 
 Commission, was asked whether a boy would be looked down 
 
 * We now quote from an article by Mr. John Delaware Lewis, ' Eton Thirty 
 Years Since,' which appeared in Macmillan's Magazine for May, 1875.
 
 AT ETON AND OXFORD. 17 
 
 upon at Eton for being industrious in school-work. His lordship 
 replied, ' Not if he could do something else well.' In this answer 
 breathes the spirit of the Eton boy, who has always been ready 
 to condone lack of scholarship when his companion has excelled 
 in river or field sports. Some curious stories are told of the 
 flogging which has always been a characteristic feature of Eton. 
 It extended, as we have said, to even the biggest boys in the 
 school. Mr. Lewis relates how a young man of twenty just 
 upon the point of leaving school, and engag ed to be married 
 to a young lady at Windsor was well and soundly whipped by 
 Dr. Groodford, for arriving one evening at his tutor's house 
 beyond the specified time. Other anecdotes are told not a 
 whit more creditable. Yet boys are greatly enamoured of the 
 school, and the life of a ' big fellow ' there has been described as 
 the happiest in the world. 
 
 When all that is possible has been said against Eton and we 
 should remember that reforms are of slow growth and whatever 
 may be the precise character of the school now, it is undoubtedly 
 true that many of the finest men of the century have been 
 educated there. On the other hand, there is truth in the 
 argument that most of these men would have distinguished 
 themselves anywhere. They cannot, perhaps, be legitimately 
 claimed as the product of Eton, though their development 
 received an impetus there. The advantages derived from the 
 school are social rather than scholastic. Whether it has fallen 
 behind other schools and deteriorated in this age of education, is 
 another question. The reason, probably, why we do not hear 
 so much of its successes is that other schools have recently come 
 to the front. For a youth to whom time is not money, and who 
 can afford to spend his teens in an agreeable if not the. most 
 profitable way, Eton is still one of the best schools to which 
 he can be sent. Those who have known the class of men 
 produced at Eton will admit that they have generally been ' fine 
 manly fellows, with an excellent tone.' The curriculum at Eton 
 now is still strictly classical, though some secondary subjects 
 are taught, as French, German, and mathematics. Of recent 
 years the collegers have done remarkably good work, and carried 
 off many distinctions at Cambridge. 
 
 In Mr. Gladstone's time, however, there were few inducements 
 to excel in scholarship, and he who did so must not only 
 have possessed the love of it, but must have applied himself 
 diligently to study out of school hours. The annals of Eton 
 furnish many illustrious examples of this kind, men distin- 
 guished for the depth and solidity of their attainments ; and in 
 this number must be included the subject of the present work.
 
 18 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 He bad no prize at Eton, except what was called being sent up 
 for good, on account of verses ; and it fell to Mr. Gladstone's lot 
 to be thus honoured on several occasions. At various periods 
 within a century past the more intellectual of Eton boys have 
 established periodicals for the purpose of ventilating their 
 opinions. For example, in 1786, Mr. Canning and Mr. 
 Hookhain Frere projected the Microcosm, whose essays and 
 jeux d' esprit, while referring primarily to Eton, demonstrated 
 that the writers were not insensible to what was going on in 
 the outer world. Canning wrote to this periodical an ' Essay on 
 the Epic of the Queen of Hearts,' which has been awarded a high 
 place in English literature as a classical specimen of burlesque 
 criticism. Amongst other contributors to the Microcosm, were 
 Lord Henry Spencer, Hookham Frere, Capel Lofft, and Mr. 
 Mellish. It was just before this period that eighty boys were 
 flogged at Eton for having been .' barred out,' amongst them being 
 Mr. Arthur Wellesley, afterwards the Great Duke. Coming to a 
 later period, W. Mackworth Praed set on foot, in the year 
 1820, a manuscript journal entitled Apis Matina. This was 
 succeeded by the Etonian, which received some of Praed's most 
 brilliant contributions. Amongst other writers may be named 
 Joho Moultrie, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Walter Blunt, and 
 Chauncey Hare Townshend. The Etonian exhibited a degree 
 of quite exceptional excellence, and may even now be turned to 
 with no ordinary feelings of interest. 
 
 Seven years later than the date of Praed's venture that is, 
 in 1827 Mr. Gladstone was mainly instrumental in launching 
 the Eton Miscellany. The contributions extended over two 
 volumes, dated June July, and October November respectively. 
 The Miscellany professed to be edited by Bartholomew Bouverie, 
 and Mr. Gladstone was its most voluminous contributor. Many 
 of the papers are entertaining, as showing at the age of seventeen 
 the literary bias of the writer. In the latter portion of the 
 introduction, and that which was written by ' William Ewavt 
 Gladstone,' appears this singular paragraph, which (it may be 
 assumed) fairly sets forth the hopes and fears that beset 
 statesmen in maturer years, as well as Eton boys in their 
 youth : 
 
 In my present undertaking there is one gulf in which I fear to sink, and that 
 ^ulf is Lethe. There is one stream which I cliead my inability to stem, it is the 
 tide of Popular Opinion. I have ventured, and no doubt raihly ventured 
 
 " Like little wanton boys that swim on ^'adders, 
 To try my fortune in a sea of g'l r y> 
 But far beyond iny depth." 
 
 At p/esent it is hope alone that buoys me up ; for more substantial support I must 
 be indebted to my ow n exertions, well knowing that in this land of literature
 
 AT ETON AND OXFORD. 19 
 
 merit never wants its reward. That such merit is mine I daro not presume to think ; 
 but still there is something within me that bids me hope that I may be able to 
 glide prosperously down the stream of public estimation ; or, in the words of 
 Virgil 
 
 " Celerare viam rumore secundo." ' 
 
 Little could the writer of these words imagine forecasting the 
 future even by the aid of youth's most ardent desires that he 
 would live to fill the most exalted office it was in the power of 
 his Sovereign to bestow. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's contributions to the first volume of the 
 Miscellany were thirteen in number ; there were ten also by his 
 friend Or. A. (afterwards Bishop) Selwyn. We may pause here, 
 for a moment, to quote from a tribute which Mr. Gladstone 
 recently paid to his old college companion Selwyn a passage 
 interesting both for its reference to Bishop Selwyn and to the 
 Eton of Mr. Gladstone's time : ' Connected as tutor with families 
 of rank and influence, universally popular from his frank, 
 manly, and engaging character, and scarcely less so from his 
 extraordinary vigour as an athlete, he was attached to Eton, 
 where he resided, with a love surpassing the love of Etonians. 
 In himself he formed a large part of the life of Eton, and Eton 
 formed a large part of his life. To him is due no small share of 
 the beneficial movement in the direction of religious earnestness 
 which marked the Eton of forty years back, and which was not 
 in my opinion sensibly affected by any influence extraneous to 
 the place itself. At a moment's notice, upon the call of duty, 
 he tore up the singularly deep roots which his life had struck 
 into the soil of England.' Both Gladstone and Selwyn contri- 
 buted humorous letters to ' The Postman,' the correspondence 
 department of the Eton Miscellany. Amongst Mr. Gladstone's 
 effusions was a vigorous rendering of a chorus from the Hecuba 
 of Euripides. Under the name of ' Philophantasm,' moreover, he 
 wrote a letter detailing an encounter he had had with Virgil. 
 This letter has considerable point, and no small share of sarcas- 
 tic power. The great poet appeared to the writer, muttering 
 something which the latter supposed to be Latin, ' but it 
 certainly was very different in sound and quantities from that we 
 work at here.' The poet proposed drastic remedies for curing 
 the wrongs from which he suffered in the Upper World ; and 
 presenting his compliments to Mr. Bouverie, asked to be quoted 
 as well as Horace now and then. ' I know the Eton boys hate 
 me,' added Virgil, ' because" I am difficult to learn.' 
 
 Besides a humorous epilogue in quindecasyllabics, spoken by 
 David ap Rice, which appeared in the fourth number of the 
 Miscellany, Mr. Gladstone wrote in the same volume a ' View 
 of Lethe,' in prose, and ' Richard Coeur de Lion,' an effort in 
 
 C2
 
 20 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 verse. This poem consists of some two hundred and fifty lines, 
 and the following passage may be taken as a fair sample of the 
 whole: 
 
 Who foremost now the deadly spear to dart, 
 And strike the javelin to the Moslem's heart? 
 Who foremost now to climb the leagured wall, 
 The first to triumph, or tl.c first to fall ? 
 Lo, where the Moslems rushing to the fight, 
 Back bear their squadrons in inglorious flight. 
 With plumed helmet, and with glittering lance, 
 'Tis Richard bids his steel-clad bands advance ; 
 'Tis Richard stalks along the blood-dyed plain, 
 And views unmoved the slaying and the slain ; 
 'Tis Richard bathes his hands in Moslem blood, 
 And tinges Jordan with the purple flood. 
 Yet where the timbrels ring, the trumpets sound, 
 And tramp of horsemen shakes the solid ground, 
 Though 'mid the deadly charge and rush of fight, 
 No thought be theirs of terror or of flight, 
 Ofttimes a sigh will rise, a tear will flow, 
 And youthful bosoms melt in silent woe ; 
 For who of iron frame and harder heart 
 Can bid the mem'ry of his home depart ? 
 Tread the dark desert and the thirsty sand, 
 Nor give one thought to England's smiling land ? 
 To scenes of bliss, and days of other years 
 The Vale of Gladness and the Vale of Tears ; 
 That, passed and vanish'd from their loving sight, 
 This neath their view, and wrapt in shades of night ? 
 
 F. H. (now Sir Francis Hastings) Doyle and Arthur Henry 
 Hallam contributed somewhat extensively to the volume from 
 which we have just been quoting. In the * View of Lethe,' a 
 contribution by Mr. Gladstone, to which reference has already 
 been made, the writer describes the destruction which 
 overtakes mundane things with a strong touch of humour. 
 Here is a short extract from the essay : 
 
 ' I was surprised even to see some works with the names of Shakespeare and Milton 
 on them sharing the common destiny; but on examination I found that those of 
 the latter were some political rhapsodies which richly deserved their fate ; and 
 that the former consisted of some editions of his works which had been burdened 
 with notes and mangled with emendations by his merciless commentators. In 
 other places I perceived authors worked up into frenzy by seeing their own com- 
 positions descending like the rest. Often did the infuriated scnbes extend their 
 hands, and make a plunge to endeavour to save their beloved offspring, but in 
 vain. I pitied the anguish of their disappointment, but with feelings of the same 
 commiseration as that which one feels for a malefactor on beholding his death, 
 being at the same time fully conscious how well he has deserved it.' 
 
 Novels were engulfed, we are told, and an immense number 
 of political pamphlets, a very prolific form of literature from 
 1820 to 1832 ; newspapers in abundance were also buried in 
 oblivion ; and even as they went down they were seen to be in 
 mortal combat with each other. 
 
 To the second volume of the Eton Miscellany, William 
 Ewart Gladstone contributed even more largely than to the 
 first. In fact, his devotion to letters during the last year of his
 
 AT ETON AND OXFORD. 21 
 
 stay at Eton must have left him little leisure for the ordinary 
 sports of Eton boys. Besides the introductions to the various 
 numbers comprising the second volume, Mr. Gladstone wrote no 
 fewer than seventeen other contributions. ' Guatimozin's Denth 
 Song' has something in it to remind one of Byron. There is a so 
 an ' Ode to the Shade of Wat Tyler,' which may be read with 
 curiosity. In the same volume Arthur Henry Hallam wrote 
 ' The Battle of the Boyne,' a parody upon Campbell's ' Hohen- 
 linden.' Among other contributors were Doyle, Jelf, Selwyn, and 
 Shadwell. A paper on ' Eloquence,' written by Mr. Gladstone, 
 shows how, even at this early period, the mind of the young 
 student had been impressed by the fame attaching to successful 
 parliamentary oratory. He proceeds to show how the vision of 
 the most ardent and aspiring minds is usually directed towards 
 St. Stephen's. Visions of joy and honour open on the 
 enraptured sight of those given to oratorical pursuits, and whose 
 minds are directed to the House of Commons. ' A successful 
 debut, an offer from the Minister, a Secretaryship of State and 
 even the Premiership itself, are the objects which form the vista 
 along which a young visionary loves to look.' But then he 
 reminds his readers there is a barrier to pass, an ordeal to 
 endure. There are roars of coughing, as well as roars of 
 cheering, and maiden speeches sometimes act more forcibly on 
 the lungs of hearers than the most violent or most cutting of all 
 the breezes which ^Eolus can boast. But the writer draws 
 encouragement from the fact that among the most distinguished 
 young speakers in the House of Commons at that very time were 
 Lord Morpeth, Mr. Edward Geoffrey Stanley, and Lord Castle- 
 reagh, all of whom were once members of the Eton College 
 Debating Society. Within a very few years from penning these 
 lines the writer himself had successfully passed the parliamentary 
 ordeal so much dreaded, and had been invited to fill an honour- 
 able post in the Ministry of the day. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's high admiration for, and indebtedness to, 
 Canning have been subject of frequent comment, and it will not , 
 l^e without interest that we quote a passage illustrating this 
 from a paper entitled ' Ancient and Modern Genius Compared,' 
 written by the younger Etonian. It is, perhaps, the most 
 meritorious of all its writer's youthful productions. After 
 taking the part of the moderns as against the ancients though 
 he by no means depreciates the genius of the latter the 
 essayist, in concluding his paper, thus eloquently apostrophises 
 Canning : 
 
 ' It is for those who revered him in the plenitude of his meridian glory to mourn 
 over him in the darkness of his premature extinction : to mourn over the hopes
 
 22 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 that are buried in his grave, and the evils that arise from his withdrawing from 
 the scene of life. Surely if eloquence never excelled and seldom equalled if an 
 expanded mind and judgment whose vigour was paralleled only by its soundness 
 if brilliant wit if a glowing imagination if a warm heart, and an unbending 
 firmness could have strengthened the frail tenure, and prolonged the momentary 
 duration of human existence, that man had been immortal! But nature coulil 
 endure no longer. Thus has Providence ordained tliat inasmuch as the intellect is 
 more brilliant, it shall be more short-lived ; as its sphere is more expanded, more 
 swiftly is it summoned away. Lest we should give to man the honour due to God 
 lest we should exalt the object of our admiration into a divinity for our worship 
 He who calls the weary and the mourner to eternal rest hath been pleased to 
 remove him from our eyes.' 
 
 Then, after comparing tho death of the object of his early 
 hero-worship with the death of Pitt, he says finally, ' The 
 degrees of inscrutable wisdom are unknown to us ; but if ever 
 there was a man for whose sake it was meet to indulge the 
 kindly though frail feelings of our nature for whom the tear of 
 sorrow was to us both prompted by affection and dictated by 
 duty that man was George Canning.' 
 
 Leaving Eton in 1827 having established a reputation 
 amongst his contemporaries for erudition and ability Mr. 
 Gladstone became the private pupil of Dr. Turner, afterwards 
 Bishop of Calcutta. Two years later he went to Christ Church, 
 Oxford, where he was made a student on the foundation. In 
 the year 1831 he went up for his examination, and completed 
 his academical education by attaining the highest honours of the 
 University graduating double first-class. He had no prizes at 
 Oxford of the highest description, unless honours in the schools 
 be so called and in this respect he achieved a success which 
 falls to the lot of but few students. The University life in 
 which he now mingled was well calculated to foster and 
 strengthen those Conservative principles to whose early manifes- 
 tation allusion has already been made. Those who regard Mr. 
 Gladstone's career from a Liberal standpoint may naturally urge 
 that his life at Oxford had the effect of retarding for many years 
 his political development. It would be curious to speculate 
 upon the nature of the result had the distinguished young- 
 student been thrown into a totally different atmosphere. When 
 we endeavour to trace the progress of Mr. Gladstone's political 
 convictions, it is necessary to remember that, while early battling 
 with Liberal tendencies, every single influence which surrounded 
 him exercised a restraining effect in the opposite direction. 
 Moreover, the time at which he went to Oxford was one in 
 which party feeling raged fiercely. Conservatives had 
 deliberately come to the conclusion that unless they banded 
 themselves together for the safety of the country, the country 
 would inevitably be ruined. Events in France had reacted 
 injuriously upon politics in England. Timid politicians became
 
 AT ETON AND OXFORD. 23 
 
 alarmed at the ventilation of Liberal opinions, and many of 
 these opinions were viewed with feelings akin to horror. In 
 Oxford this reactionary sentiment- focussed itself, as it were, and 
 Mr. Gladstone was amongst those who, for a time, opposed with 
 genuine earnestness the demands for Reform. Our statesmen 
 had not, as yet, acquired that confidence in the people which 
 subsequently grew with surprising rapidity. Canning, too, had 
 some years before given an impetus to this feeling of appre- 
 hension and distrust, by expressing his fear lest the country 
 should become swayed by the popular will. In the record of the 
 debates of the Oxford Union, as we shall presently see, the name 
 of William Ewart Gladstone is found among the opponents of 
 the Reform projects of the day ; but the speaker himself, 
 accounting for this at a later stage of his history, explained that 
 being as a young man an ardent admirer of Canning, he had 
 been carried away by his well-known hostility to Reform. 
 
 A glimpse of life and study at Oxford is afforded by one who 
 was cotemporary there with Mr Gladstone.* He points out how 
 that in the University a greater stress was laid upon a know- 
 ledge of the Bible and of the evidences of Christianity than 
 upon classical literature ; some proficiency was required also 
 either in mathematics or the science of reasoning. While the 
 system of education in vogue accommodated itself to the wants 
 and capacities of the greater number of students, the man of 
 talent was at no loss for a field for his exertions, or a reward for 
 his industry. The honours of the University were all before 
 him. For the cultivation of taste and general information 
 Oxford afforded every advantage, though it was matter for regret 
 that amongst all its teachers there was no public professor of 
 modern languages. 
 
 Describing Christ Church then, as now, the most aristocratic 
 of the colleges the same writer observed that there was no 
 other college where a man had so great a choice of society, or a 
 more entire freedom in choosing it. It was nowhere so easy to 
 observe others and live quite independently of them, without the 
 certainty of being observed in return. Touching the Debating 
 Society, or the Oxford Union, we read, ' We could hardly name 
 any institution in Oxford which has been more useful in 
 encouraging a taste for study and for general reading than this 
 juvenile club. It has not only supplied a school for speaking 
 for those who intend to pursue the professions of the Law and 
 the Church, or to embrace political life ; but by furnishing a 
 theatre for the display of miscellaneous knowledge, and by 
 bringing together most of the distinguished young men in the 
 
 * We quote from an article in the Oxford University Magazine for 1834.
 
 24 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 University, it has had a great effect upon the general tone of 
 society.' Debates were held once a week, and there were 
 provided in connection with the Union a respectable library and 
 a well-furnished reading-room. It was also claimed that in this 
 Society the undergraduate might learn for the first time to 
 think upon political subjects, and could improve his 
 acquaintance with modern history especially that of his own 
 country. The sharp encounter of rival wits was useful in 
 expanding the mind, and in enlarging the scope of its impres- 
 sions. Further, it was remarked that unless a student was so 
 perverse as to set himself entirely against the prevailing tone of 
 feeling which pervaded all classes in Oxford, he would probably 
 acquire from conviction, as well as prejudice, a spirit of devoted 
 loyalty, of warm attachment to the liberties and ancient institu- 
 tions of his country, a dislike and dread of rash innovation, and 
 an admiration approachng to reverence for the orthodox and 
 apostolic English Church. All this ' leads by an easy and 
 natural step to serious meditation upon the vital matter of 
 religion, and this contributes more than anything to strengthen 
 the good resolutions, and to settle the character, of a high- 
 minded young man. He becomes distinguished for polish of 
 manners, steadiness of morals, and strictness of reading.' The 
 opponents of Oxford culture affirmed, on the other hand, that 
 its tendency was towards intolerance and bigotry, both in 
 religion and politics. Mr. Gladstone cast in his lot for the 
 time with the Tories and the High Churchmen. An excellent 
 observation has been made by a living writer on the religious 
 aspect of Mr. Gladstone's nature as developed at Oxford. He 
 notes how the Oxford of his University life the Oxford before 
 'the movement of 1833' the 'Oxford which made the 
 Aristotelian dogma that virtue is the half-way house between 
 two opposite vices its ethical rule, and which took the Church as 
 it was as the true starting-point in religion the ' Oxford which 
 had not yet begun to dig after the roots of principle tended to 
 turn Mr. Gladstone's acutely discriminating powers towards 
 
 : consequences rather than first principles.' It was not until after 
 the lapse of a generation that the Christ Church student was to 
 demonstrate that he could regard Church questions from a broad, 
 comprehensive, and fundamental point of view. 
 
 The Oxford Union has lately had a chronicler who speaks with 
 authority upon the brilliant debates of that Society.* The 
 Union came into existence in the spring of 1823, and fifty years 
 later it celebrated its jubilee by a banquet, at which Lord 
 
 * Mr. E. B. Nicholson, late Librarian to the Union, from whose paper on the 
 subject the author has extracted information upon the Society.
 
 AT ETON AND OXFOED. 25 
 
 Selborne took the chair. It is not a little remarkable that Mr. 
 Gladstone's Ministry included no fewer than seven of the early 
 presidents of the society, viz., the ex-Premier himself, Lord 
 Selborne, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Cardwell, the Attorney-General, Mr. 
 Goschen, and Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen. Although the Union 
 owed its origin to a few Balliol men, three-fifths of the members 
 of the United Debating Society came from Christ Church and 
 Oriel. The Wilberforces attained great distinction in the 
 society. In the latter part of 1825 the United Debating 
 Society, as such, was dissolved, and the members reorganised 
 themselves- 'leaving out their black sheep' as the Oxford 
 Union Society, thus imitating the name of the older society in 
 connection with Cambridge University. In the matter of a 
 library the members appear to have been very eclectic, for Mr. 
 Nicholson states that up to the year 1836 proposals to buy the 
 Waverley Novels and other works of fiction were thrown out. 
 
 From 1829 to 1834 is described as the most active and most 
 brilliant period in the history of the Union. In the course of 
 these five years the presidency was held by (amongst others) 
 Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, the Duke of Newcastle, 
 Lord Selborne, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mr. Lowe. 
 Mr. Gladstone made his first speech on the llth of February, 
 1830, and was the same night elected a member of the 
 committee. The following year he succeeded Mr. Milnes 
 Gaskell in the office of secretary. ' His minutes are neat ; proper 
 names are underlined and half printed. As secretary he opposed 
 a motion for the removal of Jewish disabilities. He also moved 
 that the Wellington Administration was undeserving of the 
 country's confidence: Gaskell, Lyall, and Lord Lincoln 
 supported ; Sidney Herbert and the Marquis (now Duke) of 
 Abercorn opposed him. The motion was carried by 57 to 56, 
 and the natural exultation of the mover betrayed itself in such 
 irregular entries as " tremendous cheers," " repeated cheering." 
 The following week he was elected president.' Mr. Gladstone 
 spoke in three other debates upon important public questions. 
 In common with the Archbishop of Canterbury he defended the 
 results of Catholic relief, and on the occasion of a vote of 
 want of confidence in Earl Grey's Government being proposed, he 
 moved the following rider : ' That the ministry has unwisely 
 introduced, and most unscrupulously forwarded, a measure which 
 threatens not only to change our form of Government, but 
 ultimately to break up the very foundation of social order, as 
 well as materially to forward the views of those who are 
 pursuing this project throughout the civilised world.' These 
 terrible prognostications have been defeated, but the terror
 
 26 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 engendered in the University by national progress led 94 out 
 of 130 undergraduates to endorse the prophecies of the new 
 Cassandra. Mr. Gladstone closed his career at the Oxford Union 
 by proposing an amendment to a motion for the immediate 
 emancipation of our slaves in the West Indies. This was on the 
 2nd of June 1831, and the young orator's amendment ran as 
 follows :- -' That legislative .enactments ought to be made, and. 
 if necessary, to be enforced 1st. For better guarding the 
 personal and civil rights of the negroes in our West Indian 
 colonies. 2nd. For establishing compulsory manumission. 3rd. 
 For securing universally the receiving of a Christian education, 
 under the clergy and teachers, independent of the planters ; a 
 measure of which total but gradual emancipation will be the 
 natural consequence, as it was of a similar procedure in the first 
 ages of Christianity.' We have not now the arguments by which 
 the speaker supported and enforced these propositions, which 
 require much more elucidation than appears from a surface 
 reading of them. The question of West Indian slavery 
 touched Mr. Gladstone nearly, and some years after this 
 debate, from his place in Parliament, he defended his father 
 from aspersions which had been cast upon him respecting the 
 management of his West Indian estates, in the course of the 
 heat and excitement of the anti-Slavery agitation. One more 
 interesting debate which took place at the Oxford Union must 
 be mentioned. It seems that on the 26th of November 1829, 
 the Cambridge Union sent a deputation to the sister Union of 
 Oxford with the object of persuading the latter to acknowledge 
 the superiority of Shelley over Byron. Lord Houghton, one of 
 the speakers from Cambridge, long afterwards observed- at the 
 inauguration of the new buildings of the Cambridge Union 
 Society in 1866 'At that time we (the Cambridge under- 
 graduates) were all full of Mr. Shelley. We had printed his 
 " Adooais" for the first time in England, and a friend of ours 
 suggested that, as he had been expelled from Oxford, and been 
 very badly treated in that University, it would be a grand thing 
 for us to defend him there.' With the permission of the 
 Cambridge authorities they accordingly i went to Oxford at that 
 time a long dreary, post-chaise journey of ten hours and were 
 hospitably entertained by a young student of the name of Glad- 
 stone ; who, by-the-by, has himself been since expelled.' Next 
 day, however, one of the newspapers stated that the members of 
 the deputation were ' formally received by Gladstone, of Christ 
 Church, and Manning, of Oriel.' Gladstone did not speak in the 
 debate, which was opened by Sir Francis Doyle on behalf of 
 Shelley. Only one Oxonian, Archbishop Manning, opposed the
 
 AT ETON AND OXFOED. 27 
 
 motion. The other Cambridge men were Sunderinnd, Arthur 
 Henry Hallam, and Monckton Milnes. By a vote of ninety to 
 thirty- three the superiority of Shelley over Byron was affirmed. 
 
 The general effect of his Oxford training upon Mr. Gladstone 
 he has himself described, together with what now appears to his 
 maturer mind to be its greatest deficiency. In a speech delivered 
 at the opening of the Palmerston Club, Oxford, in the month 
 of December, 1878, he said, ' I trace in the education of Oxford 
 of my own time one great defect. Perhaps it was my own fault ; 
 but I must admit that I did not learn, when at Oxford, that 
 which I have learned since, viz., to set a due value on the 
 imperishable and the inestimable principles of human liberty. 
 The temper which, I think, too much prevailed in academic circles 
 was, that liberty was regarded with jealousy, and fear could not 
 be wholly dispensed with.' We have already seen how this 
 sentiment of fear pervaded the University, and was not confined 
 merely to questions of political reform. Mr. Gladstone con- 
 tinued : 
 
 ' I think that the principle of the Conservative party is jealousy of liberty and 
 of the people, only qualified by fear ; but I think the policy of the Liberal party is 
 trust in the people, only qualified by prudence. I can only assure you, gentlemen, 
 that now I am in front of extended popular privileges, I have no fear of those 
 enlargements of the Constitution that seem to be approaching. On the contrary, 
 I hail them with desire. I am not in the least degree conscious that I have less 
 reverence for antiquity, for the beautiful, and good, and glorious charges that our 
 ancestors have handed down to us as a patrimony to our race, than I had in other 
 days when I held other political opinions. I have learnt to set the true value upon 
 human liberty, and in whatever I have changed, there, and there only, has been the 
 explanation of the change.' 
 
 That is, when Mr. Gladstone entered the sphere of practical 
 politics, and had studied the people more closely, with their wants 
 and aspirations, he lost the fears and forebodings which were 
 the result of academic prejudice. This, in effect, is the 
 substance of his apology, and those who have narrowly watched 
 his public course will, doubtless, need no other explanation of 
 changes which have sometimes been uncharitably described as 
 political tergiversation. 
 
 Closing his University career in the year 1831, Mr. Gladstone 
 spent some time in continental travel. He went abroad first in 
 1832, spending nearly the whole of the months from January to 
 July in Italy. Some years later viz., from August, 1838, to 
 January, 1839 he again visited Italy, and this time also 
 explored Sicily. He kept a journal of the tour through Sicily, 
 and it will not be uninteresting, we trust, to cite one or two 
 passages from this diary. These extracts not only bear 
 testimony to the writer's acute powers of observation, but also to 
 the variety of his information, and his facility in the use of the
 
 2S WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 English language, at this comparatively early period. Etna ha 
 been a source of attraction to the poets from the most ancient 
 times down to that of our own living poet, Mr. Matthew Arnold, 
 whose Empedocles on Etna, is, perhaps, the most vigorous of 
 all his conceptions. Mr. Gladstone's susceptible imagination 
 was greatly impressed by the grandeur of this eternal abode of 
 fire. Sicily had also other charms for him, as the ensuing 
 passage which is expressed with something of the true poetic 
 spirit proves : 
 
 1 After Etna, the temples are certainly the great charm and attraction of Sicily. 
 I do not know whether there is any one among them which, taken alone, exceeds 
 in interest and beauty that of Neptune at Psestum ; but they have the advantage 
 of number and variety, as well as of highly interesting positions. At Segesta the 
 temple is enthroned in a perfect mountain solitude, and it is like a beautiful tomb 
 of its religion, so stately, so entire ; while around, but for one solitary house of the 
 keeper, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to disturb the apparent reign of 
 Silence and of Death. At Selinus, the huge fragments on the plain seem to make 
 an eminence themselves, and they listen to the ever young and unwearied waves 
 which almost wash their base, and mock their desolation by the image of perpetual 
 life and motion they present, while the tone of their heavy fall upon the beach 
 well accords with the solemnity of the scene. At Girgenti the ridge visible to the 
 mariner from afar is still crowned by a long line of fabrics, presenting to the eye 
 a considerable mass and regularity of structure, and the town is near and visible ; 
 yet that town is so entirely the mere phantom of its former glory within its now 
 shrunken limits, that instead of disturbing the effect it rather seems to add a new 
 image and enhance it. The temples enshrine a most pure and salutary principle 
 of art, that which connects grandeur of effect with simplicity of detail; and 
 retaining their beauty and their dignity in their decay, they represent the great 
 man when fallen, as types of that almost highest of human qualities silent, j-et 
 not sullen, endurance.' 
 
 Etna has surprising sources of interest for all classes of 
 scientific men, and not least for the student of arboriculture. 
 It presents, at the height of 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 a growth which is reported to be the oldest tree in the world 
 the venerable chestnut, * the father of the forest.' It consists not 
 of one vast trunk, but of a group of decayed trees or portions of 
 trees growing in a circle, each with a hollow trunk of venerable 
 antiquity, covered with ferns or ivy, and stretching out a few 
 gnarled branches with scanty foliage. It is said that excavation 
 showed these various stems to be united at a very small depth 
 below the surface of the ground. Travellers have differed in 
 their measurements of this stupendous growth, Admiral Smyth, 
 who takes the lowest estimate, giving 1 63 feet, and Brydone 
 giving, as the highest, 204 feet. One of the Queens of Arragon 
 is reported to have taken shelter in this tree, with her mounted 
 suite of 100 persons ; but we may, perhaps, gather from this 
 that mythology is not confined to the lower latitudes. Higher 
 up the mountain is another venerable chestnut, which, with 
 more reason, probably, may be described, without fear of 
 contradiction, as the largest tree in the world. It rises from one
 
 AT ETON AND OXFOED. 29 
 
 solid stem to a considerable height before it branches. At a 
 distance of two feet from the ground its girth was found by 
 Brydone to be no less than seventy-six feet. These trees are 
 repuied to have nourished for much more than a thousand 
 summers past. Their luxuriant growth is attributed partly to 
 the humid atmosphere of the Bosco elevated above the scorching 
 arid region of the coast, and in part to the wonderful richness of 
 the soil. The luxuriance of the vegetation on the slopes of Etna 
 attracts the attention of every traveller ; and Mr. Gladstone 
 remarked upon this point, ' It seems as if the finest of all soils 
 were produced from the most agonising throes of nature, as the 
 hardiest characters are often reared amidst the severest circum- 
 stances. The aspect of this side of Sicily is infinitely more 
 active, and the country is cultivated as well as most parts of 
 Italy.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone made his ascent of Etna at the commence- 
 ment of the eruption of 1838. He and his party, starting on the 
 30th of October, found the path nearly uniform from Catania, 
 but the country bore a volcanic aspect at every step. At 
 Nicolosi, rest was disturbed by the distant booming of the 
 mountain. From this point to the Bosco the scenery is 
 described as a dismal tract. The Kegion of the Wood showed 
 some picturesque spots, resembling an English park, with old 
 oaks and abundant fern. ' Here we found flocks browsing ; they 
 are much exposed to sheep-stealers, who do not touch travellers, 
 calculating with justice that men do not carry much money to 
 the summit of Etna.' The company passed the Casa degli 
 Inglesi, which registered a temperature of 31, and then set 
 forth on foot for the crater. A magnificent view of sunrise was 
 obtained. 
 
 ' Just before we reached the lip of the crater, the guide exultingly pointed out 
 what he declared to be ordinarily the greatest sight of the mountain, namely, the 
 shadow of the cone of Etna, drawn with the utmost delicacy by the newly-risen 
 sun, but of gigantic extent ; its point at this moment rested on the mountains of 
 Palermo, probably 100 miles off, and the entire figure was visible, the atmosphere 
 over the mountains having become and continuing perfectly and beautifully trans- 
 parent, although in the hundreds of valleys which were beneath us, from the E. to 
 the W. of Sicily, and from the mountains of Messina down to Cape Passaro, there 
 were still abundant vapours waiting for a higher sun to disperse them ; but we 
 enjoyed in its perfection this view of the earliest and finest work of the greater 
 light of heaven, in the passage of his beams over this portion of the earth's surface. 
 During the hour we spent on the summit, the vision of the shadow was speedily 
 contracting, and taught us how rapid is the real rise of the sun in the heavens, 
 althought itti effect is diminished to the eye by a kind of foreshortening.' 
 
 The writer next describes, in vivid and powerful language, the 
 scene presented to the view at the very mouth of the crater. A 
 large space, one mile in circumference, which a few days before 
 had leen one fathomless pit, from which issued masses of smoke,
 
 SO WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 was now absolutely filled up to within a few feet of the brim all 
 round. A great mass of lava, a portion of the contents of this 
 immense pit, was seen to detach itself by degrees from one 
 behind. * It opened like an orange, and we saw the red-hot 
 fibres stretch in a broader and still broader vein, until the mass 
 had found a support on the new ground it occupied in front ; as 
 we came back on our way down this had grown black.' A stick 
 put to it took fire immediately. Within a few yards of this 
 lava were found pieces of ice, formed on the outside of the stones 
 by Frost, ' which here disputes every inch of ground with his 
 fierce rival Fire.' Mr. Gladstone and his fellow-travellers were 
 the first spectators of the great volcanic action of this year.* 
 From the highest peak attainable the party gazed upon the 
 splendid prospect to the east spread out before them, embracing 
 the Messina Mountains and the fine kindred outline of the 
 Calabrian coast, described by Virgil in the third book of the 
 jEneid. Mr. Gladstone graphically describes the eruption which 
 took place, and of which he was the enraptured witness. Lava 
 masses, of 150 to 200 Ibs. weight, were thrown to a distance of 
 probably a mile and a half; smaller ones to a distance even 
 more remote. The showers were most copious ; and the writer 
 was struck by the closeness of the descriptions in Virgil with 
 the actual reality of the eruption witnessed by himself. On this 
 point he observes : 
 
 ' Now how faithfully has Virgil (JZ. iii., 571, et seqq.) comprised these particular.-, 
 doubtless not without exaggeration, in Ms tine description ! First, the thunder- 
 clap, or crack 
 
 " Horrificis juxta tonat -Stria minis." 
 
 Secondly, the vibration of the ground to the report 
 
 " Et, fessum quoties mutet latus, ini-remere omnem 
 Murinure Trinacriam." 
 
 Tltirdly, the sheet of flame 
 
 " Attflitque globos flamir.arum, et sidera lambit.* 
 Fourthly, the smoke 
 
 " Et ecelum subtexere f umo." 
 Fifthly, the fire-shower 
 
 " Soopulos avulsaque viscera r ontis 
 Erigit eructans, liquefactaque saxa suh auras 
 Cam gemitu gloinerat, iundoque exie ;uat imo." 
 
 Sixihly, the column of ash 
 
 " Atram prornrnpit ad jcthera iinbem 
 Turbine fumanteni piceo et candente favilifl." 
 
 And this is within the limits of twelve lines. Modern poetry has its own merits, 
 but the conveyance uf information is not, generallly speaking, one of them. What 
 
 * Fuller details of this ascent of Mount Etna may be found in Murray's Hand- 
 book to Sicily.
 
 AT ETON AND OXFOBD. 31 
 
 would Virgil have thought of authors publishing poems with explanatory notes (to 
 illustrate is a different matter), as if they were so many books of conundrums ? 
 Indeed, this vice is of very late years.' 
 
 The whole description from whence this extract is taken is very 
 effective and animated. It gives with great freshness the first 
 impressions of a mind susceptible to the grand and imposing 
 aspects of nature.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MEMBER FOB NEWARK. 
 
 England in 1832 Passing of the Reform Bill Anticipated Results of the Measure 
 Mr. Gladstone a Candidate for Newark His appearance before the Electors 
 The Youthful Candidate described His First Election Address ' Heckling ' on 
 the Hustings Mr. Gladstone returned by a large Majority Local Opinions upon 
 the New Member A Political Prediction The Vituperation of Opponents First 
 Step in a Parliamentary Career. 
 
 DURING the latter part of Mr. Gladstone's visit to Italy in 
 1832, England was in a condition of feverish political 
 excitement and expectancy. The people had just fought and 
 won one of the greatest constitutional battles recorded in our 
 Parliamentary history. After a prolonged struggle, a defiance 
 of public order, and riots in various parts of the country, the 
 Reform Bill had become law. The King had clearly perceived 
 the wishes of the people, and disregarding the advice of those 
 members of the aristocracy who recommended him to brave the 
 national will had signified his assent to the measure which 
 could no longer be delayed with safety. The bill became law 
 on the 7th of June, his Majesty being represented by 
 Royal Commissioners, although a portion of the press loudly 
 demanded the presence of the King himself at the final 
 stage of a measure which transformed the whole of the electoral 
 arrangements of the United Kingdom, it was alleged that the 
 Sovereign would forfeit the confidence of all true patriots if 
 he did not perform this ceremony in person, and exhibit himself 
 as publicly as possible in testimony of the subjugation to which 
 his crown and peers had been reduced. But the King, pro- 
 bably considering that he had already made sufficient sacrifices 
 to the popular will, declined to attend the ceremony in the 
 House of Lords. ' King and Queen sat sullenly apart in their 
 palace. Peer and country gentleman moodily awaited the ruin 
 of their country and the destruction of their property. Fanaticism 
 still raved at the wickedness of a people ; the people, 
 clamouring for work, still succumbed before the mysterious 
 disease which was continually claiming more and more victims. 
 But the nation cared not for the sullenness of the Court, the fore-
 
 MEMBEE, FOB NEWARK. 33 
 
 bodings of the landed classes, the ravings of the pulpit, or even 
 the mysterious operations of a new plague. The deep gloom 
 which had overshadowed the land had been relieved by one single 
 ray. The victory had been won. The bill had become law,' * 
 
 The friends of Reform now looked forward to a realisation of 
 the fruits of victory ; and men of all shades of opinion forecast 
 with speculative wonder mingled in not a few instances with 
 apprehension the composition of the first reformed House of 
 Commons. The result was a surprise to the extreme 
 politicians of both parties. The Reformers did not carry every- 
 thing before them, as they anticipated, neither were the Tories 
 the enormous losers which they expected to be. Ministers 
 preserved their power, and were victorious in England, and still 
 more so in Scotland. In Ireland, however, they sustained very 
 serious defeats. Special constituencies, also, in England proved 
 treacherous, and many popular men, and earnest friends of 
 Reform, went to the wall. In addition to many counties, Bristol, 
 Norwich, Stamford, Hertford, Newark, and other boroughs, 
 pronounced against tie Ministry. The Duke of Newcastle, who 
 had propounded the memorable political maxim, ' Have I not a 
 right to do what I like with my own ? ' once more regained his 
 ducal influence, which had been rudely curtailed in 1831. 
 During this time of revolution the Continent was greatly 
 disturbed, and the internal condition of England was likewise 
 one to be deeply deplored. There was little trade, and an 
 unfavourable revenue ; riots occurred in the provinces and in 
 Ireland ; the working classes were discontented ; labour was 
 diminishing, pauperism was increasing, and the cholera was 
 claiming its victims everywhere. The poor looked to the opera- 
 tion of the Reform Bill as the first Act of their redemption, 
 while the landed gentry regarded it as the first sign of the 
 declension of our national greatness. Both classes were dis- 
 appointed ; the former had to look elsewhere for a revival of 
 commercial prosperity, and the latter discovered that the ox in 
 the stall, and the soil which they owned and tilled, were just as 
 safe and inviolate as they were before the passing of the terrible 
 Act. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, having received an overture from the Duke of 
 Newcastle (with whose son, the Earl of Lincoln, he was on terms 
 of intimate friendship) to contest the representation of Newark, 
 hurried back from the Continent for that purpose. Before the 
 close of September, 1832, he was actively engaged in canvassing 
 the borough. He immediately became very popular in the 
 
 * Walpole's History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815. 
 
 D
 
 34 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 town, and one of the local journals remarked, that if candour 
 and ability had any influence upon the electors, there would soon 
 be a change in the representation. A week later came accounts 
 of ' glorious ' meetings, with the assurance that Gladstone's return 
 might be fully calculated upon. The other candidates were Mr. 
 W. F. Handley and Mr. Serjeant Wilde. The last named 
 gentleman was an advanced Liberal, who had unsuccessfully 
 contested the borough in 1829 and 1830. After the latter 
 contest a piece of plate had been presented to him ' by his ardent 
 friends, the Blue electors of the borough who, by their exertions 
 and sufferings in the cause of independence, largely conduced to 
 awaken the attention of the nation to the necessity of a Reform 
 in Parliament.' The inscription further went on to state, ' Upon 
 this humble token of respect (contributed in the hour of defeat) 
 the Blue electors of Newark inscribe their sense of the splendid 
 ability, unwearied perseverance, and disinterested public spirit 
 displayed by Serjeant Wilde in maintaining the two contests of 
 1829 and 1830, in order to emancipate the borough from poli- 
 tical thraldom, and restore to its inhabitants the free exercise of 
 their long-lost rights.' In the following year, 1831, when the 
 Reform fever had attained its height, Serjeant Wilde was 
 successful in defeating the Duke of Newcastle's nominee, and 
 became member for the borough. The election which now 
 succeeded upon the passing of the Reform Bill was consequently 
 looked forward to with unusual interest, and it was early 
 perceived that the struggle would be of a close and determined 
 character. 
 
 Serjeant Wilde had the advantage of being already known in 
 the borough, and he was extremely popular with a portion of the 
 constituency. Mr. Gladstone was a complete stranger to the 
 electors when he appeared amongst them in response to the 
 Duke of Newcastle's invitation though, as we have seen, he 
 speedily gained favour. His age was twenty-two, and in 
 appearance he was somewhat robust.* There were in his 
 youthful face none of those deep lines which have rendered his 
 countenance so striking in maturer years; and one who 
 remembers him well at this period describes his bright, 
 thoughtful look, and attractive bearing. He was considered a 
 handsome man, and possessed a most intelligent and expressive 
 countenance. This description is amply borne out by an 
 oil painting of Mr. Gladstone, executed only a few years later for 
 the Newark Conservative Club, on the walls of which club it 
 
 * Some of these personal details concerning Mr. Gladstone at the time of his 
 first election for Newark have been courteously supplied to the author by Mr. 
 Cornelius Brown, author of the History of Newark.
 
 MEMBEE FOR NEWARK. 35 
 
 hung for many years. A few engravings still exist of this 
 picture ; and a casual glance at the portrait will scarcely enable 
 the spectator to identify the plump features, the full face, the 
 large dark eyes, and eyebrows, and decidedly robust aspect there 
 presented with the later rugged aspect of the statesman's 
 countenance, and his general appearance. Yet a closer 
 inspection will serve to bring out some points of resemblance, 
 for even at the early age of twenty-two there is to be perceived 
 the same broad intellectual forehead, the somewhat massive and 
 prominent nose, the same anxious eyes, and the earnest 
 expression so characteristic of the man upwards of a generation 
 later. 
 
 But while the personal appearance of Mr. Gladstone so 
 youthful and yet so manly told in his favour, it was not long 
 ere he made a still more favourable impression upon the 
 burgesses by his oratory. His speeches demonstrated that he 
 lacked neither arguments nor words wherewith to clothe them. 
 He needed, indeed, to call into requisition all his ability as a 
 speaker, for, as already observed, the contest was one of unusual 
 vigour. Serjeant Wilde, a powerful antagonist in other 
 respects, was also a veteran platform orator. He was, 
 moreover, in possession, and did not reflect with complacency 
 upon the prospect of being displaced by one whom he regarded 
 as a mere political stripling. But besides having the weight of 
 the ducal influence at his back, Mr. Gladstone was warmly 
 supported by the Red Club, whose memlers were alike active 
 and influential. The young Tory candidate and his supporters 
 entered upon the contest with enthusiasm, and worked with 
 unflagging spirit and untiring energy. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's first election address was dated * Clinton 
 Arms, Newark, Oct. 9th, 1832,' and was inscribed ' To the 
 worthy and independent electors of the Borough of Newark.' 
 This document, in the light of subsequent events, has more than 
 a passing interest, and is distinguished for its ingenious 
 reasoning upon the great question of Slavery, then agitating 
 the public mind. We append it in full : 
 
 ' Having now completed my canvass, I think it iny duty as well to remkid you of 
 the principles on which I have solicited your votes, as freely to assure my friends 
 that its result has placed my success beyond a doubt. 
 
 I have not requested your favour on the ground of adherence to the opinions of 
 any man or part}', further than such adherence can be fairly understood from the 
 conviction I have not hesitated to avow, that we must watch and resist that unen- 
 quiring and indiscriminating desire for change amongst us, which threatens to 
 produce, along with partial good, a melancholy preponderance of mischief ; which, 
 I am persuaded, would aggravate beyond computation the deep-seated evils of our 
 social state, and the heavy burthens of our industrial classes ; which, by disturbing 
 our peace, destroys confidence, and strikes at the root of prosperity. Thus it Aa* 
 done already ; and thus, we must therefore believe, it icill do. 
 
 D2
 
 JG WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 For the mitigation of those evils, we must, I think, look not only to particular 
 measures, but to the restoration of sounder general principles. I mean especially 
 that principle on which alone the incorporation of Religion with the State in our 
 Constitution can be defended ; that the duties of governors are strictly and pecu- 
 liarly religious ; and that legislatures, like individuals, are bound to carry through- 
 out their acts the spirit of the high truths they have acknowledged. Principles 
 are now arrayed against our institutions ; and not by truckling nor by temporising 
 not by oppression nor corruption but by principles they must be met. 
 
 Among their first results should be a sedulous and special attention to the inter- 
 ests of the poor, founded upon the rule that those who are the least able to take 
 care of themselves should be most regarded by others. Particularly it is a duty to 
 endeavour, by every means, that labour may receive adequate remuneration ; which, 
 unhappily, among several classes of our fellow-countrymen is not now the case. 
 Whatever measures, therefore whether by correction of the poor laws, allotment of 
 cottage grounds, or otherwise tend to promote this object, I deem entitled to the 
 warmest support ; with all such as are calculated to secure sound moral conduct 
 in any class of society. 
 
 I proceed to the momentous question of Slavery, which I have found entertained 
 among you in that candid and temperate spirit which alone befits its nature, 
 or promises to remove its difficulties. If I have not recognized the right of an 
 irresponsible society to interpose between me and the electors, it has not been from 
 any disrespect to its members, nor from unwillingness to answer theirs or any other 
 questions on which the electors may desire to know my views. To the esteemed 
 secretary of the society I submitted my reasons for silence ; and I made a point of 
 stating these views to him, in his character of a voter. 
 
 As regards the abstract lawfulness of Slavery, I acknowledge it simply as import- 
 ing the right of one man to the labour of another ; and I rest it upon the fact that 
 Scripture, the paramount authority upon such a point, gives directions to persons 
 standing in the relation of master to slave, for their conduct in that relation ; 
 whereas, were the matter absolutely and necessarily sinful, it would not regulate 
 the manner. Assuming sin as the cause of degradation, it strives, and strives most 
 effectually, to cure the latter by extirpating the former. We are agreed, that both 
 the physical and the moral bondage of the slave are to be abolished. The question 
 is as to the order, and the order only ; now Scripture attacks the moral evil before 
 the temporal one, and the temporal through the moral one, and I am content with 
 the order which Scripture has established. 
 
 To this end, I desire to see immediately set on foot, by impartial and sovereign 
 authority, an universal and efficient system of Christian instruction, not intended to 
 resist designs of individual piety and wisdom for the religious improvement of the 
 negroes, but to do thoroughly what they can only do partially. 
 
 As regards immediate emancipation, whether with or without compensation, there 
 are several minor reasons against it; but that which weighs with me is, that it 
 would, I much fear, exchange the evils now affecting the negro for others which 
 are weightier for a relapse into deeper debasement, if not for bloodshed and 
 internal war. Let fitness be made a condition for emancipation ; and let us strive 
 to bring him to that fitness by the shortest possible course. Let him enjoy the 
 means of earning his freedom through honest and industrious habits ; thus the same 
 instruments which al tain his liberty shall likewise render him competent to use it; 
 and thus, I earnestly trust, without risk of blood, without violation of property, 
 with unimpaired benefit to the negro, and with the utmost speed which prudence 
 will admit, we shall arrive at that exceedingly desirable consummation, the utter 
 extinction of slavery. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, as regards the enthusiasm with which you have rallied 
 round your ancient flag, and welcomed the humble representative of those prin- 
 ciples whose emblem it is, I trust that neither the lapse of time nor the seductions 
 of prosperity can ever efface it from my memory. To my opponents, my acknow- 
 ledgments are due for the good-humour and kindness with which they have 
 received me ; and while I would thank my friends for their zealous and unwearied 
 exertions in my favour, I briefly but emphatically assure them, that if promises be 
 an adequate foundation of confidence, or experience a reasonable ground of calcu- 
 lation, our victory is sure. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, 
 
 You* obliged and obedient Servant, 
 
 W. E. GLADSTONE. '
 
 MEMBER FOE NEWARK. 37 
 
 The Red or Conservative Club numbered within its ranks 
 upwards of 650 voters, every one of whom promised their 
 suffrages to Mr. Gladstone, the thorough Conservative candidate. 
 He also received an absolute promise of support from about 240 
 other electors. The matter was thus regarded as settled by a 
 writer in a periodical of the day entitled Old England. The 
 question then frequently put, ' Who is Mr. Gladstone ? ' the same 
 writer thus answered : ' He is the son of the friend of Mr. 
 Canning, the great Liverpool merchant. He is, we understand, 
 not more than four or five and twenty,* but he has won golden 
 opinions from all sorts of people, and promises to be an 
 ornament to the House of Commons.' 
 
 The nomination was held on the llth of December, the 
 polling being fixed for the two following days. At the hustings 
 Mr. Gladstone was compelled to run the gauntlet of much 
 hostile questioning, and had not the opportunity of doing more 
 than making a brief reply. Scotch elections have "rendered us 
 familiar with the practice known as ' heckling,' and Mr. 
 Gladstone was subjected to this process upon his first appearance 
 at Newark. From the reports in the local jora-nals, it would 
 appear that after the nomination of Mr. W. Farnworth Handley, 
 Mr. Serjeant Wilde, and Mr. William Ewart G-ladstone respec- 
 tively 
 
 Mr. Gillson enquired of Mr. Gladstone how he came to Newark after he had 
 neglected to attend a meeting of the electors to which he was invited, and whether 
 he was not the Duke of Newcastle's nominee? 
 
 Mr. Gladstone wished to have Mr. Gillson's definition of the term " nominee," 
 and then he would answer. 
 
 Mr. Gillson said he meant a person sent by the Duke of Newcastle to be pushed 
 down the electors' throats, whether they would or not. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone replied, then according to that definition he was not a nominee. 
 He came to Newark by the invitation of the Red Club, than whom none were more 
 respectable and intelligent. The Club sent to the Duke of Newcastle to know if he 
 could recommend a candidate to them, and in consequence he was appealed to, 
 and accepted the invitation of the Red Club. 
 
 Mr. Kelk asked Mr. Gladstone what he thought of the passage in Exodus xxi.16 
 ' He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
 surely be put to death ; ' and whether his father was not a dealer in human flesh? 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was aware of the crime of man-stealing being condemned. 
 
 Mr. Kelk What state of things did he wish to return to ? and ought a man to 
 be put to death for forging a 1 note the same as for killing his fellow creature ? 
 
 Mr. Gladstone said he had in view the time when our forefathers acted upon 
 manly and God-fearing principles. We are not the nation we were two hundred 
 years ago. The crime of forgery was difficult to decide upon, as we were a great 
 commercial nation. The question put by Mr. Kelk, however, was easily answered 
 in the negative. 
 
 Mr. Andrews, an elector, then entered upon a long address on the subject of 
 negro slavery, and required Mr. Gladstone's opinion upon the subject. 
 
 Mr Gladstone gave it unequivocally, that he desired the emancipation of slaves 
 upon such terms as would preserve them and the colonies from destruction. The 
 slaves ought first to be fully prepared for emancipation. 
 
 * The young candidate was not yet twenty-three.
 
 88 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 A long discussion for and against the results of emancipation 
 in St. Domingo and Antigua followed. Mr. Gladstone was now 
 unfortunately placed. Being the third in order of the three 
 candidates proposed, his address to the electors came last. 
 Serjeant Wilde exhausted the patience of the people by his very 
 lengthy speech, and the Tory candidate was condemned to follow 
 amidst a scene of outrageous noise and uproar. The mass of 
 people in front of the hustings had already stood for nearly seven 
 hours, and showed a disinclination to be detained with another 
 three hours' address, which, as a local chronicler naively puts it, 
 'from Mr. Gladstone's talents we were far from thinking not 
 possible.' . Serjeant Wilde's policy in occupying the attention of 
 the electors for an inordinate length of time was almost univer- 
 sally condemned. Mr. Gladstone was but able to utter a few 
 comments upon the prominent topic of slavery, when the hooting 
 and hissing drowned his voice, and he found it impossible to 
 proceed. A show of hands being demanded, it was declared to 
 be in favour of Mr. Handley and Serjeant Wilde. For Mr. Glad- 
 stone few hands were held up beyond those of his supporters on 
 the hustings. A poll was accordingly demanded on his behalf. 
 
 Since 1832, few of those scenes of violence, and even of blood- 
 shed, which formerly distinguished Parliamentary elections in 
 many English boroughs, have been witnessed. Some of these 
 lawless outbreaks were doubtless due to the unpopularity of the 
 candidates forced upon the electors ; but even in the larger towns 
 where territorial influence had little sway riots occurred upon 
 which we look back now in almost doubtful amazement. Men 
 holding strong political views have ceased to enforce those views 
 by the aid of brickbats and other dangerous missiles. Yet at 
 the beginning of the present century such arguments were very 
 popular. And to the violence which prevailed was added the 
 most unblushing bribery. Several boroughs long notorious for 
 extensive bribery have since been disfranchised. The practice, 
 however, extended to most towns in the kingdom, though it was 
 not always carried on in the same open manner. By a long- 
 established custom, a voter at Hull received a donation of two 
 guineas, or four for a plumper. In Liverpool men were openly 
 paid for their votes ; and Lord Cochrane stated in the House of 
 Commons that, after his return for Honiton, he sent the town- 
 crier round the borough to tell the voters to go to the chief banker 
 for ^10 10s. each. The great enlargement of the constituencies, 
 secured by the Reform Bill of 1832, did much to put an 
 end to this disgraceful condition of things ; but to a wider 
 political enlightenment also, some portion of the credit for such 
 a result must be attributed.
 
 MEMBEE FOE NEWAEK. 39 
 
 The election for Newark was of an exciting character, but 
 devoid of those objectionable elements just alluded to. If Mr. 
 Gladstone was out of favour at the hustings, the polling told a 
 very different tale. From the first he took the lead, and became 
 M.P. for Newark by a substantial majority, the numbers being 
 -Gladstone, 882; Handley, 793; Wilde, 719. Commenting 
 upon this result, the Newark representative of the Nottingham 
 Journal said they had been told there was no reaction against 
 the Ministry, no reaction in favour of Conservative principles. 
 ' The delusion has now vanished, and made room for sober reason 
 and reflection. The shadow satisfies no longer ; and the return 
 of Mr. Gladstone to the discomfiture of the learned Serjeant 
 and his friends has restored the town of Newark to that high 
 rank which it formerly held in the estimation of the friends of 
 order and good government. We venture to predict that the 
 losing candidate in this contest has suffered so severely that he 
 will never more show his face at Newark on a similar 
 occasion.' 
 
 A few days after the election Mr. Gladstone attended a 
 meeting of the Constitutional Club at Nottingham, and delivered 
 a lengthy address. Alluding to this address and to the young 
 member, a Conservative journalist who, if still living, may 
 look back upon his words as the first prediction of Mr. 
 Gladstone's great political future observed, ' He is a gentleman 
 of amiable manners and the most extraordinary talent ; and we 
 venture to predict, without the slightest exaggeration, that he 
 will be one day classed amongst the most able statesmen in the 
 British Senate.' This prophecy has been fulfilled strictly to the 
 letter, but in a spirit wholly different from that. which its 
 utterer expected. Mr. Gladstone also spoke at Newark, in 
 company with his friend, the Earl of Lincoln, delivering ' a 
 manly, eloquent speech, replete with sound constitutional 
 sentiments, high moral feeling, and ability of the most 
 distinguished order.' Remembering what Mr. Gladstone has 
 since done for the press of this country, it is curious to find 
 him at this time stating that he could not support the abolition 
 of taxes upon knowledge. He gave as his grounds for this 
 policy, that the taxes not only assisted the revenue, but tended 
 to prevent too great a circulation of bad matter. 
 
 It must not be supposed that, able and successful as Mr. 
 Gladstone was, he had no enemies. On the contrary, he had 
 many political opponents who were deeply envenomed against 
 him. As we have given the approving language of his friends, 
 we will now quote the opinion of his foes upon the fortunate 
 candidate and his election. This opinion was expressed as
 
 tO WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 follows in the Reflector : ' Mr. Gladstone is the son of Glad- 
 stone of Liverpool, a person who (we are speaking of the father) 
 had amassed a large fortune by West India dealings. In othei 
 words, a great part of his gold has sprung from the blood of 
 black slaves. Kespecting the youth himself a person fresh 
 from college, and whose mind is as much like a sheet of 
 white foolscap as possible he was utterly unknown. He 
 came recommended by no claim in the world except the 
 will of the Duke. The Duke nodded unto Newark, and 
 Newark sent back the man, or rather the boy of his choice. 
 What! Is this to be, now that the Eeform Bill has done 
 its work ? Are sixteen hundred men still to bow down to a 
 wooden-headed lord, as the people of Egypt used to do to their 
 beasts, to their reptiles, and their ropes of onions ? There must 
 be something wrong something imperfect. What is it ? What 
 is wanting ? Why, the Ballot ! If there be a doubt of this 
 (and we believe there is a doubt even amongst intelligent men) 
 the tale of Newark must set the question at rest. Serjeant 
 Wilde was met on his entry into the town by almost the whole 
 population. He was greeted everywhere, cheered everywhere. 
 He was received with delight by his friends, and with good and 
 earnest wishes for his success by his nominal foes. The voters 
 for Gladstone went up to that candidate's booth (the slave-driver, 
 as they called him) with Wilde's colours. People who had before 
 voted for Wilde, on being asked to give their suffrage said, " We 
 cannot, we dare not. We have lost half our business, and shall 
 lose the rest if we go against the Duke. We would do anything 
 in our .power for Serjeant Wilde, and for the cause, but we 
 cannot starve ! " Now what say ye, our merry men, touching 
 the Ballot ? ' Such were the hostile reflections passed upon the 
 successful candidate. The adage, that ' all is fair in love and 
 war' including, we presume, political warfare was transgressed 
 on this and other occasions, the personal criticisms on Mr. 
 Gladstone sometimes passing the bounds of decorum. But to 
 the bitterness of their defeat must be attributed much of the 
 rancour exhibited by the losing party; they had counted 
 confidently upon victory. 
 
 In the ordeal through which political candidates are called 
 upon to pass, there is a mingling of agreeable and objectionable 
 elements ; and if Mr. Gladstone met with considerable vitupera- 
 tion at the hands of his opponents, he had the solid and 
 satisfying fact to fall back upon, that, in the contest which had 
 just been waged, he had been placed at the head of the poll. 
 The ambition of his youthful days was now in partial process of 
 being realised. He had ardently desired to become a member of
 
 MEMBER FOR NEWARK. 
 
 that Senate whose glories of statesmanship and of eloquence 
 were the theme of the civilised world. He was now entitled to 
 cross its august threshold ; the first step in his Parliamentary 
 career had been successfully taken, and the whilom student of 
 hrist Church was member for Newark.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 The First Reformed Parliament Mr. Gladstone's Maiden Speech The Slave Trade 
 The Member for Newark's View of the Question Abolition of Colonial Slavery 
 Bribery hi Liverpool A Defence of the Irish Church The Universities Admis- 
 sion Bill Demoralisation of the Whigs Dismissal of the Melbourne Ministry 
 Mr. Gladstone Junior Lord of the Treasury under Sir Robert Peel Election 
 Incidents at Newark The Premier and his Policy The Under-Secretaryship for 
 the Colonies Defeat and Resignation of the Government The Affairs of Canada 
 Speech by Mr. Gladstone on Church Rates Death of King William IV. Mr. 
 Gladstone nominated for Manchester Incidents of the Contest The Session of 
 183& The Slavery Question once more Powerful Speech by Mr. Gladstone 
 His Appearance in the House Personal Details Character of his Oratory 
 Debate on National Education The War with China Fall of the Whig Govern- 
 ment Sir Robert Peel again in Office Mr. Gladstone Vice-President of the 
 Board of Trade His Marriage, Family, &c. 
 
 THE first Parliament summoned after the passing of the Reform 
 Act met on the 29th of January, 1833, and on the 5th of 
 February the King attended and delivered the Royal speech in 
 person. Of that celebrated Parliament but few members now 
 remain. Who, in that popular House of Assembly, could have 
 predicted the future of the newly-elected member for Newark ? 
 Even the member himself who had nothing whatever against 
 him, save, as Chatham said, ' the atrocious crime of being a 
 young man ' sanguine as might be his political hopes, could 
 scarcely have ventured to anticipate in his most ambitious 
 dreams the period when he should be called upon to fill the 
 position once held by the illustrious Canning. The new House 
 of Commons which might now be emphatically called the 
 people's House of Parliament did not fulfil all the expectations 
 of the country, though the labours of its first session have given 
 it an indelible place in history. Had the session of 1 833 been 
 barren of all other measures, it would still be entitled to 
 immortal honour for wiping away a discreditable blot that had 
 too long stained the escutcheon of England. The system of 
 slavery, which until this year still existed in the British colonies, 
 was abolished at a cost of twenty millions sterling. Besides the 
 passing of this great humanitarian enactment, during the same 
 session the commercial monopoly of the East India Company
 
 EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 43 
 
 was abolished. The trade to the East was thus thrown open to 
 all merchants, and the beneficial effects of the measure were 
 speedily apparent. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's maiden speech in the House of Commons 
 differed completely from the first melodramatic display of his 
 great rival. From the first the young member for Newark 
 appears to have favourably impressed the House. Modest in 
 demeanour, earnest in manner, and fluent of speech, he at once 
 commanded the respect and attention of his fellow-members. 
 His earliest effort was in connection with the Slavery question, but 
 the speech was delivered neither in the course of a great debate, 
 nor upon a motion on the one topic then occupying the public 
 mind. During the debate on the Ministerial proposition for the 
 emancipation of slaves, which was brought forward on the 14th 
 of May, 1833, Lord Howick, ex-Under-Secretary for the 
 Colonies, had referred to an estate in Demerara owned by Mr. 
 Gladstone's father, for the purpose of showing that a great 
 destruction of human life had taken place in the West Indies, 
 owing to the manner in which the slaves were worked. It was 
 in reply to this accusation that Mr. Gladstone delivered his 
 maiden speech on the 17th of May, the occasion being the 
 presentation of a petition from Portarlington for the abolition of 
 slavery. He challenged the noble lord's statement respecting 
 the decrease of seventy-one slaves upon the estate of Vreeden 
 Hoop, which had been attributed to the increased cultivation of 
 sugar. The real cause of the decrease lay in the very large 
 proportion of Africans upon the estate. When it came into his 
 father's possession, it was so weak, owing to the great number of 
 Africans upon it. that he was obliged to add two hundred people 
 to the gang. It was notorious that Africans were imported into 
 Demerara and Trinidad up to a later period than into any other 
 colony ; and he should, when the proper time arrived, be able to 
 prove that the decrease on Vreeden Hoop was among the old 
 Africans, and that there was an increase going on in the Creole 
 population, which would be a sufficient answer to the statement 
 of the noble lord. The quantity of sugar produced was small in 
 proportion to that produced on many other estates. The 
 cultivation of cotton in Demerara had been abandoned, and that 
 of coffee much diminished, and the people employed in these 
 sources of production had been transferred to the cultivation of 
 sugar. Demerara, too, was peculiarly circumstanced, and the 
 labour of the same number of negroes, distributed over the year, 
 would produce in that colony a given quantity of sugar, with 
 less injury to the people, than \iegroes could produce in other 
 colonies, working only at the stated periods of crop. * He was
 
 44 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 ready to admit that this cultivation was of a more severe 
 character than others ; and he would ask, were there not certain 
 employments in this and other countries more destructive to life 
 than others ? He would only instance those of painting and 
 working in lead mines, both of which were well known to have 
 that tendency. The noble lord attempted to impugn the 
 character of the gentleman acting as manager of his father's 
 estates; and in making this selection he had certainly been 
 most unfortunate ; for there was not an individual in the colony 
 more proverbial for humanity and the kind treatment of his 
 slaves than Mr. Maclean.' Mr. Gladstone, in concluding this 
 warm defence of his relative, said he held in his hand two letters 
 from the agent, in which that gentleman spoke in the kindest 
 terms of the people under his charge ; described their state of 
 happiness, content, and healthiness their good conduct, and the 
 infrequency of severe punishment and recommended certain 
 additional comforts, which he said the slaves well deserved. 
 
 On the 3rd of June, on the resumption of the debate on 
 the abolition of slavery, Mr. Gladstone again addressed the 
 House. He now entered more fully into the charges which Lord 
 Howick had brought against the management of his father's 
 estates in Demerara, and showed their groundlessness. When 
 he had discussed the existing aspect of slavery in Trinidad, 
 Jamaica, and other places, he proceeded to deal with the general 
 question. He confessed with shame and pain that cases of 
 wanton cruelty had occurred in the colonies, but added that they 
 would always exist, particularly under the system of slavery ; 
 and this was unquestionably a substantial reason why the British 
 Legislature and public should set themselves in good earnest 
 to provide for its extinction ; but he maintained that these 
 instances of cruelty could easily be explained by the West 
 Indians, who represented them as rare and isolated cases, and 
 who maintained that the ordinary relation of master and slave 
 was one of kindliness and not of hostility. He deprecated 
 cruelty, and he deprecated slavery, both of which were abhorrent 
 to the nature of Englishmen ; but, conceding these things, he 
 asked, * Were not Englishmen to retain a right to their own 
 honestly and legally -acquired property ? ' But the cruelty did 
 not exist, and he saw no reason for the attack which had 
 recently been made upon the West India interest. He hoped 
 the House would make a point to adopt the principle of 
 compensation, and to stimulate the slave to genuine and 
 spontaneous industry. If this were not done, and moral instruc- 
 tion were not imparted to the slaves, liberty would prove a curse 
 instead of a blessing to them. Touching upon the property
 
 EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 45 
 
 question, and the proposed plans "for emancipation, Mr. 
 Gladstone said that the House might consume its time and 
 exert its wisdom in devising these plans, but without the 
 concurrence of the Colonial Legislatures success would be 
 hopeless. He thought there was excessive wickedness in any 
 violent interference under the present circumstances. They 
 were still in the midst of unconcluded inquiries, and to pursue 
 the measure then under discussion, at that moment, was to 
 commit an act of great and unnecessary hostility towards the 
 island of Jamaica. ' It was the duty of the House to place as 
 broad a distinction as possible between the idle and the 
 industrious slaves, and nothing could be too strong to secure 
 the freedom of the latter ; but, with respect to the idle slaves, no 
 period of emancipation could hasten their improvement. If the 
 labours of the House should be conducted to a satisfactory issue, 
 it would redound to the honour of the nation, and to the 
 reputation of his Majesty's Ministers, whilst it would be 
 delightful to the West India planters themselves for they must 
 feel that to hold in bondage their fellow-men must always 
 involve the greatest responsibility. But let not any man think 
 of carrying this measure by force. England rested her power 
 not upon physical force, but upon her principles, her intellect, 
 and virtue ; and if this great measure were not placed on a fair 
 basis, or were conducted by violence, he should lament it, as a 
 signal for the ruin of the Colonies and the downfall of the 
 Empire.' The attitude of Mr. Gladstone, as borne out by the 
 tenor of his speech, was not one of hostility to emancipation, 
 though he was undoubtedly unfavourable to an immediate and 
 an indiscriminate enfranchisement. He demanded, moreover, 
 that the interests of the planters should be duly regarded. 
 * The result of the labours of the House on this question is 
 matter of history. The abolition of Colonial slavery was 
 decreed. As already stated, a sum of 20,000,000 was voted to 
 the slave-owners as compensation for their losses, and the great 
 and noble work initiated by Mr. Wilberforce was thus finally 
 crowned with success. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone rose on two or three other occasions during the 
 session of 1833. On the 4th of July Mr. Mark Phillips moved 
 that a Select Committee be appointed to pursue the inquiries 
 entered into by the Committee appointed on the 6th of March, 
 to take into consideration the petition presented to the House 
 on the 21st of February from certain inhabitants of Liverpool, 
 complaining of bribery and corruption in that borough. Mr 
 Gladstone, speaking upon this motion, admitted that the 
 proceedings at the election of 1830 were sufficient to secure for
 
 46 WILLIAM LWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the town of Liverpool an immortality of disgrace ; but had it 
 not been for this he should have had no apprehension as to the 
 character of the votes of honourable gentlemen. Before 1830 
 direct bribery had not prevailed at the elections extensively or 
 systematically. He denied that such a body of evidence had 
 been collected with respect to the last election as to warrant the 
 assumption that bribery and corruption did, during that election, 
 prevail in Liverpool systematically or extensively. ' If the cases 
 of bribery were so miserably few -if the cases of corruption, of 
 asking for bribes, and of a disposition to receive them were 
 equivocal, and limited to the allegations of one side, and 
 contradicted as far as the nature of the case admitted by the 
 other he implored the House of Commons in the name of 
 principle, in the name of equity, in the name of common sense, 
 to refuse further inquiry, and not to immolate on such 
 insufficient pretexts the rights of the freemen ; he implored 
 them not to offer so poor a morsel to appease the hunger of 
 reform.' The inquiry, however, was voted by 166 to 84. 
 
 The name of the member for Newark appears in various 
 division lists in the course of this session, and he spoke in the 
 debate which took place upon Lord Althorp's Church Temporali- 
 ties (Ireland) Bill. On the 8th of July, on the question that 
 this bill should pass, Mr. Gladstone said he would not shelter 
 himself under a silent vote. He was prepared to defend the 
 Irish Church, and if it had abuses, which he did not now deny, 
 those abuses were to be ascribed to the ancestors and prede- 
 cessors of those who then surrounded him. He admitted that 
 the Irish Church had slumbered. He feared that the effect of 
 the bill would be to place the Church on an untenable founda- 
 tion. He was unwilling to see the number of Irish bishops 
 reduced. He had always regarded it as a well-established 
 principle that as long as a Church was national the State ought 
 to be taxed to support it ; and if the Government meant to 
 maintain the Protestant Church in Ireland, they ought to 
 enforce this maxim ; but it was not the proper wa^* to establish 
 or maintain the Church to proceed by laying furthe'/ burdens on 
 the body of the clergy who, God knows, were already not over- 
 burthened with money as was done by that measure. He had 
 little doubt the Government would carry the bill by a large 
 majority, and if they did, he could only hope that it would pro- 
 duce the effects which they had ascribed to it namely, of 
 securing and propping up the Irish Protestant Church. The 
 bill was carried by 274 votes to 94, Mr. Gladstone's name 
 appearing in the minority. 
 
 In 1834 he addressed the House very briefly in connection
 
 EAELY SPEECHES IN PAELIAMENT. 47 
 
 with the Liverpool Freemen Bill, inflicting disfranchisement 
 upon a section of the electors for bribery. When Mr. Hume's 
 Universities Admission Bill was brought forward, it found a 
 strenuous opponent in the young member. One great object of 
 the bill was to remove the necessity of subscription to the 
 Thirty-nine Articles on entering the University of Oxford. Mr. 
 Gladstone maintained that, although the measure proposed to 
 alter materially the constitution of the universities, it would be 
 practically inoperative. Yet the bill, while not working out its 
 professed objects, would neverthelesss inevitably lead to great 
 dissension and confusion, and eventually to endless applications 
 and legislation in the House. It was said of the ancient 
 Romans that they 
 
 1 Made a solitude and called it peace.' 
 
 He very much feared that the House, in establishing their 
 present principle of religious liberty, would drive from their 
 functions men who had so long done honour and service to their 
 country, and thus inaugurate their reign of religious peace by 
 an act of the grossest tyranny. Ths bill passed by 164 to 75. 
 
 It was not to be expected either that the practical ability or 
 the debating power foreshadowed in these early speeches of the 
 new Tory member for Newark would escape the attention of the 
 leaders of his party. But recognition came earlier than even 
 the young orator himself could have anticipated. Towards the 
 close of 1834 it became evident that there were no longer the 
 necessary elements of cohesion in the Liberal Ministry. 
 Amongst the many causes of its downfall, not the least was the 
 transference of Lord Althorp to the Upper House. His lordship, 
 during his continuance in the Commons, had been able to keep 
 the Ministerialists together, as one tolerably compact body. 
 But demoralisation quickly set in a demoralisation accelerated 
 by the growing unpopularity of the Whigs with the country. In 
 the middle of October the Melbourne Ministry was summarily 
 dismissed by the Sovereign. Lord Melbourne had waited 
 upon the King at Brighton to take his commands on the 
 appointment of a Chancellor of the Exchequer in the room of 
 Lord Althorp, when his Majesty raised objections to the 
 reconstruction of the Cabinet. The King, further, sent a letter 
 to the Duke of Wellington, who attended upon his Majesty, and 
 advised that Sir Robert Peel should be sent for. Sir Robert, 
 who was then travelling in Italy, hastened home, and on the 
 9th of December accepted the King's commands to form a 
 Ministry. 
 
 On the 24th Mr. Gladstone, having accepted the office of
 
 48 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Junior Lord of the Treasury under Sir Robert Peel, issued his 
 address to his constituents at Newark. In that address he 
 reviewed the position of parties, which, since the last general 
 election two years before, had essentially changed. The best 
 friends of the late Ministry had been alienated from it in 
 consequence of its tendency toAvards rash, violent, and indefinite 
 innovation ; and there were even i those among the servants of 
 the King who did not scruple to solicit the suffrages of their 
 constituents, with promises to act on the principles of 
 Radicalism.' Mr. Gladstone went on to say, * The question has 
 then, as it appears to me, become, whether we are to hurry 
 onwards at intervals, but not long ones, through the medium of 
 the ballot, short parliaments, and other questions called popular, 
 into republicanism or anarchy ; or whether, independently of all 
 party distinctions, the people will support the Crown in the 
 discharge of its duty to maintain in efficiency, and transmit in 
 safety, those old and valuable institutions under which our 
 country has greatly flourished.' In the last paragraph of this 
 address, however, the writer said, ' Let me add shortly, but 
 emphatically, concerning the reform of actual abuses, whether 
 in Church or State, that I regard it as a sacred duty a duty at 
 all times, and certainly not least at a period like this, when the 
 danger of neglecting it is most clear and imminent a duty not 
 inimical to true and determined Conservative principle, nor a 
 curtailment or modification of such principle, but its legitimate 
 consequences, or rather an actual element of its composition.' 
 
 Mr. Handley, the second Conservative member for the 
 borough of Newark, having retired, Mr. Gladstone and the 
 Liberal candidate, Mr. Serjeant Wilde, were returned without 
 opposition. The Junior Lord of the Treasury appears to have 
 again quite fascinated his constituents, and, amongst other 
 festivities, we find that he attended the Dispensary Ball at 
 Newark with the Duke of Newcastle. A local journal describes 
 him at this time as one of the most talented young men who 
 entered the last Parliament. His ' splendid talents and amiable 
 character ' were the theme of conversation in the borough. Mr. 
 Gladstone's speech on the hustings was an amplification of the 
 address we have in substance just given. After the election 
 came the old custom of chairing the members, when a scene of 
 the most animated description took place. Mr. Gladstone's 
 procession set out from the Clinton Arms Inn. His chair was 
 splendid and elegant, and attracted general admiration ; ' it 
 was placed on a groundwork laid upon the springs of a four- 
 wheel carriage, and drawn by six beautiful grey horses, the 
 riders dressed in silk jackets.' As the procession wended its way
 
 EAB.LY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 49 
 
 through the streets, the inhabitants were most peaceably inclined. 
 Never before did the town of Newark present so pleasing and so 
 glorious a sight!' The 'red' lion and the 'blue ' lamb lay 
 down together (the colours of the quadrupeds may be reversed 
 at pleasure;, and all was harmony and all was peace. Alighting 
 at his committee room, Mr. Gladstone delivered an address of 
 thanks to upwards of 6,000 persons, his speech being greeted 
 with ' deafening cheers.' 
 
 The policy of the new Ministry was defined by its chief 
 in his address to the electors of Tamworth. Sir Robert Peel 
 said he considered the Keform Act a final and irrevocable 
 settlement of a great constitutional question, and a settlement 
 which no friend to the peace and welfare of the country would 
 attempt to disturb by any means whatsoever. But the 
 Government expressed their readiness to reform real abuses and 
 defects still existing, though they declined to seek * a false 
 popularity by adopting every fleeting popular impression of the 
 day.' Shortly after the assembling of Parliament in February, 
 1835, Mr. Gladstone was promoted to the office of Under- 
 secretary for the Colonies, and in March he brought in a bill for 
 the better regulation of the carriage of passengers in merchant 
 vessels to the continent and the islands of North America. 
 This bill, which contained many humane provisions, was most 
 favourably received. 
 
 For the moment, it seemed as though the Peel Ministry had 
 a long life before it ; but the course of politics is proverbially 
 uncertain. Mr, Carlyle asks in his Chartism, t Are not the 
 affairs of this nation in a bad way ? Hungry Greek meets 
 hungry Greek on the floor of St. Stephen's, and wrestles with 
 him and throttles him until he has to cry, Hold ! the office is 
 thine.' Fortunately for the reputation of statesmanship, there 
 have been Ministers in every generation who have regarded the 
 public service in a nobler light than this. Of such men was Sir 
 Robert Peel, worthy alike of the esteem of friends and 
 opponents for the uprightness of his character and the singleness 
 of his aims. But although he acceded to office in 1834-5 under 
 apparently favourable circumstances, and although his measures 
 were conceived in no illiberal spirit, his Ministry had a very 
 short lease of power. After sustaining a defeat on the election 
 of Speaker, a more serious disaster befell the Government on* the 
 Irish Church question. Lord John Russell introduced on the 
 30th of March his resolution, * That the House should resolve 
 itself into a committee of the whole House to consider of the 
 temporalities of the Church of Ireland.' This motion was met by a 
 direct negative, and a protracted and acrimonious debate ensued. 
 
 E
 
 50 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, in the course of the discussion, said the 
 result of the motion would be first to enfeeble and debase, 
 and then altogether overthrow, the principle on which the 
 Church Establishment rested. The noble lord invited them to 
 invade the property of the Church in Ireland. The system they 
 were now called upon to agree to was in its essence transitory, 
 and yet it involved the existence of all Church establishments. 
 If the separation of Church and State was hastening on, the 
 present motion, instead of retarding it, would increase its 
 rapidity. * If in the administration of this great country the 
 elements of religion should not enter if those who were called 
 upon to guide it in its career should be forced to listen to the 
 caprices and to the whims of every body of visionaries, they 
 would lose that station all great men were hitherto proud of. 
 He hoped that he should never live to see the day when any 
 principle leading to such a result would be adopted in this 
 country.' 
 
 On a division Ministers were defeated, the numbers being For 
 Lord John Russell's motion, 322 ; against, 289. The Irish Church 
 Bill was subsequently discussed in committee, when Ministers 
 were again defeated on the question of appropriating the surplus 
 funds of the Church to the general education of all classes of 
 Christians. Sir Robert Peel, seeing that he and his Government 
 had no possibility of conducting the affairs of the country with 
 the substantial support of the House, announced his resignation. 
 Lord Melbourne again became Prime Minister. Mr. Gladstone, 
 -of course, ceased to be Under-Secretary for the Colonial Depart- 
 ment, and retired with his chief. The field of politics was at 
 this time conspicuous for the bitterness of its encounters, but 
 Mr. Gladstone held himself aloof from mere gladiatorial 
 exhibitions, and earned the respect of the whole House by his 
 courteous bearing, and the general urbanity of his manners. 
 
 We now find the member for Newark in opposition for a 
 considerable period ; but it was impossible for one of his ardent 
 temperament and strong convictions to refrain from taking a 
 deep interest in the various public questions brought forward 
 within the course of the next few years. On the 22nd of March, 
 1836, Mr. Fowell Buxton rose in the House of Commons to 
 move for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the 
 working of the apprenticeship system in the Colonies, the con- 
 dition of the apprentices, and the laws and regulations respecting 
 them. The Government, through Sir George Grey, agreed to the 
 appointment of the committee. Mr. O'Connell said that under 
 the apprenticeship system the negroes were worse off sometimes 
 than they were in a state of slavery. Apprenticeship was, in fact,
 
 JUAKLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 51 
 
 but slavery under another name. Mr. Gladstone replied, and 
 endeavoured to remove the unfavourable impression which had 
 been created against the West Indian body. When he pleaded 
 that many of the West Indian planters were humane men, Mr. 
 Gladstone was undoubtedly right. Having his nearest relatives 
 directly connected with the traffic so much denounced, he 
 naturally defended their honour when it was assailed. He 
 pointed out that while the evils of the apprenticeship system 
 had been exaggerated, all mention of its advantages had 
 been carefully withheld. Since the passing of the Emancipa- 
 tion Act the condition of the negroes had been gradually 
 improving. He deprecated the attempt made to renew and per- 
 petuate the system of agitation at the expense of candour and 
 truth. The motion, being supported by the Government, waa 
 agreed to without a division. 
 
 Early in March, 1837, the affairs of Canada came on for 
 discussion in the House of Commons. Lord John Russell pro- 
 posed a series of resolutions by which it was hoped the breaches 
 which had arisen between Upper and Lower Canada would be 
 healed. These propositions were fiercely attacked, but Mr. Glad- 
 stone, amongst others, rallied to the support of the Government. 
 The question that lay before them, he said, was the support of 
 Government and public order on one side, and the absolutism of 
 the popular will on the other. The difficulty was not between 
 the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council, but between 
 the House of Assembly and the Crown and Parliament of Great 
 Britain. There was an overwhelming preponderance of opinion 
 in favour of the Government policy. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was also heard in the debate on the Church 
 Rates question. His speech on this subject occupies thirteen 
 columns in Hansard, though it has apparently escaped the 
 attention of previous writers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 Mr. Spring Rice, had propounded a plan for the re-arrangement 
 of Church rates, which he hoped would be satisfactory at once 
 to the scruples of Dissenters and the claims of the Establishment. 
 His scheme, in essence, was to take the whole property of the 
 bishops, deans, and chapters out of the hands of those dignitaries, 
 and to vest them in the hands of a commission, under whose 
 improved system of management it was calculated that, after 
 paying to their full present amount all existing incomes, a sum 
 not less than that assigned by Lord Althorp might be saved, and 
 applied for the purposes of Church rates. When the House went 
 into committee on Mr. Rice's resolutions they were opposed by 
 Sir Robert Peel on financial as well as conscientious grounds. 
 Mr. Gladstone followed in the same strain, and the peroration of 
 
 E 2
 
 52 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 his speech in which he drew a comparison between Rome and 
 England, and insisted upon religion being the basis of the great- 
 ness of the State was, perhaps, the most impassioned specimen 
 of oratory with which he had yet favoured the House. ' It was 
 not,' he said, * by the active strength and resistless prowess of her 
 legions, the bold independence of her citizens, or the well-main- 
 tained equilibrium of her constitution, or by the judicious 
 adaptation of various measures to the various circumstances of 
 her subject States, that the Roman power was upheld. Its 
 foundation lay in the prevailing feeling of religion. This 
 was the superior power which curbed the licence of individual 
 rule, and engendered in the people a lofty disinterestedness 
 and disregard of personal motives, and devotion to the 
 glory of the republic. The devotion of the Romans was 
 not enlightened by a knowledge of the precepts of 
 Christianity ; here religion was still more deeply rooted and 
 firmly fixed. And would they now consent to compromise the 
 security of its firmest bulwark ? No Ministry would dare to 
 propose its unconditional surrender ; but with the same 
 earnestness and depth of feeling with which they should 
 deprecate the open avowal of such a determination, they ought 
 to resist the covert and insidious introduction of the principle.' 
 When the division came, however, the Ministry obtained a 
 majority of 23, the numbers being For the resolutions, 273 ; 
 against, 250. 
 
 King William IV. of whom Sir Robert Peel said that < The 
 reins of Government were never committed to the hands of one 
 who bore himself as a Sovereign with more affability, and yet 
 with more true dignity to one who was more compassionate for 
 the sufferings of others or to one whose nature was more utterly 
 free from all selfishness ' died on the 20th of June, 1837. A 
 general election ensued, consequent upon the accession of her 
 present Majesty. Mr. Gladstone again came forward for Newark, 
 and was returned. But a curious incident arose in connection 
 with the representation of Manchester. The Tories of that city, 
 it appears, were extremely anxious to obtain Mr. Gladstone as 
 their candidate, and endeavoured to wean his political affections 
 from the Nottinghamshire borough. t This must obviously have 
 appeared a very senseless scheme to the cooler men of the party,' 
 said the Manchester Guardian, writing shortly before the 
 election ; * but nothing else presented itself, and they therefore 
 packed off three gentlemen as a deputation on the hopeful 
 errand of inviting Mr. Gladstone. When they met with that 
 gentleman personally we have not learned ; but he did not allow 
 them to make a fool of him, and declined the invitation. There,
 
 EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 53 
 
 we believe, the matter rests at present ; but as the party have 
 raised some money, we suppose they will find some means of 
 spending it.' 
 
 This report appears to have been premature, but only 
 premature. The Tories first applied to Mr. Perceval, who 
 declined to stand. Sir II. Hardinge then recommended them to 
 apply to Mr. Gladstone, and subsequently, if he refused, to Sir 
 James Graham, whose chances of success in East Cumberland 
 were considered desperate. Mr. Gladstone was accordingly seen, 
 but he declined to give up a safe seat at Newark to encounter an 
 almost certain defeat at Manchester. The Tories, not- 
 withstanding, determined to put him in nomination, and his 
 name was placed before the electors. These proceedings were 
 unauthorised by Mr. Gladstone, who neither issued an address 
 nor appeared before the constituency. 
 
 A report, however, was speedily current at Newark to the 
 effect that he had agreed to stand for Manchester ; and in reply 
 to this, Mr. Gladstone wrote the following address to the 
 electors, dated Clinton Arms, July 22nd, 1837 : 'My attention 
 has just been called to a paragraph in the Nottingham, and 
 Newark Mercury of this morning, which announces, on the 
 authority of some person unknown, that I have consented to be 
 put in nomination for Manchester, and have promised, if elected, 
 to sit in Parliament as its representative. I have to inform you 
 that these statements are wholly without foundation. I was 
 honoured on Wednesday with a deputation from Manchester, 
 empowered to request that I would become a candidate for the 
 borough. I felt the honour, but I answered unequivocally, and 
 at once, that I must absolutely decline the invitation ; and I am 
 much at a loss to conceive how " a most respectable corres- 
 pondent " could have cited language which I never used, from 
 a letter which I never wrote. Lastly, I beg to state in terms as 
 explicit as I can command, that I hold myself bound in honour 
 to the electors of Newark, that I adhere in every particular to 
 the tenor of my late address, and that I place my humble 
 services during the ensuing Parliament entirely and uncondi- 
 tionally at their disposal.' 
 
 The other candidates in the Manchester election wert- 
 Mr. Mark Phillips and the Eight Hon. C. Poulett Thomson. 
 Reports continued to be rife respecting Mr. Gladstone, and 
 it was said that he had promised to produce 500 towards 
 the election expenses, if returned. His name was taken to the 
 poll contrary to his wishes, and at the nomination he was 
 proposed by Mr. Denison, and seconded by Mr. Gardner. The 
 former enlarged upon Mr. Gladstone's extraordinary talents, and
 
 54 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 his determination to maintain, firm and indissoluble, the union 
 between Church and State. The show of hands being against 
 the Tory candidate, a poll was demanded on his behalf, 
 which closed as follows : Thomson, 4,155 ; Phillips, 3,760 ; 
 Gladstone, 2,294. The numbers polled for Gladstone were 
 certainly most surprising, considering that he had discoun- 
 tenanced the nomination, that he was never upon the scene, and 
 that the Tories were deprived of the advantage of his great 
 eloquence. The Liberals themselves were astonished at the 
 strength of the Tory vote, alleging (by way of explanation) that 
 their opponents had been most energetic, and had supplied 
 dinners and liquor to about three hundred voters, which had the 
 effect of altering their political principles ! The Conservatives, 
 after the election, gave a dinner to their candidate, at the Bush 
 Inn, Manchester. 
 
 In responding to the toast of his health, Mr. Gladstone 
 expressed his regret that they should have fought such a 
 contest with so mean a name as his, and that they had the 
 further disadvantage of attacks made on the cause in his 
 absence. ' I have been told,' he said, ' that certain parties in 
 Manchester were pleased to send over to Newark a Eadical can- 
 didate to oppose me. I believe Manchester receives annually 
 from Newark a great deal of useful commodities in the shape of 
 malt and flour ; and I suppose it was upon the principle of a 
 balance of trade that this Eadical candidate was sent. If, 
 instead of sending back this Kadical candidate, they had sent 
 back one of their sacks of flour, they would have sent back what 
 was nearly as intelligent, and much more useful.' This sally 
 provoked much laughter. When the speaker resumed, he 
 congratulated the Conservatives -of Manchester on the energy 
 which they had manifested, and on their exhibition of a strength 
 which was the nucleus of future success. 
 
 The new Parliament assembled on the 20th of October, the 
 young Queen attending in person to open the business of the 
 session. Little progress, however, was made towards the settle- 
 ment of important public questions before the two Houses were 
 prorogued until the 16th of January. 
 
 In the year 1838, the troubles of Canada were still uppermost 
 
 in the public mind. Lord John Kussell introduced a proposal, 
 
 in the House of Commons, for a bill to suspend for a certain 
 
 time the existing constitution of Lower Canada, and moved at 
 
 the same time an address to the Throne pledging the House to 
 
 1 assist her Majesty in restoring tranquility to her Canadian 
 
 ( dominions. Mr. Roebuck was subsequently heard at the bar of 
 
 the House, on behalf of the Assembly of Lower Canada after a
 
 EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 55 
 
 previous protest by Mr. Gladstone against any acknowledgment 
 by the House of Mr. Eoebuck as agent of the Assembly. On the 
 motion for committing the Government bill, Mr. Hume moved 
 its rejection. A long and very lively debate ensued, in the 
 course of which Mr. Gladstone reviewed the order of events 
 which had led to the existing disasters. He believed that the 
 repeal of the Act of 1831 which made over the duties of 1774 
 to the Assembly would have prevented the late occurrences. 
 He next examined Lord Gosford's correspondence, and pointed 
 out therein the most glaring contradictions. He concluded his 
 speech by a series of very severe strictures on the incapacity and 
 folly displayed by Lord Gosford and the Colonial Office. The 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer endeavoured to answer the member 
 for Newark, but Sir Kobert Peel pronounced his attempt 
 a miserable failure. The House, however, decided upon going 
 into committee on the Government bill by an immense majority. 
 In this same year, 1838, there was another strong revival of 
 the anti-Slavery agitation. Whether the reports which reached 
 this country concerning the evils of negro apprenticeship were 
 altogether accurate and trustworthy it does not fall within our 
 province to inquire. Suffice it to state, that Lord Brougham, 
 Dr. Lushington, and other eminent anti-slavery advocates, 
 accepting and believing these reports, forthwith, and naturally, 
 acted upon them. By the Emancipation Act slavery had been 
 abolished from the year 1834, but negro apprenticeship was not 
 to terminate until 1840. Basing his justification on the 
 alleged oppression exercised upon the negroes, Lord Brougham 
 introduced the subject of slavery in the House of Lords, and 
 moved the immediate abolition of negro apprenticeship. His 
 lordship cited many harrowing 'details of the cruelties practised, 
 and said it could not be denied that attempts had been made to 
 perpetuate slavery in a new form. The motion was unsuccessful. 
 On the 29th of March Sir George Strickland proposed a similar 
 resolution in the House of Commons. On the second day of the 
 debate, Mr. Gladstone delivered a long and powerful speech, but 
 on the side opposed to that of immediate abolition. This 
 address, extending to thirty-three columns in the official reports, 
 is printed from a corrected edition published by Hatchard. The 
 importance thus attached to the speech was admitted further by 
 the press, in whose columns it was very fully discussed. Mr. 
 Gladstone began by saying that when the Abolition Act of 1833 
 was brought forward, those who were connected with West Indian 
 property joined in the passing of that measure: ' We professed 
 a belief that the state of slavery was an evil and a demoralising 
 state, and desired to be relieved from it ; we accepted a price in
 
 56 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 composition for the loss which was expected to accrue ; and if, 
 after these professions and that acceptance, we have endeavoured 
 to prolong its existence and its abuses under another appellation, 
 no language can adequately characterize our baseness, and either 
 everlasting ignominy must be upon us, or you are not justified 
 in carrying this motion.' But he utterly and confidently denied 
 the charge, as it affected the mass of the planters and as it 
 affected the mass of the apprentices. By the facts to be 
 adduced he would stand or fall. ' Oh, Sir,' he continued, ' with 
 what depth of desire have I longed for this day ! Sore, and 
 wearied, and irritated, perhaps, with the grossly exaggerated 
 misrepresentations, and with the utter calumnies that have been 
 in circulation without the means of reply, how do I rejoice to 
 meet them in free discussion before the face of the British 
 Parliament ! and I earnestly wish that I may be enabled to 
 avoid all language and sentiments similar to those I have 
 reprobated in others.' He then proceeded to show that the 
 character of the planters was at stake. . They were attacked 
 both on moral and pecuniary grounds. The apprenticeship as 
 Lord Stanley distinctly stated when he introduced the measure 
 was a part of the compensation. Negro labour had a 
 marketable value, and it would be unjust to those who had the 
 right in it to deprive them of it. Besides, the House had 
 assented to this right as far as the year 1840, and was morally 
 bound to fulfil its compact. The committee presided over by 
 Mr. Buxton had reported against the necessity for this change. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, with great fulness of detail, next examined the 
 relations between the planters and the negroes, and with regard 
 to the cases of alleged cruelty, he showed that they had been 
 constantly and enormously on the decrease since the period of 
 abolition. He strongly deprecated all such appeals as were 
 made to individual instances and exaggerated representations, 
 and endeavoured, by elaborate statistics, to prove that the abuses 
 were far from being general. The use of the lash, as a stimulus 
 to labour, had died a natural death in British Guiana. During 
 the preceding five months only eleven corporal punishments had 
 been inflicted in a population of seven thousand persons, 
 yielding an average of seven hundred lashes by the year, and 
 these not for neglect of work, but for theft. Towards the close 
 of his speech, Mr. Gladstone thus effectively turned the tables, 
 in one sense, upon his opponents by a tu quoque argument. 
 'Have you, who are so exasperated with the West Indian 
 apprenticeship that you will not wait two years for its natural 
 expiration, have you inquired what responsibility lies upon 
 every one of you, at the moment when I speak, with reference
 
 EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 57 
 
 to the cultivation of cotton in America ? In that country there 
 are near three millions of slaves. You hear not from that land 
 of the abolition not even of the mitigation of slavery. It is 
 a domestic institution, and is to pass without limit, we are told, 
 from age to age ; and we, much more than they, are responsible 
 for this enormous growth of what purports to be an eternal 
 slavery. . . . You consumed forty-five millions of pounds 
 of cotton in 1837, which proceeded from free labour ; and, 
 proceeding from slave labour, three hundred and eighteen 
 millions of pounds ! And this while the vast regions of India 
 afford the means of obtaining at a cheaper rate, and by a slight 
 original outlay to facilitate transport, all that you can require. 
 If, Sir, the complaints against the general body of the West 
 Indians had been substantiated, I should have deemed it an 
 unworthy artifice to attempt diverting the attention of the 
 House from the question immediately at issue, by merely 
 proving that other delinquencies existed in other quarters ; but 
 feeling as I do that those charges have been overthrown in 
 debate, I think myself entitled and bound to show how 
 capricious are hon. gentlemen in the distribution of their 
 sympathies among those different objects which call for their 
 application.' The speaker concluded by asking for justice 
 alone, and demanded that the Legislature should not be deaf to 
 that call. With the influence of this vigorous defence of the 
 planters upon it, the House went to a division. Sir George 
 Strickland's motion was lost, the numbers being Ayes, 215; 
 Noes, 269 majority, 54. The Times newspaper, on the 
 following day, admitted the force of Mr. Gladstone's speech, 
 which, from an oratorical point of view, was completely 
 successful. It also disposed of many allegations that had been 
 made against the planters, although it did not remove the 
 grounds upon which the anti-Slavery agitation was based, and by 
 which evils it was justified. There were complaints of oppression 
 and exaction which could not be denied, and the House of 
 Assembly in Jamaica had by no means shown its readiness to 
 fulfil that portion of the compact of 1833-4 which devolved 
 upon it, and by which there had been secured to the West 
 Indian proprietors a sum of twenty millions sterling, with an 
 allowance of six years' apprenticeship. 
 
 This speech by Mr. Gladstone on negro apprenticeship, 
 though delivered on the unpopular side of the question, 
 confessedly brought him into the front rank of Parliamentary 
 debaters. Detailed in its facts and fervid in appeal, it was alike 
 successful as an example of strong and vigorous argument, and 
 as an oratorical display. It will be interesting in this place to
 
 5& WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 turn for a moment to a personal sketch of the hon. gentleman, 
 written by one who had ample opportunities for observing him, 
 as he appeared in Parliament during the very session in which 
 the above speech was delivered. * Mr. Gladstone, the member 
 for Newark,' says this writer,* 4 is one of the most rising young 
 men on the Tory side of the House. His party expect great 
 things from him ; and certainly, when it is remembered that his 
 age is only thirty-nve,f the success of the Parliamentary efforts 
 he has already made justifies their expectations. He is well 
 informed on most of the subjects which usually occupy the 
 attention of the Legislature ; and he is happy in turning his 
 information to good account. He is ready on all occasions which 
 he deems fitting ones with a speech in favour of the policy 
 advocated by the party with whom he acts. His extempore 
 resources are ample. Few men in the House can improvise 
 better. It does not appear to cost him an effort to speak.' But 
 by way of showing how dangerous it is to assume the rdle of 
 political prophet, here is a passage from the same pen, which is 
 both somewhat diverting and rather contradictory in spirit to 
 that which has gone before : 4 He is a man of very considerable 
 talent, but has nothing approaching to genius. His abilities are 
 much more the result of an excellent education and of mature 
 study than of any prodigality of nature in the distribution of 
 her mental gifts. / have no idea that he will ever acquire the 
 reputation of a great statesman. His views are not suffi- 
 ciently prof ound or enlarged for that; his celebrity in the 
 House of Commons will chiefly depend on his readiness and 
 dexterity as a debater, in conjunction with the excellence of 
 his elocution, and the gracefulness of his manner when 
 speaking? What remains to be said now, with regard to the 
 words we have placed in italics, and bearing in mind Mr. 
 Gladstone's financial policy, and his Irish and other legislation ? 
 Yet be it remembered that it is the destiny of many critics to 
 propound their theories, and afterwards to retract them, or live 
 to find them falsified. On the question of Mr. Gladstone's style 
 the same author remarks : ' His style is polished, but has no 
 appearance of the effect of previous preparation. He displays 
 considerable acuteness in replying to an opponent ; he is quick 
 in his perception of anything vulnerable in the speech 
 to which he replies, and happy in laying the weak point bare to 
 the gaze of the House. He now and then indulges in sarcasm, 
 which is, in most cases, very felicitous. He is plausible even 
 
 * The British Senate in 1838. By the Author of The Great Metropolis, &c. 
 t Another mistake in Mr. Gladstone's age. He was only twenty-nine at this 
 lime.
 
 EAELY SPEECHE/J IN PARLIAMENT. 59 
 
 when most in error. When it suits himself or his party, he can 
 apply himself with the strictest closeness to the real point at 
 issue ; when to evade the point is deemed most politic, no man 
 can wander from it more widely.' Mr. Gladstone's talent for 
 amplification has doubtless led the writer in this last phrase to 
 do him an injustice. That which seemed to him an evasion of 
 the question was possibly capable of another explanation, and 
 certainly that which is merely a politic course of action has never 
 been allowed to sway Mr. Gladstone throughout his long public 
 life. He has frequently acted upon impulse the irresistible 
 impulse of his own convictions. Whether these impulses 
 generous and sincere as they have ever been have invariably 
 also been in accord with true political and social progress is a 
 question which has always divided, and will probably continue to 
 divide, public opinion in this country. 
 
 Before leaving this part of our subject, we will append, from 
 the writer whose sketches we have just drawn upon, the follow- 
 ing personal details respecting Mr. Gladstone and his oratory at 
 this early stage of his Parliamentary career : 
 
 ' Mr. Gladstone's appearance and manners are much in his favour. He is a fine 
 looking man. He is about the usual height, and of good figure. His countenance 
 is mild and pleasant, and has a highly intellectual expression. His eyes are clear 
 and quick. His eyebrows are dark and rather prominent. There is not a dandy 
 in the House but envies what Truefit would call his " fine head of jet-black hair." 
 It is always carefully parted from the crown downwards to his brow, where it is 
 tastefully shaded. His features are small (?) and regular, and his complexion must 
 be a very unworthy witness if he does not possess an abundant stock of health. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's gesture is varied, but not violent. When he rises he generally 
 puts both his hands behind his back ; and having there suffered them to embrace- 
 each other for a short time, he unclasps them, and allows them to drop on either 
 side. They are not permitted to remain long in that locality before you see them 
 again closed together and hanging down before him. Their re-union is not suffered 
 to last for any length of time. Again a separation takes place, and now the right 
 Land is seen moving up and down before him. Having thus exercised it a little, 
 he thrusts it into the pocket of his coat, and then orders the left hand to follow its 
 example. Having granted them a momentary repose there, they are again put into 
 gentle motion ; and in a few seconds they are seen reposing vis-a-vis on his breast- 
 He moves his face and body from one direction to another, tiot forgetting to bestow 
 a liberal share of his attention on his own party. He is always listened to with much 
 attention by the House, and appears to be highly respected by men of all parties. 
 He is a man of good business habits ; of this he furnished abundant proof when 
 ITnder-Secretary for the Colonies, during the short-lived administration of Sir 
 Eobert Peel.' 
 
 In the year 1839 Mr. Gladstone upon two occasions addressed 
 the House on a topic collateral with that of slavery. He strongly 
 opposed the Jamaica Government Bill, for the suspension of the 
 Constitution, introduced by Sir S. Lushington, characterizing it 
 as inconsistent and inexpedient, inasmuch as it would perpetuate 
 the disunion which existed between the different classes of the 
 community. He asserted that it would undermine the confidence
 
 60 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 of our colonial fellow-subjects throughout the whole circle of our 
 colonial possessions. 
 
 The question of National Education being introduced by 
 Ministers in the House of Commons, on the 14th of June, 1839, 
 Lord Stanley delivered a powerful speech against the proposals 
 of the Government, and concluded by moving an amendment to 
 the effect, ' That an address be presented to her Majesty to 
 rescind the order in council for constituting the proposed Board 
 of Privy Council.' Lord Morpeth defended the Government 
 proposition. While his lordship held his own views respecting 
 the doctrines of the Koman Catholics, and also respecting the 
 Unitarian tenets, he maintained that as long as the State 
 thought proper to employ Roman Catholic sinews, and to finger 
 Unitarian gold, it could not refuse to extend to those by whom 
 it so profited the blessings of education. After speeches by 
 Lord Ashley, Mr. Buller, Mr. O'Connell, and others in the 
 course of which allusions were made to Mr. Gladstone's work on 
 Church and State the member for Newark addressed the 
 House. He would not flinch, he said, from a word he had 
 uttered or written upon religious topics ; he claimed the 
 privilege of contrasting his principles and trying their results in 
 comparison with those professed by Lord John Russell, and ol 
 ascertaining the effects of both upon the institutions of the 
 country, so far as they operated upon the Established Church in 
 England, Scotland, and in Ireland. Turning upon Mr. 
 O'Connell, who had expressed a great fondness for statistics, 
 Mr. Gladstone said the use he had made of them reminded him 
 of an observation of Mr. Canning's. ' He had a great aversion 
 to hear of a fact in debate, but what he most distrusted was a 
 figure.' He then went on to prove the inaccuracy of the hon. 
 member's figures. Replying to Lord Morpeth's declaration 
 concerning the duty of the State to provide education for 
 Dissenters so long as it fingered their gold, Mr. Gladstone said 
 that if the State was to be regarded as having no other function 
 than that of representing the mere will of the people as to 
 religious tenets, he admitted the truth of his principle, but not 
 if they were to hold that the State was capable of duties, and 
 that the State could have a conscience. It was not his habit to 
 revile religion in any form, but he demanded what ground there 
 was for confining the noble lord's reasoning to Christianity. 
 Referring to the position held by the Jews upon this Education 
 question, he read to the House a passage from a recent petition 
 as follows : l That your petitioners feel the deepest gratitude 
 for the expression of her Majesty's most gracious wish that the 
 youth of this country should be religiously brought up, and the
 
 EARLY SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 61 
 
 rights of conscience respected, while they earnestly hope that 
 the education of the people, Jewish and Christian, will be 
 sedulously connected with a due regard to the Holy Scriptures.' 
 Mr. Gladstone asked how was the education of the Jewish 
 people, who considered the New Testament an imposture, to be 
 sedulously connected with a due regard to the Holy Scriptures, 
 which consisted of the Old and the New Testament ? To oblige 
 the Jewish children to read the latter would be directly contrary 
 to the principles of hon. gentlemen opposite. He would have 
 no child forced to do so, but he protested against paying from 
 the money of the State a set of men whose business would be to 
 inculcate erroneous doctrines. At the conclusion of the debate 
 the Government carried their motion by a very small majority. 
 Two years later Mr. Gladstone again spoke on the unpopular 
 side, when he opposed the Jews Civil Disabilities Kemoval Bill. 
 He was on this occasion answered by Mr. (afterwards Lord) 
 Macaulay in a speech of great point and force. The Bill was 
 carried in the Commons, but lost in the Lords. 
 
 In the session of 1840 an important debate on the war with 
 China was originated by Sir James Graham, who moved the 
 following resolution : ' That it appears to this House, on 
 consideration of the papers relating to China, presented by 
 command of her Majesty, that the interruption in our com- 
 mercial and friendly intercourse with that country, and the 
 hostilities which have since taken place, are mainly to be 
 attributed to the want of foresight and precaution on the part of 
 her Majesty's present advisers, in respect to our relations with 
 China, and especially to their neglect to furnish the superinten- 
 dent at Canton with powers and instructions calculated to 
 provide against the growing evils connected with the contraband 
 traffic in opium, and adapted to the novel and difficult 
 situation in which the superintendent was placed.' On the 
 8th of April, Mr. Gladstone spoke strongly in favour of 
 the motion of his friend, Sir J. Graham. If it failed to 
 involve the Ministry in condemnation, they would still be called 
 upon to show cause for their intention of making war upon 
 China. Answering the speech of Mr. Macaulay of the previous 
 evening, Mr. Gladstone said, ' The right hon. gentleman opposite 
 spoke last night in eloquent terms of the British flag waving in 
 glory at Canton, and of the animating effects produced on the 
 minds of our sailors by the knowledge that in no country under 
 heaven was it permitted to be insulted. But how comes it to 
 pass that the sight of that flag always raises the spirit of 
 Englishmen ? It is because it has always been associated with 
 the cause of justice, with opposition to oppression, wit] i respect to
 
 62 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 national rights, with honourable commercial enterprise ; but 
 now, under the auspices of the noble lord, that flag is hoisted to 
 protect an infamous contraband traffic, and if it were never to 
 be hoisted except as it is now hoisted on the coast of China, we 
 should recoil from its sight with horror, and should never again 
 feel our hearts thrill, as they now thrill with emotion, when it 
 floats proudly and magnificently on the breeze.' Notwithstand- 
 ing the eloquence arrayed against them, Ministers obtained a 
 bare majority upon the proposed vote of censure, the numbers 
 being For Sir J. Graham's motion, 262 ; against, 271. 
 
 The Whig Government, however, which for some time back had 
 been growing very unpopular, was doomed to fall in the following 
 year. Many causes had combined to render the Ministry 
 obnoxious to the country. They had disappointed both their 
 English Dissenting supporters and their Irish allies ; and when 
 the session of 1841 opened, their overthrow was felt to be 
 imminent. In financial matters, their policy had proved 
 a complete failure, and had grievously disappointed the 
 nation. The deficit in the revenue this year amounted to 
 no less a sum than two millions and a half. On all sides 
 it was felt that the government of the country must be com- 
 mitted to stronger hands. Accordingly, on the 27th of May, 
 Sir Kobert Peel proposed in the Lower House a resolution to the 
 effect that her Majesty's Government did not sufficiently possess 
 the confidence of the House of Commons to enable them to carry 
 through the House measures which they deemed of essential 
 importance to the public welfare ; and that their continuance in 
 office under such circumstances was at variance with the spirit 
 of the Constitution. Mr. Gladstone did not speak in this 
 debate, which extended over five nights. On a division 
 Ministers were in a minority of one. For Sir Kobert Peel's 
 motion there appeared 312 ; against, 311. On the 7th of June, 
 Lord John Russell announced that the Ministry would at once 
 dissolve Parliament, and appeal to the country. Parliament 
 was accordingly prorogued on the 22nd, and the country was 
 speedily in the turmoil of a general election. The results of the 
 new elections were known by the end of July, when it was found 
 that Ministers had been defeated, and that with greater loss than 
 even the Tories themselves had anticipated. Of the new members 
 returned the Tories had a great majority. The Liberal seats 
 gained by the Tories were seventy-eight in number, while the 
 Tory seats gained by Liberals were only thirty-eight, thus 
 making a difference of eighty votes on a division. Lord Milton 
 and Lord Morpeth were defeated in West Yorkshire, and Lord 
 Howick in North Northumberland. Mr. Gladstone again stood
 
 JUAKLY SPEECHES IN PAELIAMENT. 63 
 
 for Newark, where he was returned at the head of the poll, with 
 33 votes. Lord John Manners became his colleague, with 
 630 votes ; Mr. Hobhouse, the Whig candidate, only polling 394 
 votes. 
 
 Parliament met on the 24th of August, and Ministers were 
 defeated in both Houses on the Address. In the House of 
 Commons, at the close of an animated discussion, the numbers 
 were For the Ministerial Address, 269; amendment, 360 
 majority against the Government, 91. Ministers now resigned 
 office, and on the 31st of the month Sir Robert Peel accepted 
 her Majesty's commands to form a Ministry. Mr. Gladstone 
 received from his leader the appointments of Vice-President of 
 the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint. In appearing on 
 the hustings at Newark, he said there were two points upon 
 which the British farmer might rely the first being that 
 adequate protection would be given to him, and the second that 
 protection would be given him through the means of the sliding 
 scale. There was no English statesman who could foresee at 
 this period the results of that extraordinary agitation which, in 
 the course of the next five years, was destined to secure the 
 abrogation of the Corn Laws. Before this consummation arrived, 
 Mr. Gladstone was to demonstrate that he not only possessed 
 the arts of a fluent and vigorous Parliamentary debater, but 
 the more solid qualities pertaining to the practical statesman 
 and the financier. 
 
 We close this division of the present work by certain 
 references to its subject of a personal and domestic nature. In 
 the month of July, 1839, Mr. Gladstone was married to a lady 
 who is almost as distinguished for her many benevolent and 
 social qualities as Mr. Gladstone is in political and public life. 
 The name of Mrs. Gladstone is widely known as that of a 
 practical philanthropist, while to Mr. Gladstone himself we 
 may, perhaps, be pardoned for saying she has ever been that 
 interested sharer in his triumphs and consoler in his defeats, 
 which the late Viscountess Beaconsfield was to his Parliamen- 
 tary rival. Mrs. Gladstone was Miss Catherine Glynne, 
 daughter of Sir Stephen Eichard Glynne, of Hawarden Castle, 
 Flintshire. Their union has been blessed by eight children, 
 all of whom, save one, still survive. Of the four sons, the eldest, 
 William Henry, is a member of the Legislature, and the second, 
 the Eev. Stephen Edward Gladstone, is rector of Hawarden. 
 The third and fourth sons are named Henry Neville and 
 Herbert John Gladstone respectively. The former pursues a 
 commercial career. Mr. Gladstone's eldest daughter, Anne, is 
 married to the Rev. E. C. Wickham, M.A., head-master of
 
 64 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Wellington College ; the second daughter, Miss Catherine Jessy 
 Gladstone, died in 1850. Two other daughters still survive in 
 addition to Mrs. Wickham, viz., the Misses Mary and Helen 
 Gladstone. As Sir John Gladstone had the pleasure of seeing 
 his son William Ewart become a distinguished member of the 
 British Senate, so Mr. Gladstone in his turn was able to 
 witness his eldest son take his seat in the House of Commons. 
 Mrs. Gladstone's sister, Miss Mary Glynne, became the wife of 
 Lord Lyttelton, with whom Mr. Gladstone was on terms of the 
 most intimate friendship until his lordship's untoward and 
 lamented death.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE ON CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's Position in the Controversy His Work on The State in its Relations 
 vrith the Church Plan and Analysis of the Treatise A Defence of the Irish Church 
 Reasons for a Church Establishment Macaulay's Criticism upon the Work 
 Its Defects Article in the Quarterly Review Tribute to the Author's Style Church 
 Principles considered in their Results Why the Work was undertaken Its Scope 
 and Objects A Chapter of Autobiography Causes of its Appearance The 
 Author's frank Acknowledgment of a New Departure Why the Irish Establish- 
 ment could not be maintained Mr. Gladstone's Changes of Opinion variously 
 regarded. 
 
 WE shall now endeavour briefly to indicate Mr. Gladstone's 
 position in the controversy on Church and State. To the 
 perception that the status of the Church, in its connection 
 with the secular power, was about to undergo the severe assaults 
 of the opponents of the Union, was due his first published work, 
 The State in its Relations with the Church. Preparations were 
 already being made for attacking the national establishment of 
 religion ; and with all the fervour springing from conviction and 
 a deep- seated enthusiasm, the member for Newark came forward 
 to break- a lance in its defence. To the ability with which 
 he did this, even his opponents have testified. Macaulay, 
 in his well-known searching criticism, said, 'We believe 
 we do him no more than justice when we say that his 
 abilities and demeanour have obtained for him the respect and 
 good-will of all parties.' Again, * That a young politician should, 
 in the intervals afforded by his Parliamentary avocations, have 
 constructed and propounded, with much study and mental toil, 
 an original theory on a great problem in politics, is a circum- 
 stance which, abstracted from all consideration of the soundness 
 or unsoundness of his opinions, must be considered as highly 
 creditable to him. We certainly cannot wish that Mr. 
 Gladstone's doctrines may become fashionable among public 
 men. But we heartily wish that his laudable desire to penetrate 
 beneath the surface of questions, and to arrive, by long and 
 intent meditation, at the knowledge of great general laws, were 
 much more fashionable than we at all expect it to become/ 
 Many ' of the positions which Mr. Gladstone assumed in this 
 
 F
 
 66 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 
 
 work have since been abandoned as untenable; but making 
 allowance for the fact that these positions were readily exposed 
 to the attack of the brilliant writer in the Edinburgh Review, 
 it should still be borne in mind that Macaulay's destructive 
 criticism owes much of its force, not to its inherent logic, but to 
 its clever demonstration of the fallacies and weak illustrations of 
 the author. 
 
 The treatise is ' inscribed to the University of Oxford ; tried 
 and not found wanting through the vicissitudes of a thousand 
 years ; in the belief that she is providentially designed to be a 
 fountain of blessings, spiritual, social, and intellectual, to this 
 and to other countries, to the present and future times ; and in 
 the hope that the temper of these pages may be found not alien 
 from her own.' * Three years after the original publication a 
 fourth edition appeared, revised and considerably enlarged. In 
 his preface to this edition Mr. Gladstone gives the grounds upon 
 which he first undertook the work. In the years 1837 and 1838 
 a very powerful feeling had been aroused amongst the English 
 people in favour of the national establishment ; and as popular 
 feeling does not always discover those forms most closely allied 
 with truth, Mr. Gladstone was afraid of the contingency that 
 the affections thus called into vivid action might content 
 themselves with a theory which teaches, indeed, that the State 
 should support religion, but neither sufficiently explores the 
 grounds of that proposition nor intelligibly limits the religion 
 so to be supported; and which also seems relatively to assign 
 too great a prominence to that kind of support which taxation 
 supplies. The author anticipates that such a theory would 
 neither guarantee purity of faith nor harmony nor permanence 
 of operation. Disclaiming all pretensions to an adequate 
 development of the profound and comprehensive question he had 
 essayed to discuss, Mr. Gladstone hoped to do something to meet 
 the need indicated. As he had himself discovered grave faults 
 in abler and earlier writers upon Church and State, he did not 
 complain of the censure passed upon his own work, but set down 
 many of the important misapprehensions to which it had given 
 rise to his own account. Mr. Gladstone met the prominent 
 objection, that the doctrine of a conscience in the nation or the 
 State implied a tendency towards exclusion, or even persecution, 
 by the following general question : ' What political or relative 
 doctrine is there which does not become an absurdity when 
 
 * An interesting copy of the first edition of this work, containing copious notes 
 by his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, will be found in the British Museum. 
 The Duke appears from these notes to have been not only a diligent reader, but 
 an interested critic.
 
 ME. GLADSTONE ON CHUECH AND STATE. 67 
 
 pushed to its extremes ? The taxing powers of the State, the 
 prerogatives of the Crown to dissolve Parliaments and to create 
 peers, the right of the House of Commons to withhold supplies, 
 the right of the subject, not to civil franchises only, but even to 
 security of person and property, all these, the plain uncon- 
 tested rules of our Constitution, become severally monstrous and 
 intolerable when they are regarded in a partial and exclusive 
 aspect.' The opponents of Mr. Gladstone's theories of course 
 unswered that the taxation of the State is equal upon all 
 persons, and has for its object their individual, social, and 
 political welfare and safety ; but that the taxation of one man 
 for the support of his neighbour's religion does not come within 
 the limits of such taxation, and is, in fact, unjust and 
 inequitable. 
 
 It appeared to the author that in an age which leant towards 
 a rigidly ecclesiastical organisation of the State, it was wise and 
 laudable to plead warmly for the rights of the individual 
 conscience ; but in an age which seemed inclined to 
 secularise the State, and ultimately to curtail or overthrow 
 civil liberty by the subtraction of its religious guarantees, 
 to declaim against intolerance became a secondary duty, and it 
 was infinitely more important and more rational to plead 
 earnestly for those great ethical laws under which we are socially 
 constituted, and which economical speculations and material 
 interests had threatened altogether to subvert. While 
 acknowledging still the defects of his work as a treatise upon a 
 portion of political science, he objected to the dictum that no 
 man should write upon a subject of political science until he 
 was so completely master of it as to give it vice simplici a 
 perfect development. He added that the spirit and intention 
 of the book, as well as his view of the principles upon which 
 its whole argument was constructed, remained altogether 
 unchanged. 
 
 In his introductory chapter, Mr. Gladstone states his special 
 reasons for entertaining the subject, and briefly touches upon 
 the theories of Hooker, Warburton, Paley, Burke, Coleridge, 
 Chalmers, Hobbes, Bellarmine, and others. He quotes the 
 Puritan historian Neal to show that a State may give sufficient 
 encouragement to a national religion without invading the 
 liberties of dissidents. The writer then devotes himself to an 
 examination of the theory of the connection between the 
 Church and the State, treating first of the duty of the State 
 in respect to religion, and, secondly, of the inducements of 
 the State in respect to religion. The third aspect of the 
 question dealt with is the ability of the State in respect to 
 
 F2
 
 68 fifltilAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 religion. Next %$ tyfrVft,- an elaborate argument on the 
 function of the Stato in 'the choice and the defence of the 
 national religion, followed by an examination of the subsisting 
 connection between the State of the United Kingdom and the 
 Church of England and Ireland. The seventh chapter of the 
 work is concerned with the Keformation as relating to the 
 doctrine and practice of private judgment ; the eighth deals 
 with the doctrine and practice of private judgment as it is 
 related to the Union between Church and State; the ninth 
 furnishes details of the present administrative practice of the 
 State of the United Kingdom ; and the tenth and concluding 
 chapter shows the ulterior tendencies of the movement towards 
 the dissolution of the connection. 
 
 From the opening chapter of the second volume of this 
 treatise a chapter treating of the then subsisting connection 
 between the State of the United Kingdom and the Church of 
 England and Ireland we will quote a passage giving Mr. 
 Gladstone's view at this period of his life upon the relations of 
 the Church as affecting Ireland in particular. This passage not 
 only atfords a favourable specimen of the author's style, but it 
 will serve as a landmark, indicating the changes that have 
 taken place in his mind since the time when he thus eloquently 
 expounded principles that have long ago in part been modified, 
 and in part abandoned : 
 
 ' The Protestant legislature of the British Empire maintains in the possession of 
 the Church property of Ireland the ministers of a creed professed, according to the 
 parliamentary enumeration of 1835, by one-ninth of its population, regarded with 
 partial favour by scarcely another ninth, and disowned by the remaining seven. 
 And not only does this anomaly meet us full in view, but we have also to consider 
 and digest the fact, that the maintenance of this Church for near three centuries 
 in Ireland has been contemporaneous with a system of partial and abusive govern- 
 ment, varying in degree of culpability, but rarely, until of later years when we 
 have been forced to look at the subject and to feel it, to be exempted in common 
 fairness from the reproach of gross inattention (to say the very least) to the 
 interests of a noble but neglected people. 
 
 But however formidable at first sight these admissions, which I have no desire to 
 narrow or to qualify, may appear, they in no way shake the foregoing arguments. 
 They do not change" the nature of truth and her capability and destiny to benefit 
 mankind. They do not relieve Government of its responsibility, if they show that 
 that responsibility was once unfelt and unsatisfied. They place the legislature of 
 this country in the condition, as it were, of one called to do penance for past 
 offences ; but duty remains unaltered and imperative, and abates nothing of her 
 demand on our services. It is undoubtedly competent, in a constitutional view, 
 to the Government of this country, to continue the present disposition of Church 
 property in Ireland. It appears not too much to assume that our imperial legisla- 
 ture has been qualified to take, and has taken in point of fact, a sounder view 
 of religious truth than the majority of the people of Ireland, in their destitute and 
 uninstructed state. We believe, accordingly, that that which we place before 
 them is, whether they know it or not, calculated to be beneficial to them ; and 
 that if they know it not now, they will know it when it is presented to them 
 fairly. Shall we, then, purchase their applause at the expense of their substantial, 
 nay, their spiritual interests ? 
 
 It does, indeed, so happen that there are also powerful motives on the other
 
 ME. GLADSTONE ON CHURCH AND STATE. 09 
 
 side concurring with that which has here been represented as paramount. In the 
 first instance we are not called upon to establish a creed, but only to maintain an 
 existing legal settlement where our constitutional right is undoubted. In the 
 second, political considerations tend strongly to recommend that maintenance. A 
 common form of faith binds the Irish Protestants to ourselves, while they, upon 
 the other hand, are fast linked to Ireland ; and thus they supply the most natural 
 bond of connection between the countries. But if England, by overthrowing their 
 Church, should weaken their moral position, they would be no longer able, perhaps 
 no longer willing, to counteract the desires of the majority tending, under the 
 direction of their leaders (however, by a wise policy, revocable from that fatal 
 course), to what is termed national independence. Pride and fear, on the one 
 hand, are therefore bearing up against more immediate apprehension and difficulty 
 on the other. And with some men these may be the fundamental considerations ; 
 but it may be doubted whether such men will not flinch in some stage of the 
 contest, should its aspect at any moment become unfavourable.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone thus summarises his chief reasons for the 
 maintenance of the Church Establishment : ' Because the 
 Government stands with us in a paternal relation to the people, 
 and is bound in all things to consider not merely their existing 
 tastes, but the capabilities and ways of their improvement ; 
 because it has both an intrinsic competency and external means 
 to amend and assist their choice ; because to be in accordance 
 with God's mind and will it must have a religion, and because 
 to be in accordance with its conscience that religion must be 
 the truth, as held by it under the most solemn and accumulated 
 responsibilities; because this is the only sanctifying and 
 preserving principle of society, as well as to the individual that 
 particular benefit without which all others are worse than 
 valueless ; we must disregard the din of political contention, and 
 the pressure of worldly and momentary motives, and in behalf 
 of our regard to man, as well as of our allegiance to God, 
 maintain among ourselves, where happily it still exists, the 
 union between the Church and the State.' 
 
 Macaulay observed that Mr. Gladstone's whole theory in this 
 work rested upon one great fundamental proposition, viz., that 
 the propagation of religious truth is one of the chief ends of 
 government, as government ; and he proceeded to combat this 
 theory. Admitting that government was designed to protect 
 our persons and our property, the critic declined to receive the 
 doctrine of paternal government, until some such government 
 should be shown as loved its subjects as a father loves his child, 
 and was as superior in intelligence to its subjects as a father 
 was to his child. Macaulay then demonstrated, by happy 
 illustrations, the fallacy of the doctrine that every association of 
 human beings which exercises any power whatever is bound, 
 as such an association, to profess a religion. Further, there 
 could be unity of action in large bodies without unity of 
 religious views. Persecutions would naturally follow, or be 
 justifiable, in a society where Mr. Gladstone's views were
 
 70 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 paramount. No circumstances could be conceived in which it 
 tfould be proper to establish, as the one exclusive religion of 
 the State, the religion of the minority. The religious instruc- 
 tion which the ruler ought, in his public capacity, to patronise, 
 is the instruction from which he, in his conscience, believes 
 that the people will learn the most good with the smallest 
 mixture of evil. It is not necessarily his own religion that he 
 will select. He may prefer the doctrines of the Church of 
 England to those of the Church of Scotland, but he would not 
 force the former upon the inhabitants of Scotland. These were 
 the objections raised by Macaulay, though he goes on to state the 
 conditions under which an established Church might be retained 
 with advantage. There are many institutions which, being set 
 up, ought not to be rudely pulled down. 
 
 In addition to the adverse comments it elicited from eminent 
 Dissenters, the dissertation was dealt with by the Quarterly 
 Review from yet another stand-point. Here, the writer 
 remarked that as a necessary consequence of a profounder 
 philosophy than that of Coleridge and similar thinkers, 
 Mr. Gladstone had taken far higher grounds in his argument 
 than had been occupied by the defenders of the Church 
 for many years. ' He has seen through the weakness and 
 fallacy of the line of reasoning pursued by Warburton and 
 Paley. And he has most wisely abandoned the argument 
 from expediency, which offers little more than an easy weapon 
 to fence with, while no real danger is apprehended ; and has 
 insisted chiefly on the claims of duty and truth the only 
 consideration which can animate and support men in a real 
 struggle against false principles.' The reviewer, nevertheless, 
 manifested considerable divergence from some of Mr. Gladstone's 
 theories, and he observed that a popular Government cannot long- 
 maintain a religion which is opposed to the feelings of the 
 nation. If the people of this country combined to attack the 
 Church, the King. Lords, and Commons would be compelled to 
 abandon it. Mr. Gladstone supported this view when, thirty 
 years later, he disestablished the Irish Church. The Quarterly 
 reviewer proceeded to argue that morality in a State cannot be 
 established without religion, that religion should be the object of 
 Government, and that to preserve the Church with the State, the 
 great body of the nation must be brought back to it. 
 
 Commenting upon the style in which Mr. Gladstone's first 
 work was written, the same writer eulogised its singular vigour, 
 depth of thought, and eloquence. Mr. Gladstone ' is evidently 
 not an ordinary character ; though it is to be hoped that many 
 others are now forming themselves in the same school with him.
 
 MR. GLADSTONE ON CHUECH AND STATE. 71 
 
 to act hereafter upon the same principles. And the highest 
 compliment which we can pay him is to show that we believe 
 him to be what a statesman and philosopher should be 
 indifferent to his own reputation for talents, and only anxious 
 for truth and right.' Lord Macaulay observed upon the same 
 question of style, ' Mr. Gladstone seems to us to be, in many 
 respects, exceedingly well qualified for philosophical investigation. 
 His mind is of large grasp ; nor is he deficient in dialectical 
 skill. But he does not give his intellect fair play. There is no 
 want of light, but a great want of what Bacon would have called 
 dry light. Whatever Mr. Gladstone sees is refracted and dis- 
 torted by a false medium of passions and prejudices. His style 
 bears a remarkable analogy to his mode of thinking, and indeed 
 exercises great influence on his mode of thinking. His rhetoric, 
 though often good of its kind, darkens and perplexes the logic 
 which it should illustrate. Half his acuteness and diligence, with 
 a barren imagination and a scanty vocabulary, would have saved 
 him from almost all his mistakes. He has one gift most danger- 
 ous to a speculator a vast command of a kind of language, 
 grave and majestic, but of vague and uncertain import, of a 
 kind of language which affects us much in the same way in 
 which the lofty diction of the Chorus of Clouds affected the 
 simple-hearted Athenian.' It is a dangerous and transparent 
 haze, the critic complains, like that through which the sailor 
 sees capes and mountains of false sizes, and in false bearings 
 more perilous than utter darkness. Mr. Gladstone had of 
 course the faults of rhetoric and of argument almost inseparable 
 from youth, but this vigorous denunciation of his style by Lord 
 Macaulay, accurate as it is in many respects, probably owed 
 some of its point to the critic's antipathy to his theories. As 
 regards the theories themselves, it is not within our province, 
 nor is it our purpose, to defend them. Their propounder, as we 
 shall presently see, has himself in large measure abandoned 
 them. 
 
 In 1840 Mr. Gladstone followed up his defence of the union 
 of Church and State, by the publication of another work on a 
 subject nearly related thereto, entitled Church Principles 
 Considered in their Results. This was written * beneath the 
 shades of Hagley,' and dedicated * in token of sincere affection y 
 to the author's life-long friend and relative, Lord Lyttelton. In 
 a preliminary chapter Mr. Gladstone points out that periods of 
 reaction and variation may be expected in religion, compatibly 
 with the permanence of the Faith. The Church was at that 
 moment going through a period of transition, the old forms 
 battling with the new. Indicating the course of procedure in
 
 72 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 his new treatise, he says that he shall attempt, in the first 
 instance, to present a familiar or partial representation of the 
 moral characteristics and effects of those doctrines which are 
 now perhaps more than ever felt in the English Church to be 
 full of intrinsic value, and which likewise appear to have much 
 special adaptation to the circumstances of the time. These 
 characteristics he defines more particularly to be (leaving out 
 points for the most part minor) the doctrine of the visibility of 
 the Church, of the apostolical succession in the ministry, of the 
 authority of the Church in matters of faith, of the things 
 signified in the sacraments. Having dealt with the right of 
 private judgment in his previous work, he should forbear from 
 re-opening that topic. Before coming to his real subject-matter, 
 however, Mr. Gladstone devotes a chapter to Rationalism, 
 endeavouring to define the proper work of the understanding, 
 and also indicating the limits of its province. This the writer 
 understands to be the true view of Rationalism, 4 *That 
 Rationalism is generally taken to be a reference of Christian 
 doctrine to the human understanding as its measure and 
 criterion. That, in truth, it means a reference of the Gospel 
 to the depraved standard of the actual human nature, and by no 
 means to its understanding, properly so called, which is an 
 instrumental faculty, and reasons and concludes upon the Gospel 
 according to the mode in which our affections are disposed 
 towards it. That the understanding 1 is incompetent to deter- 
 mine the state of the affections, but is, ' on the contrary, 
 governed by them in respect to the elementary ideas of religion. 
 That, therefore, to rely upon the understanding, misinformed 
 as it is by depraved affections, as our adequate instructor in 
 matters of religion, is most highly irrational. That, without any 
 prejudice to these conclusions, the understanding has a great 
 function in religion, and is a medium of access to the affections, 
 and may even correct their particular impulses.' 
 
 He then proceeds to treat of the Church, the sacraments, the 
 apostolical succession, the specific claim of the Church of England, 
 and Church principles in relation to existing circumstances. 
 With regard to the reconversion of England to Rome earnestly 
 desired by some Mr. Gladstone asks, < England, which with ill 
 grace, and ceaseless efforts at remonstrance, endured the yoke 
 when Rome was in her zenith, and when the powers of thought 
 were but here and there evoked will the same England, afraid 
 of the truth which she has vindicated, or even with the licence 
 which has mingled like a weed with its growth, recur to that 
 system in its decrepitude which she repudiated in its vigour ? ' If 
 the Church of England should be worsted, she will be worsted
 
 ME. GLADSTONE ON CHUECH AND STATE. 73 
 
 not by an undistinguishing repentance, and a precipitate self* 
 submission, a hurrying back to Eomanism, * but by that principle 
 of religious insubordination and self-dependence which, if it refuse 
 her tempered rule and succeed in its overthrow, will much more 
 surely refuse, and much more easily succeed in resisting, the 
 unequivocally arbitrary impositions of the Eoman scheme.' Here 
 we have the key-note of many of Mr. Gladstone's utterances in later 
 years upon the subject of Eome, her pretensions and aspirations. 
 Though frequently charged with drifting towards the Komish 
 Church, that Church has had in some respects no more persistent 
 and consistent opponent. In this matter, he held precisely the 
 same opinions in 1840 and 1870. It must be admitted, however, 
 coming now to another question, that the surprise evinced by 
 English Protestants was but natural, when one who took so high 
 a view of the duties and privileges of the Established Church 
 became, a generation later, an advocate for the disestablishment 
 of the Irish branch of that Church. That surprise would 
 probably have been less had not Mr. Gladstone written with such 
 eloquence and ability upon the duty of maintaining the Church 
 in Ireland as by law established, for the benefit alike of those 
 who belonged and those who did not belong to her communion. 
 Mr. Gladstone himself felt that some explanation was due of the 
 circumstances which led the author of The State in its Relations 
 ^vith the Church to become the destroyer of the State fabric of 
 the Irish Church. He accordingly published, in 1868, A 
 Chapter of Autobiography. This treatise must be read together 
 with, and by the light of, his early ecclesiastical writings. By 
 this means the great transition which must have been wrought 
 in the author's mind will not seem so strange and harsh. It should 
 be remembered, moreover, that the value of certain principles 
 may, under given circumstances, prove evanescent. They are not 
 eternally and immutably applicable. Founded upon, and deriving 
 their force from, existing conditions of society, when those 
 conditions radically change they necessarily become effete. 
 
 Some reference to Mr. Gladstone's apology for, and defence of, 
 his later conduct in connection with the Church in Ireland will 
 most fitly come in at this point. His treatise appeared with the 
 following introduction : ' At a time when the Established Church 
 of Ireland is on her trial it is not unfair that her assailants 
 should be placed upon their trial too ; most of all, if they have 
 at one time been her sanguine defenders. But if not, the matter 
 of the indictment against them, at any rate that of their defence, 
 should be kept apart, as far as they are concerned, from the 
 public controversy, that it may not darken or perplex the greater 
 issue. It is in the character of the author of a book called Tha
 
 74 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 State in its Relations with the Church that I offer these pages 
 to those who may feel a disposition to examine them. They 
 were written at the date attached to them ; but their publication 
 has been delayed until after the stress of the general election.' 
 The author's motives in putting forth this chapter of autobio- 
 graphy were two. First, there was ' the great and glaring change ' 
 in his course of action with respect to the Established Church 
 of Ireland, which was not due to the eccentricity or perversion 
 of an individual mind, but to the silent changes going on at the 
 very basis of modern society. Secondly, there was danger that 
 a great cause then in progress might suffer in point of credit, if 
 not of energy and rapidity, from the real or supposed delin- 
 quencies of the author. 
 
 After citing instances in the present century of what was 
 called political inconsistency on the part of eminent statesmen, 
 Mr. Gladstone claims that we are not at once to jump to the 
 conclusion that public character has been, as a rule, either less 
 upright or less vigorous. He then proceeds to say that the book 
 which was so brilliantly, if not quite fairly, assailed by Lord 
 Macaulay was supposed to have for its distinctive principle that 
 the State had a conscience. But the controversy really lay not 
 in the existence of a conscience in the State, so much as in the 
 extent of its range. ' The work attempted to survey the actual 
 state of the relations between the State and the Church ; to show 
 from history the ground which had been denned for the National 
 Church at the Keformation ; and to inquire and determine 
 whether the existing state of things was worth preserving and 
 defending against encroachment from whatever quarter. This 
 question it decided emphatically in the affirmative.' Lord 
 Macaulay had added to the main proposition of the work 
 another, to the effect that it contemplated not indeed persecu- 
 tion, but yet the retrogressive process of disabling and 
 disqualifying from civil office all those who did not adhere to 
 the religion of the State. Mr. Gladstone wrote to his hostile 
 critic disclaiming such a conclusion. He had never expressed 
 himself to the effect either that the Test Act should be repealed, 
 or that it should never have been passed. The author had upheld 
 the doctrine that the Church was to be maintained for its 
 truth, and that if the principle was good for England, it was 
 good also for Ireland. But he denied that he had ever pro- 
 pounded the maxim simpliciter that we were to maintain the 
 Establishment. He admitted that his opinion of the Church of 
 Ireland was the exact opposite of what it had been ; but if the 
 propositions of his work were in conflict with an assault upon the 
 existence of the Irish Establishment, they were even more hostile
 
 MR. GLADSTONE ON CHUECH AND STATE. 75 
 
 to the grounds upon which it was now sought to maintain it. 
 He did not wish to maintain the Church upon the basis usually 
 advanced, but for the benefit of the whole people of Ireland ; 
 and if it could not be maintained as the truth, it could not be 
 maintained at all. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone then admits and enlarges upon the fact that 
 while it was a duty to exhaust every chance on behalf of the 
 Irish Church, it had fallen out of harmony with the spirit and 
 use of the time. And establishments of religion must be judged 
 by a practical rather than a theoretic test. In concluding his 
 Chapter of Autobiography, the author thus puts antithetically 
 the case for and against the maintenance of the Church in Ire- 
 land : ' An establishment that does its work in much, and has 
 the hope and likelihood of doing it in more : an establishment 
 that has a broad and living way open to it, into the hearts of the 
 people : an establishment that can command the services of the 
 present by the recollections and traditions of a far-reaching- 
 past : an establishment able to appeal to the active zeal of the 
 greater portion of the people, and to the respect or scruples of 
 almost the whole, whose children dwell chiefly on her actual 
 living work and service, and whose adversaries, if she has them, 
 are in the main content to believe that there will be a future for 
 them and their opinions : such an establishment should surely be 
 maintained. But an establishment that neither does, nor has 
 her hope of doing, work, except for a few, and those few the 
 portion of the community whose claim to public aid is the 
 smallest of all : an establishment severed from the mass of the 
 people by an impassable gulf, and by a wall of brass : an estab- 
 lishment whose good offices, could she offer them, would be 
 intercepted by a long, unbroken chain of painful and shameful 
 recollections: an establishment leaning for support upon the 
 extraneous aid of a State, which becomes discredited with the 
 people by the very act of lending it : such an establishment will 
 do well, for its own sake, and for the sake of its creed, to divest 
 itself, as soon as may be, of gauds and trappings, and to com- 
 mence a new career, in which, renouncing at once the credit and 
 the discredit of the civil sanction, it shall seek its strength from 
 within and put a fearless trust in the message that it bears.' 
 
 Such then, very briefly, are the arguments which led the 
 defender of the Irish Church to become its assailant. That a 
 man should change his opinions is no reproach to him ; it is only 
 inferior minds that are never open to conviction. On Church 
 questions, Mr. Gladstone must always, and necessarily, have his 
 opponents and his apologists. The former will urge that, having 
 once cherished and expressed the views which he formulated in
 
 76 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 his early work upon the Church and State, he ought never to 
 have abandoned them : the latter will welcome the change that 
 came at an advanced stage in his career, and recognise in it the 
 light of a nobler conviction. Both, we trust, without violence 
 to charity, may yield the eminent statesman credit for the 
 sincerity of his later beliefs, and the honesty of his purpose.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 
 
 Policy of Sir Robert Peel New Sliding Scale of Corn Duties Distress and Dissatis- 
 faction in the Country Corn Law Debates The Budget of 1842 The Revised 
 Tariff Scheme Largely the Work of Mr. Gladstone Lord Howick's Motion on 
 the Distress in the Manufacturing Industry Mr. Gladstone becomes President 
 of the Board of Trade Abolition of the Restrictions on the Export of Machinery 
 Mr. Gladstone on Education The Railway Bill of 1844 Religious Endowments 
 of Dissenters Mr. Gladstone's Resignation of Office The Maynooth Question 
 Remarks upon recent Commercial Legislation Repeal of the Corn Laws 
 announced Mr. Gladstone accepts the Secretaryship for the Colonies Endorses 
 Sir Robert Peel's Corn Law Policy Retires from Newark Mr. Gladstone and 
 Free Trade Sir Robert Peel's Measure carried Defeat of the Peel Government 
 A Whig Ministry Mr. Gladstone returned for Oxford University Jewish 
 Disabilities 1848 A Year of Revolution Financial Measures of the Government 
 Mr. Gladstone's Defence of Free Trade Diplomatic Relations with Rome Par- 
 liamentary Oaths Speech on the Navigation Laws The Affairs of Canada 
 Colonial Reforms Mr. Gladstone on Agricultural Depression The Australian 
 Colonies Government Bill Slavery and the Sugar Duties State of the Univer- 
 sities Great Debate on the Foreign Policy of the Government The Affairs of 
 Greece Remarkable Speech by Mr. Gladstone Death of Sir Robert Peel 
 Disintegration of his Party Mr. Gladstone and Sir James Graham. 
 
 IN the brief sitting of Parliament which followed Sir Robert 
 Peel's accession to office in 1841, the Premier was questioned by 
 his opponents as to his future policy. There had been hitherto 
 no indications of this save in the scattered utterances of 
 newly-appointed Ministers appealing for the confidence of 
 their constituencies. Sir Robert Peel naturally declined to 
 state the nature of the msasures which he contemplated 
 maturing in the recess, and claimed the intervening months 
 for the purpose of constructing his political programme. 
 On his motion for a Committee of Supply on the 17th of 
 September, a lengthened debate ensued on the policy of the past 
 as compared with the new Government. An amendment, moved 
 by Mr. Fielden, to the effect that it was the duty of the House 
 to inquire into the existing distress before voting supplies, was 
 defeated by 149 to 41 votes. Three weeks later Parliament was 
 prorogued by Royal Commission. 
 
 The following session, however, was marked by several 
 measures of a high practical character. The condition of the 
 country at this time was lamentable ; distress and discontent were
 
 78 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 - 
 
 widely prevalent, and the difficulties of the Government were 
 enhanced by popular tumults. On the 9th of February Sir 
 Robert Peel brought forward his new sliding scale of corn duties 
 in the House of Commons. He proposed that a duty of twenty 
 shillings should be levied when wheat was at fifty-one shillings 
 per quarter, to descend to one shilling when the price was 
 seventy-three, with rests at intermediate prices, intended to 
 diminish the possibility of tampering with the averages. /Having" 
 detailed the remaining portions of his plan, the Premier said he 
 considered the present not an unfavourable time for discussing 
 the question of the Corn Laws. * There was no great stock of 
 foreign growth on hand to alarm farmers ; the recess, notwith- 
 standing the distress, had been marked by universal calm ; there 
 was no popular violence to interrupt legislation ; and there was 
 a disposition to view any proposal for the .adjustment of the 
 question with calmness and moderation.' The Minister's view 
 of the national situation was not altogether in accordance with 
 the published facts, for her Majesty even, on her appearance at 
 the London theatres, had been hooted. But Sir Robert Peel's 
 opinion of what was comparative quietude was quickly and rudely 
 disturbed. Great excitement prevailed throughout the country ; 
 and, in order to give effect to the popular voice, on the 14th of 
 February, on the motion for the Speaker to leave the chair, 
 preparatory to a discussion in committee on the Corn Laws, 
 Lord John Russell moved as an amendment, ' That this House, 
 considering the evils which have been caused by the present Corn 
 Laws, and especially by the fluctuation of the graduated or 
 sliding scale, is not prepared to adopt the measure of her 
 Majesty's Government, which is founded on the same principles, 
 and is likely to be attended by similar results.' 
 
 It fell to Mr. Gladstone to lead the opposition to this motion. 
 He denied that the proposed plan was founded on the same 
 principle as the existing one, except, indeed, as both involved a 
 sliding scale. The existing law was not chargeable with the 
 present mass of distress, which he attributed rather to the 
 unavoidable fluctuation of the seasons. Four successive bad 
 harvests must result in producing high prices of food. He 
 adduced a series of illustrations to show that these unavoidable 
 fluctuations were not aggravated by the Corn Lavs, and 
 he contrasted the working of Lord John Russell's" plan with 
 that of Sir Robert Peel, insisting upon the great superiority of 
 the latter. As to the late drains of the currency, he did not 
 oelieve that they could have been prevented by a fixed duty : they 
 must have followed as the necessary consequence of bad harvests, 
 whatever the .rate of import duties had been. A uniform
 
 A MEMOEABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 79 
 
 protection could not be given to corn, as it could be to other 
 articles, because at high prices of corn no duty could be 
 maintained ; therefore, at low prices, it was just to give a duty 
 which would be an effectual protection. ' Between the opposite 
 extremes of those who thought with the Anti-Corn Law Conven- 
 tion and those who thought with the Agricultural Association 
 of Boston, he believed that the measure of Government was a 
 fair medium ; and that it would give relief to consumers, 
 steadiness to prices, an increase to foreign trade, and a general 
 improvement of the condition of the country.* The debate 
 which followed was characterised by vigorous speeches from Mr. 
 Roebuck and Lord Palmerston. Lord John Russell's amendment 
 was negatived by a majority of 123, the numbers being For the 
 amendment, 226 ; against, 349. By way of contradiction to Sir 
 Robert Peel's statement that the country was tranquil, the 
 Premier himself had the honour of being burnt in effigy during 
 a lively riot at Northampton, and a similar forcible expression 
 of opinion occurred in other towns. 
 
 On the 24th, Mr. Villiers to whose unselfish and untiring 
 efforts on behalf of Free Trade too warm a tribute cannot be 
 paid brought forward a motion for the immediate repeal of 
 the Corn Laws, but his resolution was lost by the enormous 
 majority of 303 in a House composed of less than 500 members. 
 The Commons had not yet begun to march with the people on 
 this great question. On the llth of March the Budget was 
 introduced by Sir Robert Peel. There was a deficit, he said, of 
 2,750,000 ; and the utmost limit of taxation upon articles of 
 consumption had been reached. He therefore proposed a tax on 
 incomes, calculated to produce 3,700,000 ; the Irish equalised 
 stamp and spirit duties would give 410.000 ; and an export 
 duty of four shillings on coal would yield 200,000. The sur- 
 plus thus obtained he should apply to a reduction of duties in a 
 revised tariff. The Budget had for its chief object the taxation of 
 wealth and the relief of manufacturing industry. The income-tax, 
 calculated at 7d. per pound on incomes of 150 and upwards, was 
 to be limited for three years, with a possible extension to five at 
 the discretion of the House. The resolutions upon the income-tax 
 
 * See the Annual Register for 1842, and also Hansard's Parliamentary Delates. 
 As the author, in every instance, quotes only from authentic reports of the 
 speeches of Mr. Gladstone and other members of the Legislature, he has not 
 deemed it necessary to burden his pages with foot-notes giving the formal refer- 
 ; ences to pages and columns. In addition to the authorities above-mentioned, he 
 would also acknowledge the valuable aid he has received in regard to dates, facts, 
 and in some instances public addresses, from Irving's Annals of our Time, 
 Maunder's Treasury of History (new edition, edited by the Rev. G. W. Cox), and 
 the daily journals. In every important Parliamentary speech, however, he has 
 relied upon Hansard.
 
 80 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 were carried early in April with very little opposition. Some 
 days later Lord John Kussell was defeated, by a majority of 106, 
 in an attempt to overthrow the Government scheme, and a bill 
 founded on these fiscal propositions was subsequently passed. 
 
 The second branch of the financial plan of the Government, 
 the revised Tariff or Customs Duties scheme, was a formidable 
 undertaking. Though brought into the House by the Prime 
 Minister, it was understood to be almost wholly the work of his 
 able lieutenant, Mr. Gladstone. Out of some 1,200 duty-paying 
 articles, a total abolition, or a considerable reduction, took place 
 in no fewer than 750 of such articles. Sir Kobert Peel's boast, 
 that he had endeavoured to relieve manufacturing industry, was 
 more than justified by this great and comprehensive measure. 
 He had acknowledged, amidst loud cheers from the Opposition, 
 that all were agreed in the general rule that we should purchase 
 in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest ; but he added, 'If 
 I proposed a greater change in the Corn Laws than that which I 
 submit to the consideration of the House, I should only aggravate 
 the distress of the country, and only increase the alarm which 
 prevails among important interests.' Mr. Hume, however, hailed 
 with joy the appearance of the Premier and his colleagues as 
 converts to the principles of Free Trade. Mr. Gladstone replied 
 that though it was not worth while now to discuss who were the 
 authors of the principles on which the Government measure was 
 founded, he must enter his protest against the statement that 
 the Ministry came forward as converts to principles which they 
 had formerly opposed. The late Government had certainly done 
 very little for the principles of commercial relaxation. 
 
 Again and again, during the progress of the Tariffs Bill, was 
 Mr. Gladstone called upon to defend the details of the Govern- 
 ment scheme. Something was said upon almost every article 
 of consumption included in or excluded from the plan ; but it 
 was admitted on all hands that great fiscal reforms had been con- 
 ceived and executed. No measure with which Mr. Gladstone's 
 name has since been connected more fully attested his mastery 
 over detail, his power of comprehending the commercial interests 
 of the country, or his capacity as a practical statesman in 
 suggesting the best means for relieving the manufacturing 
 industries of their burdens, than the revised Tariff scheme of 
 1842. Some idea of the strain involved upon him during this 
 session may be gathered from the fact that Hansard records he 
 rose to his feet no fewer than 129 times,' in connection with 
 measures before the House, but chiefly touching the provisions 
 of the Tariff Bill. A writer, by no means favourable to the 
 Tories, says of the session of 1842, * The nation saw and felt
 
 A MEMOEABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 1 
 
 that its business was understood and accomplished, and the 
 House of Commons was no longer like a sleeper under a night- 
 mare. The long session was a busy one. The Queen wore a 
 cheerful air when she thanked her Parliament for their effectual 
 labours. The Opposition was such as could no longer impede the 
 operations of the next session. The condition of the country was 
 fearful enough ; but something was done for its future improve- 
 ment, and the way was now shown to be open for further 
 beneficent legislation.* 
 
 But the distress in the country nerved the Corn Law reformers 
 to renewed efforts. Scarcely had the session of 1843 opened, 
 when Lord Howick called for a committee of the whole House 
 to consider the reference in the Queen's Speech to the long- \ 
 continued depression of manufacturing industry. Mr. Gladstone 
 opposed the motion, delivering a long speech in rejoinder. 
 Admitting the distress, he said he could assign various causes for 
 it; the country was familiar with the fact, and so was the House, 
 and no good could come from such a motion. The noble lord 
 proposed to renew past and present agitations with tenfold 
 violence, for he had not thought fit to state the measures upon 
 which he had depended for the relief of the distress of the 
 country. The Corn Laws were at the root of the matter, and yet 
 there was a difficulty felt how to unite the noble lord and his 
 friends, who were so divided in opinion, as to what ought to 
 follow the repeal of the Corn Laws ; and he thought it must 
 have been clear that the movement in favour of the fixed duty 
 could not be repeated. The question between the Government 
 and the Opposition was not really so great as the latter wished 
 to make out. It was simply one as to the amount of relaxation 
 the country could bear in the duties. It was the intention of the 
 First Lord of the Treasury to attain his object 4 by increasing 
 the employment of the people, by cheapening the prices of 
 the articles of consumption, as also the materials of industry, by 
 encouraging the means of exchange with foreign nations, and 
 thereby encouraging in return an extension of the export trade ; 
 but besides all this, if he understood the measure of the Govern- 
 ment last year, it was proposed that the relaxation should be 
 practically so limited as to cause no violent shock to existing 
 interests, such as would have the tendency of displacing that 
 labour which was now employed, and which, if displaced, would 
 be unable to find another field.' Mr. Gladstone proceeded to 
 show that the measure of the previous year had resulted in no 
 great shock to any commercial industry, nor had it displaced 
 
 * Harriet Martineau. History of England during the Thirty Years 1 Peace. 
 
 a
 
 82 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 English labour. He desired members to ask themselves the 
 question, Whether or not they were in a condition to repeal the 
 Corn Laws without the displacement of a vast mass of labour? 
 He was not prepared to abandon the principle of the Corn Law 
 while the principle of Protection was applied to other articles of 
 commerce. The speaker also demonstrated the working of 
 foreign duties in neutralising the benefit of greater cheapness of 
 imported commodities as compared with those produced at 
 home. Alluding to the American tariff, he demanded what 
 better was the British manufacturer if he escaped paying twenty 
 per cent, to British agriculture, and had to pay forty per cent, 
 to the American Government ? Foreign countries were not 
 disposed to be taught the true principles of trade. The only 
 question, he repeated, before the House, was one of time and 
 degree. ' That view had been recognised in this country for the 
 last twenty-five years by every Government which had succes- 
 sively held office ; there was no one who held office during that 
 period who had not introduced measures in the nature of relaxa- 
 tion of our commercial code. But he must say that the Grovern- 
 ment to which right hon. gentlemen and noble lords opposite 
 belonged was, of all others, most slack in introducing such 
 measures until the memorable year 1841.' 
 
 Sir Kobert Peel concluded this debate with an eloquent 
 speech, and Lord 'Howick's motion was defeated by a majority 
 of 115. The question of the Corn Laws, however, was not 
 suffered to sleep, for on the 16th of May Mr. Villiers moved for 
 a committee of the whole House upon the subject. Mr. Glad- 
 stone opposed the motion in a speech devoted rather to details 
 than general principles. His address bristled with facts, and 
 the gist of his argument was that, in the absence both of 
 experiment and of altered circumstances to justify it, a change 
 so soon after the adjustment of the law would be a step 
 ruinous in itself, and a breach of contract. The motion, 
 nevertheless, was not rejected by so large a majority as in 
 the previous year, the numbers being For Mr. Villiers's 
 resolution, 125 ; against, 381. A month later Lord John Eussell 
 re-opened the whole subject, whereupon Mr. Gladstone strongly 
 protested against the constant renewal of uneasiness in the 
 country by successive motions of this kind in Parliament. It 
 was unjust not to give a fair trial to the existing law ; and 
 he believed that the agriculturists in general, though dissatisfied 
 with present prices, were not dissatisfied with the law. When 
 the division came the Ministerial majority was found to have 
 again diminished, the numbers being For Lord John Kussell'8 
 motion, 145 ; against, 244. Mr. Gladstone spoke in the same
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 83 
 
 Cession upon the subject of the Canadian Corn Laws. The 
 Government carried a bill embodying a series of resolutions 
 by Lord Stanley, securing a reduction of the duties on corn 
 imported from Canada. A motion introduced by Mr. Hawes to 
 reduce the duty on foreign sugar was opposed by Mr. Gladstone 
 on the ground of its tendency to encourage the slave trade, 
 and it was rejected. 
 
 Having succeeded the Earl of Ripon as President of the Board 
 of Trade, Mr. Gladstone introduced, in this same session of 
 1843, a bill for the abolition of the restrictions on the 
 exportation of machinery a measure of great practical 
 commercial value. The Minister showed that the existing law 
 of William the Fourth, which prohibited the export of machinery, 
 was really nugatory. It was pronounced by the authorities 
 of the Customs to be impracticable, and was practically evaded. 
 The law had also injured our trade, and increased that of 
 Belgium. The new bill, abolishing the existing law, received 
 the Royal assent before the session concluded. 
 
 Though thus engrossed with schemes of practical legislation, 
 Mr. Gladstone found time as he has, indeed, throughout the 
 whole of his long career to interest himself in social and educa- 
 tional questions. One of the most forcible of his speeches upon 
 education was delivered at the opening of the Collegiate Institution 
 of Liverpool. He addressed himself first to the general topic, 
 and after discussing its religious aspect, together with its nature 
 and objects, he continued, ' We believe that if you could erect a 
 system which should present to mankind all branches of knowledge 
 save the one that is essential, you would only be building up a 
 Tower of Babel, which, when you had completed it, would be the 
 more signal in its fall, and which would bury those who had 
 raised it in its ruins. We believe that if you can take a human 
 being in his youth, and if you can make him an accomplished 
 man in natural philosophy, in mathematics, or in the knowledge 
 necessary for the profession of a merchant, a lawyer, or a physician; 
 that if in any, or all, of these endowments you could form his 
 mind yes, if you could endow him with the science and power 
 of a Newton, and so send him forth, and if you had concealed 
 from him, or, rather, had not given him a knowledge and love 
 of the Christian faith, he would go forth into the world, able 
 indeed with reference to those purposes of science, successful 
 with the accumulation of wealth for the multiplication of more, 
 but " poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked " with reference 
 to everything that constitutes the true and sovereign purposes 
 of our existence nay, worse, worse with respect to the 
 sovereign purposethan if he had still remained in the ignor- 
 
 02
 
 84 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 ance which we all commiserate, and which it is the object of 
 this institution to assist in removing.' 
 
 In the session of 1844 Mr. Gladstone addressed the House on 
 a variety of topics, including Eailways, the Law of Partnership, 
 the Agricultural interest, the Abolition of the Corn Laws, the 
 Dissenters' Chapels Bill, and the Sugar Duties. Amendments to 
 the Address were moved on the subject of the Corn Laws, and 
 also with regard to the distress in the country, but both were 
 negatived. But before the session was a week old, Mr. Glad- 
 stone had obtained the appointment of a Select Committee to 
 consider the standing orders relating to Railways, with a view 
 to new provisions in future railway bills for the improvement 
 of the railway system. It was universally felt that some 
 improvement in this direction was necessary, and the President 
 of the Board of Trade accordingly introduced his Railway 
 Bill, a measure of great and acknowledged importance, and one 
 whose beneficial provisions were warmly welcomed by the House. 
 The bill was based on the report of the Select Committee which 
 Mr. Gladstone had obtained. It provided that after the 
 expiration of fifteen years the Board of Trade should be 
 authorised to purchase any of the railways that came within its 
 provisions, at twenty-five years' purchase of the annual divisible 
 profits, not exceeding ten per cent. ; but this option of purchase 
 was not to extend to railways in which a revised scale of tolls 
 had been imposed. One of the clauses regulated the conditions 
 upon which third-class trains were to be established ; and all 
 future railways were to act upon the provisions of the bill from 
 the commencement of their traffic. The bill also provided that 
 at least one train on every week-day should start from each end 
 of the line to carry passengers in covered carriages for one penny 
 per mile ; that the speed of such trains should not be less than 
 twelve miles an hour including stoppages ; that they should stop 
 to take up and set down passengers at every station ; that half a 
 hundred-weight of luggage should be allowed each passenger 
 without extra charge ; and that children under three years of age 
 should be conveyed in such trains without charge, and those 
 under twelve at half price. This bill, so salutary in its 
 provisions for the poorer classes, met with considerable opposition 
 in the outset from the various railway companies, but with some 
 modifications it ultimately became law. 
 
 One other subject legislated upon this session is worthy of 
 notice, as showing that at this period Mr. Gladstone's mind was 
 undergoing significant changes in the direction of religious 
 toleration. The Lord Chancellor introduced a bill for confirming 
 the possession of religious endowments in the hands of
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 85 
 
 Dissenters, and arresting such litigations as had recently taken 
 place in the case of the Lady Hewley Charities originally 
 given by her ladyship to Calvinistic Independents, but which 
 had gradually passed to Unitarians, who were ousted from their 
 benefits. The bill proposed to vest property left to Dissenting 
 bodies in the hands of that religious body with whom it had 
 remained for the preceding twenty years. The measure passed 
 both Houses substantially in its original shape. When it was 
 discussed in the Commons, Mr. Gladstone said that it was a bill 
 which it was incumbent upon the House to endorse. There was 
 no contrariety between his principles of religious belief and 
 those on which legislation in this case ought to proceed. There 
 was a great question of justice, viz., whether those who were 
 called Presbyterian Dissenters, and who were a century and a 
 half ago universally of Trinitarian opinions, ought not to be 
 protected at the present moment in the possession of the chapels 
 which they held, with the appurtenances of those chapels ? On 
 that question of substantial justice he pronounced the strongest 
 affirmative opinion. After this speech, there were those who 
 thought, and expressed their hope and belief in words, that the 
 * champion of Free Trade ' would ere long become the advocate 
 of the most unrestricted liberty in matters of religion. Their 
 hope, if sanguine as to its immediate fulfilment, was far from 
 groundless. 
 
 Scarcely had Parliament met in 1845 when it became known 
 that Mr. Gladstone had resigned his post in the Ministry. In the 
 course of the debate on the Address he explained his reasons for 
 this step, and set a good deal of speculation at rest by the 
 announcement that his resignation was due solely to the Govern- 
 ment intentions with regard to Maynooth College. The con- 
 templated increase in the Maynooth endowment, and the 
 establishment of non-sectarian colleges, were at variance with the 
 views he had written and uttered upon the relations of the 
 Church and the State. * I am sensible how fallible my 
 judgment is,' said Mr. Gladstone, ' and how easily I might have 
 erred ; but still it has been my conviction that although I was 
 not to fetter my judgment as a member of Parliament by a 
 reference to abstract theories, yet, on the other hand, it was 
 absolutely due to the public and due to myself that I should, so 
 far as in me lay, place myself in a position to form an opinion 
 upon a matter of so great importance, that should not only be 
 actually free from all bias or leaning with respect to any 
 consideration whatsoever, but an opinion that should be unsus- 
 pected. On that account, I have taken a course most painful 
 to myself in respect to personal feelings, and have separated
 
 86 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 myself from men with whom, and under whom, I have long acted 
 in public life, and of whom I am bound to say, although I 
 have now no longer the honour of serving my most gracious 
 Sovereign, that I continue to regard them with unaltered 
 sentiments both of public regard and private attachment.' Mr. 
 Gladstone added that he was not prepared to war against the 
 religious measures of his friend, Sir Kobert Peel. He would not 
 prejudge such questions, but would give to them calm and 
 deliberate consideration. A high tribute was paid to the retiring 
 Minister, both by Lord John Russell and the Premier. The 
 latter avowed the highest respect and admiration for Mr. 
 Gladstone's character and abilities ; admiration only equalled 
 by regard for his private character. He had been most 
 unwilling to lose one whom he regarded as capable of the 
 highest and most eminent services. By an act of strict 
 conscientiousness, Mr. Gladstone thus severed himself from a 
 Ministry in which he had rapidly risen to power and influence. 
 His motives were appreciated by men of all parties, and it was 
 generally predicted that one so useful to the State could not 
 long remain in the position of a private member. 
 
 On the second reading of the Maynooth Improvement Bill, 
 the right hon. gentleman fully expressed himself upon the 
 topic then greatly agitating the public mind. In opposition 
 to the feeling out of doors, and to his own deeply-cherished 
 prepossessions, he announced that he was prepared to 
 give his deliberate support to the measure. The question was 
 to a considerable extent new, as the grant, instead of annual, 
 was to be made permanent ; and the college, by being under the 
 care of the Government Board, was to be brought into close 
 connection with the Government. He disclaimed, in the name 
 of the law, the Constitution, and the history of the country, the 
 voting of a sum of money as a restitution to the Roman Catholic 
 Church of Ireland. His support of the measure was based on 
 the feeling that whatever tended to give ease and comfort to the 
 professors of the College of Maynooth would also tend to soothe 
 and soften the tone of the college itself. ' He found arguments 
 in favour of the measure in the great numbers and poverty of 
 the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, in the difficulty they 
 experienced in providing for themselves the necessaries of life, 
 and in the still greater difficulty which they found in providing 
 for themselves preachers of their own faith, and in procuring 
 means of education for them. He found additional arguments 
 in the inclination to support it exhibited by all the great states- 
 men on both sides of the House, and in the fact that those who 
 paid the taxes of a country had a right to share in the benefits
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 87 
 
 of its institutions.' The opponents of the measure said it had 
 been an experiment of Mr. Pitt's, and that it had signally 
 failed ; but he reminded them that the view of Mr. Pitt was, 
 that the Koman Catholic clergy of Ireland should not only be 
 trained in the College of Maynooth, but that they should also 
 have a subsequent provision made for their support. No such 
 provision had been made, and it was unjust to say Mr. Pitt's 
 scheme had failed when it had only been partially tried. 
 
 To show how far Mr. Gladstone's views had undergone 
 modification in the course of seven years, we may add that in 
 this speech he went on to observe how that exclusive support to 
 the Established Church was a doctrine that was being more and 
 more abandoned day by day. Mr. Burke considered it contrary 
 to wise policy to give exclusive privileges to a negative creed 
 like that of Protestantism, and to deny all privileges to those 
 who had a positive creed like the Roman Catholic. They could 
 not plead their religious scruples as the reason for denying this 
 grant to the Roman Catholics, for they gave votes of money to 
 almost every Dissenting sect. He hoped the concession now 
 made which was a great and liberal gift, because unrestricted 
 and given in a spirit of confidence would not lead to the 
 renewal of agitation in Ireland by Mr. O'Connell. It might be 
 well for him to reflect that agitation was a two-edged weapon. 
 * The number of petitions which had been laid on the table that 
 evening proved that there was in this country a field open to 
 agitation, opposed to that which he might get up in Ireland. 
 He deprecated agitation on one side and on the other. He 
 trusted that a wiser spirit would preside over the minds of both 
 parties, and that a conviction would spring up in both, that it 
 was a surrender which ought to be made of rival claims for the 
 sake of peace. Believing the measure to be conformable to 
 justice, and not finding any principle on which to resist it, he 
 hoped it would pass into law, and receive, if not the sanction, at 
 least the acquiescence of the people of England.' 
 
 This speech exercised a most favourable effect, owing to its 
 candour, its breadth of view, and its evident desire for concilia- 
 tion. As the Earl of Arundel remarked, Sir Robert Peel had 
 now the support of every statesman on either side of the House 
 who deserved the name. A little later in the session Govern- 
 ment redeemed its pledge to propose a scheme for the extension 
 of academical education in Ireland. This measure, framed upon 
 the same lines as the Maynooth Improvement Bill, was regarded 
 with equal hostility by those who opposed all concessions to the 
 Roman Catholics. Sir James Graham introduced the bill, 
 which was at once the subject of warm debate. Sir Robert
 
 88 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Inglis, that most immovable of Conservatives, declared that ' a 
 more gigantic scheme of godless education had never been 
 proposed in any country than that which was now under con- 
 sideration.' After such a description of a measure which he 
 intended to support, Mr. Gladstone could not remain silent, and 
 in the discussion on the second reading, he said that though the 
 measure was imperfect, the question was not whether it was a 
 perfect measure, but whether it was the best which could be 
 devised to meet the present state of Ireland and its exigencies. 
 He thought the Koman Catholic bishops ought to be consulted 
 on the adjustment of the principles and details of the measure, 
 and that a direct diplomatic correspondence with the Court of 
 Rome should be renewed. He entered his emphatic protest 
 against Sir R. Inglis's declaration that the bill was * a gigantic 
 scheme of godless education.' ' The bill contained a provision 
 for religious education, so far as it was safe to do so ; for it 
 provided rooms in each of the colleges for theological lectures, 
 which was an explicit admission of the efficacy of religious 
 education. Nay, more, it provided facilities for the voluntary 
 payment of professors to deliver such lectures. The difficulties 
 besetting the measure would not be insuperable if both parties 
 laid aside their prejudices. 5 The bill was subsequently earned 
 through the House. 
 
 Before the close of this year, Mr. Gladstone published a 
 pamphlet entitled Remarks upon Recent Commercial Legisla- 
 tion. It had been suggested by the expository statement of the 
 revenue from customs, and other papers lately submitted to 
 Parliament. The author dealt in several aspects with the recent 
 reductions of customs duty showing the proportion of the entire 
 trade which they had affected, the entire amount of revenue 
 surrendered, and the particular results of the reductions on 
 revenue and on trade. He also discussed their results upon 
 domestic producers, and examined the policy of these financial 
 measures with special reference to the recent proceedings of 
 foreign Powers in matters of trade. His general conclusion was 
 that English statesmen should use every effort to disburden of 
 all charges, so far as the law was concerned, the materials of 
 industry, and thus enable the workman to approach his work at 
 home on better terms, as the terms in which he entered foreign 
 markets were altered for the worse against him. With a few 
 more years of experimental instruction, such as that afforded by 
 the figures of the statement he had given of the relative growth 
 of the British trade with Europe and the world, such results 
 could not fail to exercise a powerful influence on the intelligence 
 and the will of governments, and of the nations whom they ruled.
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE- 1841-1850. 80 
 
 These ideas were speedily to receive a nobler and a fuller 
 acceptance and expansion. On the 4th of December, 1845, the 
 Times announced that Parliament would be summoned for the 
 first week in January, and that the Royal Speech would recom- 
 mend an immediate consideration of the Corn Laws, "preparatory 
 to their total repeal. This startling news took the other daily 
 journals by surprise, and several of them gave it the most direct 
 and positive contradiction. The original announcement, 
 however, was speedily confirmed. The hour had come, and the 
 Corn Laws were doomed. Mr. Gladstone, though unable to 
 mingle in the debates in Parliament during this last episode of 
 a great struggle, was in thorough harmony with the policy of 
 Sir Robert Peel. His investigations and financial experiments 
 for some years back had been tending in this direction, though 
 with one brought up in the rigid school of Protection a 
 complete reversal of past policy, and the acceptance of an 
 entirely new commercial regime, could not be the work of a 
 moment. But the time came when he could no longer resist 
 the arguments in favour of Free Trade, and he at once 
 announced his changed convictions. As upon many other 
 occasions in his history, his attitude on the question of the Corn 
 Laws led to the severance of long and closely-cherished political 
 and personal friendships. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel having been informed by Lord Stanley and 
 the Duke of Buccleuch that they could not support a measure 
 for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and being doubtful whether he 
 could conduct the proposal to a successful issue, felt it his duty 
 to tender his resignation to her Majesty. Lord John Russell 
 was accordingly summoned to form a Ministry ; but failing in 
 this, the Queen desired Sir Robert Peel to withdraw his resigna- 
 tion. That statesman resumed office, and when the list of the 
 restored Peel Cabinet was made known, it was found that Mr. 
 Gladstone had accepted the post of Colonial Secretary, in the 
 room of Lord Stanley. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's acceptance of office in a Ministry pledged to 
 the repeal of the Corn Laws led to his retirement from the 
 representation of Newark. The Duke of Newcastle was an ardent 
 Protectionist, and could not sanction the candidature of a 
 supporter of Free Trade principles. His patronage was therefore 
 of necessity withdrawn from Mr. Gladstone ; but, unless his 
 action could have been endorsed by the constituency, the latter 
 would naturally have felt honourable scruples in continuing to 
 represent, merely under the friendship and influence of the Duke, 
 a borough for which he had so long sat upon opposite principles. 
 
 The new Minister accordingly issued his retiring address to
 
 90 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the electors of Newark, which is dated January 5th, 1846. Its 
 chief paragraph runs thus : ' By accepting the office of 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies, I have ceased to be your 
 representative in Parliament. On several accounts I should have 
 been peculiarly desirous at the present time of giving you an 
 opportunity to pronounce your constitutional judgment on my 
 public conduct, by soliciting at your hands a renewal of the 
 trust which I have already received from you on five successive 
 occasions, and held during a period of thirteen years. But as I 
 have good reason to believe that a candidate recommended to 
 your favour through local connections may ask your suffrages, it 
 becomes my very painful duty to announce to you on that 
 ground alone my retirement from a position which has afforded 
 me so much of honour and of satisfaction.' The right hon. 
 gentleman further goes on to explain that he accepted office 
 because he held that ' it was for those who believed the 
 Government was acting according to the demands of public 
 duty to testify that belief, however limited their sphere might 
 be, by their co-operation.' He had acted * in obedience to the 
 clear and imperious call of public obligation.' An exile from 
 Newark, Mr. Gladstone remained without a seat in the House 
 during the ensuing session ; and to this fact is to be attributed 
 the lack of his powerful personal advocacy of the great Govern- 
 ment measure of that memorable year. 
 
 It is no secret that the most advanced statesman on the Free 
 Trade question in the Peel Cabinet was Mr. Gladstone. The 
 policy of the Government in regard to the great measure of 1846 
 was largely moulded by him, and his representations of the 
 effects of Free Trade on the . industry of the country and the 
 general well-being of the people strengthened the Premier in 
 his resolve to sweep away the obnoxious Corn Laws. The 
 pamphlet on recent commercial legislation had prepared the 
 way for the later momentous changes ; and to Mr. Gladstone is 
 due much of the credit for the speedy consummation of the 
 Free Trade policy of the Peel Ministry. In the official sphere 
 he may be regarded, perhaps, as the leading pioneer of the 
 movement. 
 
 But that terrible calamity in Ireland the failure of the potato 
 crop had furnished a final argument in the mind of Sir 
 Kobert Peel for the abolition of Protection. With the prospect 
 of famine in Ireland and such a famine as had never been 
 experienced in that island the Premier saw clearly that 
 the time had come when corn must be admitted into the 
 country free of duty. Moreover, the Anti-Corn Law League was 
 becoming a powerful and irresistible body, while many influential
 
 A MEMOKABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 91 
 
 landlords, both in Great Britain and Ireland, who did not belong 
 to the League, were prepared to extend to Sir Kobert Peel 
 their hearty support. The friends of Protection, knowing that the 
 personal power of the Premier was greater, perhaps, than that of 
 any other Minister who has virtually governed this empire, 
 opposed the repeal by every means at their command, legitimate 
 or otherwise. Happily, their efforts were doomed to be frus- 
 trated. The question whether Peel ought to have left the passing 
 of the Corn Law Repeal Bill to the Liberals is out of the sphere 
 of practical politics. Free Trade had by no means received 
 the support of every member of the Liberal party, even up to so 
 late a date as the year preceding that in which it became an 
 actuality ; and Sir K. Peel was placed in a peculiarly favourable 
 position for carrying the measure. Mr. Cobden wrote at this 
 juncture that the Premier had the power, and that it would be 
 disastrous for the country if he hesitated. 
 
 But this great Minister did not hesitate. He felt that a crisis 
 had arrived, and he determined to grapple with it. His duty 
 to the country at this period was higher and greater than any 
 fancied loyalty to party. Accordingly, when Parliament 
 assembled, he entered into a detailed explanation of the late 
 Ministerial crisis, and unfolded his proposed measures. The 
 failure of the potato crop, he said, had led to the dissolution of 
 the late Government, and matters now could brook no further 
 delay. An immediate decision required to be taken on the sub- 
 ject of the Corn Laws ; but while the calamity in Ireland had 
 been the immediate cause of his determination, he could not 
 withhold the homage due to the progress of reason and of truth,, 
 and frankly confessed that his opinions on the subject of Protec- 
 tion had undergone a great change. The experience of the past 
 three years had confirmed him in his new opinions, and he could 
 not conceal the knowledge of his convictions, however much it 
 might lay him open to the imputation of inconsistency. Though 
 he had been accused of apathy and neglect, he and his colleagues 
 were even then engaged in the most extensive and arduous 
 inquiries into the true condition of Ireland. As these inquiries . 
 had proceeded, he had been driven to the conclusion that the 
 protective policy was unsound, and consequently untenable. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had rendered conspicuous service in these 
 inquiries, as well as in other investigations of a general character 
 which led to the Premier's determination. But it is instructive 
 to note his rival's attitude at this juncture. Speaking in the 
 House of Commons, Mr. Disraeli said, * To the opinions which I 
 have expressed in this House in favour of Protection I adhere. 
 They sent me to this House, and if I had relinquished them I
 
 92 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 should have relinquished my seat also.' It would be an unpro- 
 fitable task to unravel the many inconsistencies of Lord Beacons- 
 field's career ; but with regard to this present deliverance upon 
 Protection, the curious in such matters may turn back to the 
 records of 1842, when they will discover that at that time he was 
 quite prepared to advocate measures of a Free Trade character. 
 But we must pass on from this important question of the Corn 
 Laws, with the angry controversy to which it gave rise. Sir 
 Robert Peel brought forward his measure, and, after lengthened 
 debates in both Houses, it became law, and grain was admitted 
 into English ports under the new tariff. 
 
 Having carried their important Corn Law Repeal scheme, Sir 
 Robert Peel and his colleagues were doomed to fall upon an 
 Irish question. The very day which witnessed the passing of 
 the Corn Law Repeal Act in the House of Lords, saw the defeat 
 of the Ministry in the House of Commons on their bill for 
 the suppression of outrage in Ireland. Being in a minority of 
 73, Sir Robert Peel tendered his resignation; whereupon Lord 
 John Russell was sent for, and he succeeded in forming a Whig 
 Ministry. 
 
 It was not until the brief session in the autumn of 1847 that 
 Mr. Gladstone again appeared in the House of Commons. On 
 the 23rd of July the Queen had dissolved Parliament in person. 
 The succeeding elections turned in many notable instances upon 
 ecclesiastical questions, and more especially upon the Maynooth 
 grant. Mr. Gladstone was brought forward for Oxford 
 University. Sir R. H. Inglis was admitted to have a safe seat, so 
 that the contest lay between Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Round. 
 The latter candidate was of the ultra-Protestant and Tory 
 school. The contest excited the keenest interest, and was 
 expected on all hands to be very close. Mr. Gladstone, in his 
 address to the electors of his Alma Mater, confessed that when 
 he entered Parliament, and for many years after, he had struggled 
 for the exclusive support of the national religion by the State, 
 but in vain. The time was against him. ' 1 found that scarcely a 
 year passed without the adoption of some fresh measure 
 involving the national recognition, and the national support, of 
 various forms of religion, and in particular that a recent and 
 fresh provision had been made for the propagation from a public 
 chair of Arian or Socinian doctrines. The question remaining 
 for me was, whether, aware of the opposition of the English 
 people, I should set down as equal to nothing, in a matter 
 primarily connected not with our own but with their priesthood, 
 the wishes of the people of Ireland ; and whether I should avail 
 myself of the popular feeling in regard to the Roman Catholics
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 93 
 
 for the purpose of enforcing against them a ssytem which we 
 had ceased by common consent to enforce against Arians a 
 system, above all, of which I must say that it never can be 
 conformable to policy, to justice, or even to decency, when it 
 has become avowedly partial and one-sided in its application.' 
 This address intensified the resolve of a section of the 
 electors to defeat Mr. Gladstone. A great portion of the press, 
 however, was in his favour. Several influential journals 
 were very satirical upon Mr. Eound, and eulogistic of Mr. Glad- 
 stone. They praised the earnest attachment of the latter to the 
 Church, and spoke of his distinguished talent and industry. He 
 had relaxed the exclusiveness of his politico-ecclesiastical 
 principles, and no longer called on the Legislature to ignore all 
 forms of religion but those established by law, 01 which were 
 exactly coincident with his own belief. ' His election (said the 
 Times), unlike that of Mr. Round, while it sends an important 
 member to the House of Commons, will certainly be creditable, 
 and may be valuable to the University ; and we heartily hope 
 that no negligence or hesitation among his supporters may 
 impede his success.' The election was regarded with great 
 interest by those outside the pale of the Church. The nomina- 
 tion took place on the 29th of July. The ceremony having been 
 completed, the voting commenced in the Convocation-house, 
 which was densely crowded. We learn from the local journals 
 that more than one gentleman was carried out in a fainting 
 state, so great was the pressure. Many distinguished men (includ- 
 ing his political leader) came from a great distance to plump 
 for Mr. Gladstone. At the close of the poll, the numbers were : 
 Inglis, 1700; Gladstone, 997 ; Eound, 824. To the supporters 
 of Mr. Gladstone and Mr, Round, however, must be added 154 
 pairs. The total number of those polled exceeded that registered 
 at any previous election. 
 
 Probably the one feature of this general election which 
 excited the widest popular comment was the return of Baron 
 Rothschild for the City of London. There was nothing illegal 
 in the election of a Jew, but the statutory declaration 
 required of him virtually precluded him from taking his seat in 
 the House of Commons. To obviate this difficulty, Lord John 
 Russell proposed, shortly after the meeting of Parliament, a 
 resolution affirming the eligibility of Jews to all functions and 
 offices to which Roman Catholics were admissible by law. Sir 
 R. H. Inglis opposed the motion, which was supported by his 
 colleague Mr. Gladstone. The latter inquired whether there 
 were any grounds for the disqualification of the Jews which 
 distinguished them from any other classes in the community.
 
 94 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 With regard to the stand now made for a * Christian Parliament, 
 the present measure did not make a severance between politics 
 and religion ; it only amounted to a declaration that there was 
 no necessity for excluding a Jew, as such, from an assembly in 
 which every man felt sure that a vast and overwhelming 
 majority of its members would always be Christian. It was said 
 that by admitting a few Jews they would un-Christianise Parlia- 
 ment ; that was true in word, but not in substance. He had no 
 doubt that the majority of the members who composed it would 
 always perform their obligations on the true faith of a Christian. 
 It was too late to say that the measure was un-Christian, and 
 that it would call down the vengeance of heaven. When he 
 opposed the last law for the removal of Jewish disabilities, 
 he foresaw that if we gave the Jew municipal, magisterial, and 
 executive functions, we could not refuse him legislative func- 
 tions any longer. 'The Jew was refused entrance into that 
 House because he would then be a maker of the laws ; but who 
 made the maker of the law ? The constituencies ; and into 
 these constituencies we had admitted the Jews. Now, were the 
 constituencies Christian constituencies? If they were, was it 
 probable that the Parliament would cease to be a Christian 
 Parliament ? ' Mr. Gladstone admitted the force of the prayer in 
 Archdeacon Wilberforce's petition, that in view of this concession 
 measures should be taken which would give greater vigour to the 
 Church, and thus operate to the prevention of an organic change 
 in the relations between Church and State. Concluding his 
 defence of Lord John Kussell's motion, he was of opinion that if 
 they admitted Jews into Parliament, prejudice might be 
 awakened for a while, but the good sense of the people would 
 soon allay it, and members would have the consolation of 
 knowing that in a case of difficulty they had yielded to a sense 
 of justice, and by so doing had not disparaged religion or lowered 
 Christianity, but had rather elevated both in all reflecting and 
 well-regulated minds. 
 
 The logic of this speech could not be controverted, though Mr. 
 Newdegate declared that Mr. Gladstone would never have gained 
 his election for the University of Oxford had his sentiments on 
 the Jewish question been then known. Lord John Kussell's 
 motion was carried by a large majority, whereupon he announced 
 first a resolution, and then a bill, in accordance with its terms. 
 
 The year 1848 was a year of agitation and revolution. 
 Europe was in a state of perturbation, and in France was 
 effected one of those national surprises which have been so 
 frequent and so prominent a feature of her political history. 
 The news of the revolution across the Channel caused the greatest
 
 A MEMOEABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 95 
 
 excitement in England, and it became the signal for disturb- 
 ances in the metropolis. On the 6th of March, demonstrations 
 took place at Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross, but, as in the 
 case of more recent emeutes, the mass meetings assumed more of 
 a burlesque than of a serious character. In the provinces, 
 however, and especially at Glasgow, the riots bore a different 
 complexion. Shops were sacked, and at length the military 
 were compelled to fire with fatal effect upon the mob. There 
 were risings of a less formidable nature at Manchester, 
 Edinburgh, Newcastle, and other places. On the 13th, a 
 Chartist meeting was held on Kennington Common ; but 
 although this meeting had been looked forward to with grave 
 apprehensions by all lovers of law and order, it proved by no 
 means so serious an affair as had been anticipated. Great 
 preparations were made in view of the demonstration, which 
 fortunately passed off without loss of life. Those who were 
 politically concerned in it were few in number, but, as is usual 
 in such cases, the meeting had furnished a pretext for the 
 assembling of a lawless mob. Special constables in great 
 numbers were sworn in previous to this notorious demonstration ; 
 and it is interesting to note that amongst those who hastened in 
 London to enrol themselves as preservers of the public peace 
 were Prince Louis Napoleon, the Duke of Norfolk, Edward 
 Geoffrey Stanley (Earl of Derby), and William Ewart Gladstone. 
 Meanwhile, the Government of the country was becoming 
 unpopular not, it must fairly be said, from any grave faults of 
 its own, apart from the nature of its financial measuree. There 
 was a deficiency in the national accounts of upwards of two 
 millions. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in introducing his 
 budget, said that although they might expect an improvement 
 in income and a diminution of the expenditure caused by the 
 Caffre War, a temporary increase of taxation would be 
 necessary. He therefore proposed that they should continue 
 the income-tax, which would expire in the following April, for 
 five years, and increase its amount from sevenpence to one 
 shilling in the pound. In consequence of the distress in 
 Ireland, he did not propose to extend this proposition to that 
 branch of the United Kingdom. The property tax he proposed 
 on exactly the same principles as Mr. Pitt principles upon 
 which it was also imposed and defended in 1842 by Sir Robert 
 Peel. The Ministerial scheme was severely criticised, and the 
 depressed state of the finances was attributed by many members 
 to the operations of Free Trade. In the course of the debate 
 which followed, Sir Robert Peel recapitulated the circumstances 
 under which his income-tax had originated, and said, he should
 
 9C WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 give his decided support to the Ministerial proposition for three 
 years. He had been alarmed by the great increase of expendi- 
 ture, and while assenting to this proposal, he trusted that there 
 would be no relaxation in conducting the most searching 
 investigations. Mr. Disraeli denied the success of Sir Eobert 
 Peel's policy, and described himself as ' a free-trader, but not a 
 freebooter of the Manchester school.' In a clever phrase, he 
 dubbed the blue-book of the Import Duties Committee ' the 
 greatest work of imagination that the nineteenth century has 
 produced.' The Government, by acting upon it, and taking it 
 for a guide, resembled, he said, a man smoking a cigar on 
 a barrel of gunpowder. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli's epigrammatic speech brought up Mr. Glad- 
 stone. Premising that he could not hope to sustain the lively 
 interest created by the remarkable speech of his predecessor a 
 display to which he felt himself entirely unequal he would 
 pass over the matters of a personal description touched upon by 
 the honourable gentleman, and confine himself to defending the 
 policy which had been assailed. By a series of elaborate 
 statistics, Mr. Gladstone then demonstrated the complete success 
 of Sir Eobert Peel's policy. The confidence of the public would 
 be much shaken on that occasion by an adverse vote. In his 
 concluding observations, the speaker introduced a reference to 
 the unsettled condition of affairs upon the Continent. * I am 
 sure,' said Mr. Gladstone, * that this House of Commons will 
 prove itself to be worthy of the Parliaments which preceded it, 
 worthy of the Sovereign which it has been called to advise, and 
 worthy of the people which it has been chosen to represent, by 
 sustaining this nation, and enabling it to stand firm in the 
 midst of the convulsions that shake European society ; by 
 doing all that pertains to us for the purpose of maintaining 
 social order, the stability of trade, and the means of public 
 employment ; and by discharging our consciences, on our own 
 part, under the difficult circumstances of the crisis, in the 
 perfect trust that if we set a good example to the nation for 
 whose interests we are appointed to consult they, too, will 
 stand firm as they have done in other times of almost desperate 
 emergency ; and that through their good sense, their moderation, 
 and their attachment to the institutions of the country, we 
 shall see these institutions still exist, a blessing and a benefit to 
 posterity, whatever alarms and whatever misfortunes may 
 unfortunately befall other portions of civilised Europe.' It 
 was fortunate for the future interest of the country that the 
 proposals of the Government were at this juncture supported by 
 a great majority of the House of Commons. In a moment of
 
 A MEMOEABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 97 
 
 unreasoning panic, there was some danger of the adoption of a 
 reactionary policy a step that would have lost to the country 
 those blessings which it subsequently enjoyed, as the outcome of 
 Free Trade. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone delivered during this session an important 
 speech upon the Navigation Laws. On the 15th of May, Mr, 
 Labouchere, President of the Board of Trade, propounded the 
 Ministerial plan for the modification of these laws. After taking 
 a lengthy survey of previous legislation on the subject, he 
 announced the alteration contemplated. Reserving the coasting 
 trade and fisheries of Great Britain and the colonies, it was 
 proposed to strike out of the Statute Book altogether the 
 present system, and ' to throw open the whole navigation of the 
 country, of every sort and description.' The Queen, however, 
 retained the right of putting such restrictions on the navigation 
 of foreign countries as she might think fit, if those countries 
 did not meet us on equal terms. Each colony should be allowed, 
 if it were deemed advisable, to pass an Act throwing open its 
 coasting trade to foreign countries. The Government contem- 
 plated the formation of a new department of the Board of Trade, 
 to be called the Department of the Mercantile Marine, which 
 should consist of unpaid officers, and be presided over by a Lord 
 of the Admiralty. 
 
 These proposals were opposed by Lord George Bentinck, Lord 
 Ingestre, and others ; and on the 29th Mr. Herries brought 
 forward a resolution in favour of maintaining the fundamental 
 principles of the Navigation Laws. It was during the debate 
 upon this resolution that Mr. Gladstone delivered his lengthy 
 speech, examining closely the operation of the existing laws, 
 and showing the necessity for their repeal. A seasonable time, 
 he said, had arrived for making the necessary alterations, though 
 he did not think the Government proposals in every respect 
 unexceptionable. It would have been better to have pro- 
 ceeded by more gradual measures. With regard to the dis- 
 cretionary power to be lodged in the Queen in Council, with 
 a view of enforcing reciprocity, Mr. Gladstone said, ' I confess 
 it appears to me there is a great objection to conferring such a 
 power as that which is proposed to be given to the Queen in 
 Council.' On the whole, the Government would have acted 
 more safely and wisely by undoing the legislation of the past in 
 a gradual and piecemeal manner, than by introducing a 
 measure of such a sweeping character. The policy of excluding 
 ihe coasting trade from the measure he also condemned ; it would 
 have been much more frank to have offered to admit the 
 Americans to our coasting trade if they would admit us to. 
 
 H
 
 98 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 theirs. If England and America concurred in setting an 
 example to the world, he hoped that we should ' live to see the 
 ocean, that great highway of nations, as free to the ships that 
 traverse its bosom as the winds that sweep it. England would 
 then have achieved another triumph, and have made another 
 powerful contribution to the prosperity of mankind.' 
 
 Although the Government obtained a large majority upon 
 this question, so many delays occurred in prosecuting the bill 
 founded on the Ministerial proposals, that it was eventually 
 postponed till the following year. 
 
 In the session of 1848, Mr. Gladstone further addressed the 
 House on the proposed grant of Vancouver's Island to the 
 Hudson's Bay Company. He felt justified in saying that the 
 island was a most valuable possession, and a fair opportunity 
 ought to be afforded for its free colonisation. Certainly, the 
 Hudson's Bay Company could not be expected to rear that, to the 
 very life and substance of which it was opposed. There was a 
 great opportunity of planting a society of Englishmen which, 
 if it did not afford a precise copy of our institutions, might still 
 present a reflex of the truth, integrity, and independence which 
 constituted at that moment the honour and glory of this country. 
 Mr. Gladstone also spoke several times in the course of the 
 debates upon the Sugar Duties Bill ; but perhaps the most note- 
 worthy speech of the session was that which he delivered upon 
 the measure to legalise diplomatic relations with the Court of 
 Home. 
 
 Strong objections were made against recognising the spiritual 
 governor of Rome and of all the Eoman Catholic population of 
 the world ; and it was said that the bill would neither conciliate 
 the affections of the Protestants nor satisfy the wishes of the 
 Roman Catholics, who had denounced it strongly to the Pope. 
 Mr. Gladstone dealt with the question in a broad and com- 
 prehensive manner. Although there were several reasons, be 
 urged, why it was painful to him to support this bill, he felt he 
 could not oppose its principle. It was unfortunate that they 
 were called upon to debate the question at that moment, when, 
 looking to the state of affairs in Italy, the whole of the subject- 
 matter in dispute would probably have passed away in a short 
 time. England must stand upon one of two grounds. If she 
 declined political communication with the See of Rome, she had 
 no right to complain of any steps which the Pope might take 
 with respect to the administration of his own ecclesiastical 
 affairs ; but an act so directly in contravention of the laws of the 
 land as the partitioning of the country into archbisoprics and 
 bishoprics was a most unfortunate proceeding ; not only because
 
 A MEMOKABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 99 
 
 it was generally and justly offensive to the feelings of the people 
 of England, and totally unnecessary, as he believed, for Roman 
 Catholic purposes, but also because it ill assorted with the 
 grounds on which the Parliament was invited by the present 
 bill to establish definite relations with the See of Kome 
 Although he could not decline to vote for the second reading, 
 he thought the Government ought to have postponed the 
 measure until the following session. For one hundred years 
 after the Reformation the Pope was actually in arms for the 
 purpose of recovering by force his lost dominion in this country. 
 It was only natural, therefore, that we should have prohibited 
 relations with the See of Rome when it attacked the title of the 
 Sovereign of these realms ; but there was no such reason for con- 
 tinuing the prohibition at the present moment. There was, 
 moreover, an inevitable necessity for a bill of this kind ; for 
 the enactment of the Irish Colleges Bill had rendered it 
 absolutely imperative for the Government to consult with the 
 Roman Catholic authorities as to the statutes by which they 
 were to be governed. It followed that if we had to communi- 
 cate with the Roman Catholic authorities, we must have to 
 communicate with the Pope, for a valid obligation could not be 
 made with the Court of Rome without communication with the 
 Pope himself. It was perfectly right and proper that such 
 communication should be direct and avowed instead of being 
 clandestine. He could not look to the state of Ireland and 
 recollect that there were men in that House charged with the 
 maintenance of peace in Ireland and refuse to give them any 
 aid not illegitimate which they might wish to make available for 
 this great purpose. He would not from any fear of being 
 misapprehended, and of being thought to entertain views 
 regarding future schemes which he would leave to be dealt 
 with when their time of ripeness came he would not, from 
 any such considerations, withhold his support from this measure. 
 
 Ten years before, the speech whose gist we have just given 
 or at least the exposition of the latter portion of its arguments 
 would have been an impossibility with Mr. Gladstone. But 
 to close observers of the changes being gradually wrought in 
 his convictions upon ecclesiastical questions, it would have added 
 one more straw indicating the direction of the current. Early 
 in the succeeding session another example was furnished of his 
 liberalising tendencies in matters of conscience. 
 
 Lord John Russell having moved that the House of Commons 
 resolve itself into a committee on the oaths to be taken by 
 members of the two Houses of Parliament, with a vie~w to 
 further relief upon this subject, Mr. Gladstone rose and said 
 
 H2
 
 100 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 that he should not shrink from stating his opinions thereon. 
 He was deliberately convinced that the civil and political claims 
 of the Jew to the discharge of civil and political duties ought 
 not, in justice, to be barred, and could not beneficially be 
 barred because of a difference in religion. But there were 
 sufficient grounds for going into committee independent of this 
 main purpose. Oaths, when taken by large masses of men, and 
 under associations not very favourable to solemn religious 
 feelings, had a tendency to degenerate into formalism. Nor 
 could he say that the present oaths had no words in them which 
 could not with advantage be omitted. At the same time he was 
 glad that the noble lord had retained the words ' on the true 
 faith of a Christian ' in respect to all Christian members of that 
 House. The measure now brought forward should have his 
 support at every stage. 
 
 In a subsequent debate upon Church rates, while opposing an 
 abstract resolution on the subject, he said that he felt as strongly 
 as any one the desirableness of settling this question, if they 
 could do so. The evils attending the existing system were 
 enormous, and we had certainly deviated in practice from 
 the original intention of the law, which was not to impose 
 a mere uncompensated burden upon any man, but a burden 
 for which every man bearing it should receive a benefit ; 
 so that while each member of the community was bound 
 to contribute his quota to the Church, every member of 
 the Church was entitled to go to the church-wardens and 
 demand a free place to worship his Maker in the house 
 of that Maker. The case at present was, and above all in 
 towns, that the centre and best parts of the church were occu- 
 pied by pews exclusively for the. middle classes, while the labour- 
 ing classes were jealously excluded from almost every part of 
 sight and hearing in the churches, and were treated in a 
 manner which was most painful to reflect upon. Matters 
 being in this unsatisfactory condition, they were bound to give 
 consideration to proposals for relief. While voting against any 
 and every abstract resolution, he would not oppose the introduc- 
 6ion of a bill dealing with the question, but was at any time 
 prepared to consider such a measure, though he might not be 
 able to give it his approval. 
 
 The Ministerial bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws 
 was re-introduced by Mr. Labouchere. During the debate on 
 the second reading of this measure one of the most important 
 of the session of 1849 Mr. Gladstone supported generally the 
 Government proposals in a remarkably full and exhaustive 
 speech. He dwelt upon the beneficial effects which had already
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE- 1841-185U. 101 
 
 resulted from a system of relaxation as regarded the Navigation 
 Laws. So far from this relaxation being destructive to our 
 shipping, the total tonnage had been steadily increasing. After 
 pointing out the compensations which the shipowner might 
 fairly demand from the Legislature on being deprived of protec- 
 tion, Mr. Gladstone said he had never entertained the notion 
 that we should proceed in this matter by treaties of reciprocity 
 with Foreign Powers. By adopting a policy of conditional 
 relaxation, they would avoid the dangers besetting a system of 
 reciprocity. Conditional relaxation would give to the vessels of 
 such States as conferred privileges upon our shipping correspond- 
 ing advantages in our ports. He considered that this plan had 
 the advantage over that proposed by the Government ; it was in 
 accordance with precedent and experience, was demanded by 
 justice, and would be found much more easy of execution. If 
 the Government would not consent to legislate on the subject 
 conditionally, he would advise it to do so directly, without the 
 accompaniment of retaliation. This plan would do more for the 
 general liberty of commerce than that which emanated from the 
 Treasury Bench. He also regarded the Government proposition 
 upon the coasting trade as defective, and prophesied that it 
 would be found ineffectual. Before we could expect to get the 
 boon of the American coasting trade, we must throw our own 
 coasting trade unreservedly open to that country. He was 
 aware that the Colonies were supposed to want an unconditional 
 repeal of the Navigation laws ; but they did not want such 
 a repeal with a reserved power of retaliation. Having once 
 tasted the sweets of unrestrained commercial intercourse with 
 the whole world, the Colonies would not be very ready to 
 return to the system of restriction, either wholly or partially, 
 should that system be reverted to by the mother-country, 
 either in whole or in part, by the exercise of the power of 
 retaliation. Mr. Gladstone therefore submitted to the Govern- 
 ment the propriety of erasing this feature from its plan, if 
 it was resolved to proceed upon the principle of unconditional 
 legislation. Another flaw in the Government scheme was the 
 contemplated removal of the inter-colonial trade and the direct 
 trade between the Colonies and foreign States from beyond the 
 jurisdiction of Parliament. Yet, notwithstanding these defects, 
 the speaker could not refuse his assent to the second reading of 
 the bill. Mr. Gladstone concluded by referring to the fears and 
 alarms expressed by the Marquis of Granby at the consequences 
 which might arise from a change in the Navigation Laws. ' The 
 noble Marquis,' he observed, ' desired to expel the vapours and 
 exhalations that had been raised with regard to the principle of
 
 102 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 political economy, and which vapours and exhalations I find 
 for the most part in the fears with which those changes 
 ;ire regarded. The noble Marquis consequently hoped that 
 the Trojan horse would not be allowed to come within 
 the walls of Parliament. But however applicable the figure 
 may be to other plans, it does not, I submit, apply to the mode 
 of proceeding I ventured to recommend to the House, because 
 we follow the precedent of what Mr. Huskisson did before us. 
 Therefore, more than one moiety of the Trojan horse has 
 already got within the citadel it has been there for twenty-five 
 years, and yet what has proceeded from its bowels has only 
 tended to augment the rate of increase in the progress of your 
 shipping. Therefore, let us not be alarmed by vague and 
 dreamy vaticinations of evil, which never had been wanting on 
 any occasion, and which never will be wanting so long as this is 
 a free State, wherein every man can find full vent and scope for 
 the expression not only of his principles, but of his prejudices 
 and his fears. Let us not be deterred by those apprehensions 
 from giving a calm and serious examination to this question, 
 connected as it is with the welfare of our country. Let us 
 follow steadily the lights of experience, and be convinced that 
 He who preserved us during the past will also be sufficient to 
 sustain us during all the dangers of the future.' 
 
 Although Mr. Labouchere stated that the Government could 
 not accept Mr. Gladstone's leading suggestions, on the motion 
 for going into committee on the bill, the President of the Board 
 of Trade announced a material alteration in the measure. 
 Originally, he had proposed, under certain modifications, to 
 admit foreign nations to a share of the coasting trade. He 
 now discovered that the proposal would involve a loss to the 
 revenue. The Head Commissioner of Customs had reported that 
 it would be a matter of extreme difficulty to frame any 
 regulations which would not leave the revenue exposed to the 
 greatest danger, if they allowed vessels, either British or foreign, 
 to combine the coasting with the foreign voyage. Under these 
 circumstances, he withdrew his proposal. Mr. Gladstone, after 
 observing that he had objected to this clause on the second 
 reading, proceeded to refer to the subject of conditional 
 legislation, and sketched a plan by which it might have been 
 carried out. It was not now his intention to propose an 
 amendment, but he wished that the Navigation Laws could' have 
 1 been repealed in such a manner as to prevent any serious shock 
 to the great interests involved. But the Government and the 
 party representing the views of the shipowners alike seemed to 
 prefer a decisive course upon the whole question : and as hia
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 103 
 
 intention had never been to propose any plan for the mere 
 purpose of obstruction, he thought that it would not now 
 conduce to the public advantage if, by submitting his plan, he 
 wasted the time of the House in fruitless discussions. As the 
 issue now was between the continuance of the present law and 
 its unconditional repeal, he would not be responsible for any 
 course which might result in retarding the repeal of the law, 
 preferring the plan of the Government, with all its defects, to the 
 continuance of the present system. 
 
 At a later stage of this important measure, viz., upon the 
 motion that the chairman report progress, a lively episode 
 occurred in consequence of a caustic speech by Mr. Disraeli. 
 The honourable gentleman alluded to the ' great sacrifices ' 
 which had been made by Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Gladstone. 
 The former had withdrawn ten of the most important clauses 
 of his bill, which did not now differ from the measure of 
 last year ; and Mr. Gladstone, imitating the President of the 
 Board of Trade, announced that he also was about to give up 
 that great development of the principle of reciprocity which the 
 House had awaited with so much suspense fie was reminded 
 by their conduct of that celebrated day in the French Kevolution 
 when the nobles and the prelates vied with each other in 
 throwing coronets and mitres to the dust, as useless appendages. 
 The day was still called ' the day of dupes,' and he hoped the 
 House and the country, in recalling the incidents of that evening, 
 would not be reminded that they might have had some share in 
 the appellation. The Bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws 
 had that evening received a paralytic stroke. There was distress 
 out of doors, and the people complained of the precipitate 
 and ill-advised legislation of the Government, which had 
 perniciously affected the great interests of the country. 
 Mr. Disraeli concluded his clever and very severe attack upon, 
 the conduct of the Government by affirming that they were 
 not only injuring and destroying the material interests 
 of the nation, but were laying the foundation of a stock 
 of political discontent, which would do more than diminish 
 the revenues of the kingdom and the fortunes of its subjects 
 which might shake the institutions of the country to their 
 centre. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone replied to the strictures upon himself. Two- 
 charges had been made against him first, that having under- 
 taken to explain in committee the reasons which led him 
 to prefer the mode of proceeding by conditional legislation 
 to the direct legislation proposed by the Government, he had 
 failed to fulfil that pledge ; secondly, that in stating his reasons
 
 104 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 for refraining from pressing his proposals upon the House he had 
 been inconsistent. He knew that he should have been supported 
 in the outset, but not with a bond fide acceptance of his 
 proposition ; it was merely wished to make a tool of him against 
 a plan of which in its general objects he approved, and then to 
 abandon him on the third reading of the bill. For these reasons 
 he would not embarrass the Government. As to the charge of 
 having given a pledge which he had failed to fulfil, he appealed 
 to the recollections of every member whether he had not stated 
 most distinctly that he would exercise his own discretion as to 
 making any proposal in the committee. Though differing from the 
 Government in important particulars, he was not willing to risk 
 the rejection of their measure. Mr. Disraeli himself (continued 
 the right hon. gentleman) saw that the course he had pursued was 
 one favourable to the objects he had in view, or he would not have 
 made that attack upon him. 'I am perfectly satisfied to bear his sar- 
 casm, good-humoured and brilliant as it is, while I can appeal to 
 his judgment as to whether the step I have taken was unbecoming 
 in one who conscientiously differs with him on the freedom of 
 trade, and has endeavoured to realise it ; because, so far from its 
 being the cause of the distress of the country, it has been, under 
 the mercy of God, the most signal and effectual means of miti- 
 gating this distress, and accelerating the dawn of the day of 
 returning prosperity.' Mr. Gladstone spoke frequently in com- 
 mittee upon this bill, which eventually passed by a substantial 
 majority. 
 
 Another subject, and one of very grave importance, that came 
 before the House in the session of 1849, arose out of the affairs 
 of Canada, which, by the month of May, were in a most serious 
 condition. Riots, involving the loss of considerable property, had 
 "broken out, while in Montreal menacing demonstrations against 
 her Majesty's representative had taken place. Lord Elgin, the 
 Governor-General, had given his assent to the Rebellion Losses 
 Indemnity Bill, a measure which provided compensation to 
 parties whose property had been destroyed during the rebellion 
 in 1837-8. The Tory party in Canada had opposed this bill with 
 might and main, but unsuccessfully. When Lord Elgin returned 
 from the Parliament House, after having giving his assent to it, 
 he was stoned by the populace. The streets were filled by an 
 exasperated mob ; the Parliament House was attacked and 
 burned down ; and the houses of some of the Ministers were 
 sacked. Intense excitement prevailed in the province, and 
 England itself was greatly agitated by the news of these 
 disturbances. They became the subject of debate in both 
 Houses. In the Commons, Mr. Roebuck entreated the House
 
 A MEMOEABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 105 
 
 to beware how they interfered with the rational and proper 
 constitutional expression of their opinion by the Canadians. 
 The money about to be appropriated was the money of 
 Canada, and not the money of England. Mr. Gladstone, while 
 agreeing that the subject was not as yet ripe for judgment, 
 maintained that the House of Commons had a perfect right 
 to interfere in all imperial concerns. The fact that this money 
 was the money of Canada was not of itself a conclusive reason 
 against interference, if upon other grounds it should seem to 
 be called for. The very fact that the sanction of the Crown 
 was required and given must bring the matter within the 
 cognisance and jurisdiction of that House. 
 
 On the motion for going into Committee of Supply on the 
 14th of June, Mr. Gladstone formally introduced the whole 
 subject of the Canadian difficulties, by calling attention 
 to certain parts of the Indemnity Bill. The question, he 
 maintained, was of the first importance, involving the very 
 principles and duties of Government, and touching the 
 very foundation of all social order. Passing by the 
 conduct of Lord Elgin and that of her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, he should confine himself strictly to imperial 
 considerations. The first question they had to consider was 
 whether the Indemnity Act was passed for the purpose of 
 indemnifying, or was intended to embrace the indemnification of 
 persons who had borne arms against the State ? Secondly, could 
 it be said that such an act of legislation involved imperial 
 consideration ? and thirdly, if so, was it consistent or at variance 
 with the honour and dignity of the Crown? Upon the second 
 and third questions, no serious doubt could be felt as to this 
 being an imperial consideration, and that such a measure would 
 be inconsistent with the honour of the Crown. Mr. Gladstone 
 then pointed out the ambiguities in the Act, which would let in 
 claims for indemnity of persons who had been guilty of high 
 treason. He next showed by a series of facts and illustrations 
 that the evident intention of the framers of the Act was not to 
 treat participation in the rebellion as a disqualification. He 
 denied that the sense of the Canadian people had been 
 unequivocally expressed in favour of this Act ; but if it had been, 
 he denied that this should be an ultimate criterion, or be 
 regarded as conclusive upon a question involving the highest 
 considerations, which appertained to the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment alone. Mr. Gladstone did not argue for disannulling 
 the Act, but he asked from the Government .an assurance 
 that rebels should not be compensated under it, and 
 that reasonable prima fcwie evidence should be forth-
 
 106 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 coming, before parties received any public money, that they 
 had not taken part in the rebellion. If the Government 
 did not give this assurance, he recommended that the House 
 should suspend the final ratification of the Act until the 
 Colonial Legislature had had an opportunity of amending it. : 
 
 Lord John Russell replied, contending that Mr. Gladstone'? 
 speech would tend to aggravate the dissensions in Canada, and 
 to embitter the feelings of hostile parties. He avowed at once 
 the intention of the Government to leave the Act in operation. 
 Upon this Mr. Herries moved an address to her Majesty to 
 withhold her assent to the measure, but his proposition was 
 defeated by 291 votes to 150. 
 
 The subject of colonial reform came before the House on 
 several occasions, directly and indirectly, during this session. 
 An abortive motion by Mr. Roebuck, for leave to bring in a 
 bill for the better government of our colonial possessions, 
 received Mr. Gladstone's support. He was not inclined to 
 throw all the blame upon the Colonial Minister, for he believed 
 the evil lay much deeper. No measure could pass that session, 
 but it would be important that the plan of the bill should go out 
 in a tangible shape to the different colonies, in order to enable 
 them to offer such suggestions as would be of practical use 
 towards maturing the scheme in a future session. The motion 
 was negatived by 116 to 73. But on the 26th of June the 
 subject was re-opened, on a motion of Sir W. Molesworth, for an 
 address to the Queen, praying 'that her Majesty will be 
 graciously pleased to issue a commission to inquire into the 
 administration of her Majesty's colonial possessions, with a view of 
 removing the causes of colonial complaint, diminishing the cost 
 of colonial government, and giving free scope to individual 
 enterprise in the business of colonising.' The motion was 
 seconded by Mr. Hume, and Mr. Gladstone supported it, though 
 he recognised that some objection might be taken to its terms. 
 Lord Grey, notwithstanding his talents and his services, had 
 been led into serious errors, which called for preventive measures. 
 The time had come when an attempt should be made to improve 
 our colonial system, and Mr. Gladstone based his opinion not 
 upon one single consideration, but upon the joint result of many. 
 A commission appointed by the Executive Government, and 
 acting in harmony with that Government, would lead to many 
 useful results. After having touched upon various questions 
 connected with our colonial policy, the right hon. gentleman 
 concluded by expressing his belief that if they studied the 
 welfare of the colonies, it would be the way to maintain our 
 connection with them, and to maintain that which was even
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 107 
 
 more important than the mere political connection between the 
 colonies and this country namely, the love of the colonies foi 
 the mother-country, and a desire to imitate the laws and 
 institutions of the great country from which they had sprung. 
 Sir W. Molesworth's motion, however, was unsuccessful a 
 majority of 74 appearing against it on a division. 
 
 When Mr. J. Stuart Wortley introduced his bill for the 
 purpose of removing the legal restriction against marriage with 
 ;i deceased wife's sister, Mr. Gladstone strongly opposed the 
 measure upon theological, social, and moral grounds. He 
 begged the House to respect the sentiment of nearly the entire 
 country by rejecting the bill. To do otherwise would be to 
 inflict upon the Church the misfortune of having anarchy 
 introduced amongst its ministers. He hoped they would do all 
 that in them lay to maintain the strictness of the obligations of 
 marriage, and the purity of the hallowed sphere of domestic life. 
 In the end the bill was rejected. 
 
 One of the chief topics discussed in the Parliamentary session 
 of 1850 was the great depression which still affected the 
 agricultural interests of the country. Although the nation was 
 tranquil, and the state of the revenue satisfactory, and although 
 our foreign trade had largely increased, the farmers still made 
 loud complaints of their disastrous condition, which they 
 attributed to Free Trade measures. The whole of the agricul- 
 tural interests had, they alleged, been seriously affected. 
 Consequently, on the 19th of February, Mr. Disraeli moved fora 
 committee of the whole House to consider such a revision of the 
 Poor Laws of the United Kingdom as might mitigate the distress 
 of the agricultural classes. Sir James Graham strongly opposed 
 the motion ; but Mr. Gladstone supported it, and entered at 
 length into the reasons which led him to differ from his right 
 lion, friend upon the subject. If he saw in the motion then 
 before the House a reversal of the policy of Free Trade, he stated 
 that he should join in offering the firmest resistance to such a 
 course. He did not agree with Sir J. Graham as to the effects 
 of the motion upon the recent commercial policy, or upon the 
 stability of the Administration. No one, by voting for the 
 motion, would be committed to these views. Mr. Disraeli had 
 urged that there was a considerable portion of the charges con- 
 nected with the Poor Law which might be transferred to the 
 Consolidated Fund, without detracting from the advantages of 
 local management or impairing the stimulus which local man- 
 agement .gave to economy. Concurring with him in that opinion, 
 he (Mr. Gladstone) was prepared to go into committee, and to 
 consider what establishment charges, or what other charges there
 
 108 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 were upon the poor-rates (whether in England, Scotland, or 
 Ireland), or what expenses of management there were which, 
 without injury to the great principle of local control, might be 
 advantageously transferred to the Consolidated Fund. The 
 motion could not be construed into a return of Protec- 
 tion, and in fact it had rather a tendency to weaken the 
 arguments in favour of a retrograde policy, and to draw off 
 the moderate Protectionists. He would vote for this motion 
 on the ground upon which his right hon. friend had declared 
 he should resist it the ground of justice. It was impossible 
 to look at the nature of the tax for the support of the poor 
 without being struck by the inequality of its incidence. The 
 rate was levied locally for two reasons : first, for the purposes of 
 police, and secondly for the discharge of a sacred obligation 
 enforced upon us by religion. The rate ought to fall upon all 
 descriptions of property, taking an abstract view ; and though this 
 might be impracticable, that objection did not lie against the 
 motion before the House. With regard to the position of the 
 landed interest, they were asking at present to be relieved from 
 only a portion of the burden which had descended to them. 
 They did inherit poor-rates with their land, but they also 
 inherited with it a protective system, which had given to this 
 property an artificial value a system which he admitted was as 
 contrary to abstract justice as the inequality of the incidence of 
 the poor-rate, which, on the ground of this protective system 
 being thus contrary to abstract justice, the House had effectually 
 destroyed. Mr. Gladstone entirely differed from Sir James 
 Graham as to the class which would be relieved by the transfer 
 of the rate. He believed that the farmer and the independent 
 yeoman would be the persons to benefit by the change ; and even 
 if the landlord should ultimately receive the entire benefit, that 
 would not be a fatal objection to the motion. The condition of 
 the farming class and of the agricultural labourers in a large 
 portion of England, to say nothing of Ireland, was such as to 
 demand the careful attention and consideration of the House. 
 He trusted something to the spirit of liberality and conciliation ; 
 but he trusted likewise that some who might not consider the 
 claim as exactly one which could be mathematically demon- 
 strated to be one of justice, but who regarded it as a claim 
 connected with the gallant struggle of the farmers a ad yeomen, 
 and with the independent condition of a large portion of the 
 peasantry of the country he trusted that there were many such 
 who would not hesitate to give their support to a proposition, 
 the reasonableness of which was, to his mind, clear and satisfac- 
 tory Loth in its substance and spirit.
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 109 
 
 Mr. Disraeli's motion was negatived by a narrow majority, the 
 numbers being For the resolution, 252 ; against, 273. Mr. 
 Gladstone voted in the minority, and Sir Robert Peel in the 
 majority. 
 
 Another important question of this session was the proposed 
 extension of the benefits of constitutional government to certain 
 of the colonial dependencies. In a comprehensive speech, Lord 
 John Russell unfolded the details of the Government policy on 
 this subject, and introduced the Australian Colonies Government 
 Bill. This measure was combated at every stage. In the outset, 
 referring to the proposition for a single chamber, Mr. Gladstone 
 said he should hereafter press upon the House the expediency of 
 having a double chamber in the scheme of the Australian consti- 
 tutions. When the colonists knew that the Cape was to have an 
 elective upper chamber they would desire one too. Accordingly, 
 when Mr. Walpole moved his amendment, the object of which was 
 to establish two chambers, one nominated by the Crown, the other 
 elected by the colonists, Mr. Gladstone supported the separation 
 into two chambers. The original clause, however, was carried by 
 198 to 147. On the bringing up of the report, Sir W. Moles- 
 worth moved that the bill be recommitted for the purpose of omit- 
 ting all clauses which empowered the Colonial Office to disallow 
 colonial laws, to cause colonial bills to be reserved, and to 
 instruct colonial governors as to their conduct in the local 
 affairs of the colonies, and for the purpose of adding clauses 
 defining imperial and colonial powers. Mr. Gladstone, in 
 explaining his vote in favour of this motion, said it was a most 
 important and valuable object to emancipate the colonies from 
 the control of the Government at home, as far as was consistent 
 with imperial interests. The difficulties suggested were not a 
 sufficient answer to a motion for considering whether it was not 
 practicable to devise a sufficiently strict enumeration of imperial 
 questions, and thereby get rid of a great portion of the 
 machinery of an administrative department which had of 
 necessity worked in a way to cause painful disputes. Sir W. 
 Molesworth's motion having been rejected, Mr. Gladstone then 
 moved the insertion of a clause empowering the bishop, clergy, 
 and laity of the Church of England in any colonial diocese to 
 meet, and by mutual consent make regulations for the conduct 
 of their ecclesiastical affairs, guarding the enactment with 
 various provisoes. 
 
 The proposed clause was opposed by Mr. Labouchere and 
 others, and upon a division it was rejected by 187 votes 
 to 102. Mr. Gladstone, notwithstanding, carried his opposi- 
 tion to the Government measure to its final stage. On
 
 110 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the order for the third reading on the 13th of May, he 
 moved an amendment with the object of suspending the 
 passing of the bill until the colonies should have had an oppor- 
 tunity of considering its provisions, in conjunction with the 
 proposals varying from them which had been su bmitted to the 
 House. There was nothing strange, he maintained, in the 
 demand for delay, and they had no proof that the wishes of the 
 colonists in general were in favour of the bill. He adduced 
 evidence to prove that any of its provisions were repugnant to 
 their declared wishes. He objected to the bill in that it per- 
 mitted, and even required, the constant interference and review 
 of the authorities at home in the local affairs of the colonies , 
 that it authorised the creation, at the requisition of two colonies, 
 of a General Assembly, to exercise a legislative power over all : 
 that it bequeathed, as the last act of imperial legislation for the 
 colonies, a constitution which entrusted the great work of colonial 
 legislation to a single chamber in each colony, and that chamber 
 composed in part of Government nominees. He complained that 
 they had never given the colonists a chance of a double chamber 
 at all, while the very Grovernment which had denied this chance 
 to the Australian colonists had given to the colonists of the Cape 
 of Good Hope a chamber of representatives and a legislative 
 council based upon the principle of election. On a division, the 
 motion was lost by 226 against 128. Mr. Gladstone acted as 
 teller in this division, his colleague being his seconder, Mr. 
 Eoebuck. In the minority, supporting Mr. Gladstone, were 
 Mr. Disraeli, Mr. J. Evelyn Denison, Mr. Sidney Herbert, 
 Mr. Goulburn, Mr. R. Palmer, and Mr. Walpole. Looking back 
 upon this division list, and upon Mr. Gladstone's co-teller and 
 supporters, we are tempted to exclaim over the many Parliamen- 
 tary changes that have since occurred as Wycherley said in 
 contemplating the portrait of his youth Quantum mutatus 
 ab illo ! 
 
 Twice during the session Mr. Gladstone addressed the House 
 on questions connected with slavery. On the 31st of May, Sir 
 Edward N. Buxton brought forward the following resolution : 
 ' That it is unjust and impolitic to expose the free-grown sugar of 
 the British Colonies and possessions abroad to unrestricted compe- 
 tition with the sugar of foreign slave-trading countries.' The 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed the motion on the ground 
 that it would check the growing spirit of energy in the West 
 Indies, and inspire the delusive hope of a revival of Protection. 
 Mr. Gladstone supported the motion, but asked for only a limited 
 period of Protection, exceptional circumstances seeming to 
 demand it. It was not emancipation, he said, which had
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. Ill 
 
 ruined the West Indies, but the false policy that succeeded it ; 
 for the artificial scarcity of labour in the islands Parliament was 
 responsible. Sir R. Peel had referred to the West Indies as 
 being an exception from the general category of Free Trade. If 
 the evils from which the sugar-growing colonies were suffer- 
 ing could be cured by the restoration of Protection, he (Mr. 
 Gladstone) would vote for it. But though they could not be, he was 
 still of opinion that the scale of duties ought to be arrested in its 
 descent. The negro population had fallen back in the social 
 scale, and this question vitally affected them as well as the ill- 
 used West India proprietors. He claimed for the latter a fixed 
 period of Protection, which would enable them to surmount their 
 present difficulties. Lord Palmerston touched upon the various 
 inconsistencies of the debate, insisting (not altogether fairly) 
 that Mr. Gladstone intended to vote for a resolution to perpetuate 
 Protection, a system which he condemned. Sir E. N. Buxton's 
 motion was negatived by 275 against 234. The second debate 
 connected with slavery (which, in fact, preceded in point of time 
 that on Sir E. N. Buxton's motion) arose on a resolution proposed 
 by Mr. Hutt for an address to the Crown to direct that negotia- 
 tions be forthwith entered into for the purpose of releasing this 
 country from all treaty engagements with foreign States for 
 maintaining armed vessels on the coast of Africa to suppress the 
 traffic in slaves. The motion was defeated by a considerable 
 majority. Mr. Gladstone, in supporting it, stated that he joined 
 with those who stigmatised the slave trade as a detestable traffic ; 
 but as regarded the system of armed repression, it had long ago 
 been pronounced futile by Sir F. Buxton ; it had also been 
 condemned by Lord John Russell, and by the most responsible 
 and credible witnesses. Not only had the squadron failed to 
 extinguish the trade, but it had made no progress towards 
 extinction ; and Mr. Gladstone read statements in support of 
 his assertion. The success of our squadron in Africa would be 
 visionary unless we repealed the Sugar Duties Act, doubled 
 the squadron, obtained the right of search from France and 
 America, with power to punish foreign crews ; and finally Spain 
 and Brazil must be forced to fulfil their treaties. But the 
 object England had in view eluded her grasp ; the slave trader 
 mocked at our vigilance ; and while they were in pursuit of 
 that end which philanthropists held most dear, they were only 
 increasing those sufferings which it was their object and desire 
 to prevent. 
 
 Upon a motion being brought forward by Mr. Heywood for an 
 inquiry into the state of the English and Irish universities, the 
 Government unexpectedly gave their consent to the issuing of a
 
 112 WILLIAM ETVAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Royal Commission for that purpose. In the course of the debate, 
 Mr. Gladstone said that any person who might be deliberating 
 with himself whether he would devote a portion of his substance 
 for prosecuting the objects of learning, civilisation, and religion, 
 would be checked by the prospect that at any given time, and under 
 any given circumstances, a Minister, who was the creature of a 
 political majority, might institute a State inquiry into the mode 
 in which the funds he might devise were administered. It was 
 not wise to discourage eleemosynary establishments. Yet while 
 lie pleaded the cause of the English universities, he admitted 
 that they had not done for learning all that they might have 
 done ; but they had. nevertheless, answered the circumstances of 
 the times, and the exigencies of the country. It would be better 
 for the Crown to see what could be done to improve the colleges 
 under its control by administering the existing law, rather than 
 to issue the proposed Commission. 
 
 But the most important debate of this session and one in 
 which the whole foreign policy of the Government was virtually 
 challenged arose out of the affairs of Greece. The facts lay in 
 a comparatively small compass. The Greek Government having 
 refused to afford compensation in response to certain demands 
 which the English Government had made on account of the 
 claims of specified British subjects, Admiral Sir Wm. Parker 
 was directed to proceed to Athens, for the purpose of obtaining 
 satisfaction. Failing in this, the Admiral blockaded the Piraeus. 
 The news of this somewhat high-handed proceeding produced 
 dissatisfaction in certain quarters in England, the policy being 
 condemned as unworthy of the dignity, and discreditable to the 
 reputation, of a power like Great Britain. The debates in both 
 Houses initiated upon this Greek question took a wider scope than 
 the facts just enumerated, and eventually included our relations 
 with France. The stability of the Whig administration depended 
 upon the results of the discussions. Lord Palmerston, whose 
 policy as Foreign Minister was thus assailed, before the great 
 debate in the House of Commons came on, tendered an explana- 
 tion of the circumstances attending the withdrawal of the French 
 Minister from London, and related the proceedings which had 
 taken place on the part of the representatives of both 
 Governments ; alleging also his strong desires to conciliate 
 the French Government, and to restore an amicable 
 understanding between the two countries. In the House of 
 Lords, upon a resolution moved by Lord Stanley, the 
 Government found themselves in a minority of 37. This gave 
 the impending debate in the Commons additional importance, 
 the fall of the Ministry following as a natural consequence,
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE- 1841-1850. 113 
 
 unless the Lower House should reverse the condemnation 
 pronounced by the Upper. Mr. Koebuck much to the surprise 
 of many came to the'defence of the Government, by proposing 
 the following motion : ' That the principles which have hitnerto 
 regulated the foreign policy of her Majesty's Government are 
 such as were required to preserve untarnished the honour and 
 dignity of this country, and, in times of unexampled difficulty, 
 the best calculated to maintain peace between England and the 
 various nations of the world.' The debate commenced on the 
 24th of June, and extended over four nights. It was marked on 
 both sides of the House by speeches of unusual oratorical 
 excellence and brilliancy. Sir Kobert Peel delivered a powerful 
 speech against Ministers, and one memorable now, not only for 
 its eloquence, but also from the melancholy fact that it was the 
 last speech he was fated to deliver before that assembly in 
 whose midst he had so long been a conspicuous figure. 
 Lord Palmerston energetically defended his policy in a 
 speech of nearly five hours' duration. At its close he challenged 
 the verdict of the House whether the principles which had 
 guided the foreign policy of her Majesty's Ministers had been 
 proper and fitting, and whether, as a subject of ancient Home 
 could hold himself free from indignity by saying Civis Romanus 
 sum, a British subject in a foreign country should not be 
 protected by the vigilant eye and the str6ng arm of the 
 Government against injustice and wrong. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's speech in a rhetorical sense was worthy of the 
 occasion, and fully entitled to rank with the remarkable orations 
 of Lord Palmerston, Sir Kobert Peel, Mr. Cockburn, Mr. Cobden,. 
 and Mr. Disraeli. It was trenchant and exhaustive, producing 
 a great effect on the House. Touching first upon the position 
 of the Government, and the constitutional doctrines which they 
 had laid down in regard to it, Mr. Gladstone severely condemned 
 the conduct of the First Minister of the Crown in sitting down 
 contentedly under the censure of the House of Lords, and ia 
 sheltering himself under precedents which were in reality no 
 precedents at all. The champion of the Government, the hon.. 
 member for Sheffield, had not deemed it prudent to raise the 
 same issue as that raised in the House of Lords, but had shifted 
 his issue, in order to enlist in favour of Lord Palmerston the 
 sympathies of those who believed that he studied to promote 
 popular principles. There was an indication of a very great 
 unwillingness to meet the discussion upon the affairs of Greece. 
 With reference to this Greek question, he (Mr. Gladstone) 
 repudiated precedents which involved the conduct of strong 
 countries against weak ones. He then examined the cases upon 
 
 I "
 
 114 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 which the main issue depended. In that of Stellio Sumachi 
 no redress had been demanded ; his wrongs, which, if true, 
 were most serious, remained to that hour unrequited ; if he 
 was tortured, he had not even twenty pounds' worth of 
 consolation, nor had the police officers charged with maltreat- 
 ing him been dismissed. Then there was the case of Mr. 
 Finlay, even more important still, in which there came out 
 the grand question, how the relations of British subjects, 
 domiciled in foreign countries, were to be regulated. Where the 
 law of the country was applicable to the case, it had been 
 admitted that the tribunals must first be resorted to. The law 
 applied in this case, yet, although Mr. Finlay was bound to go 
 before those tribunals to which he had always been referred by 
 the Greek Government, diplomatic measures had been employed 
 in his behalf. The Greek Government threw no impediment 
 in the way of arbitration. Baron Gros, who acted as the 
 representative of France, stated most distinctly that the 
 reason why the arbitration had made no progress was this: 
 that Mr. Finlay, who was the complaining party, and whose 
 duty it was to make his case before the arbitrators, did not 
 produce the necessary documents and proofs of his claim. 
 The case of M. Pacifico stood upon the same footing as that 
 of Mr. Finlay ; if the Courts were not resorted to, a recourse 
 to diplomatic action was unjustifiable. Under ordinary circum- 
 stances, the character of M. Pacifico would not matter one straw 
 in considering his claims to compensation ; but M. Pacifico 
 himself compelled the House to examine rather narrowly into 
 the question of his character. With regard to the enormous 
 claims on his behalf claims amounting to something like 
 30,000 out of a total of 32,000 or 33,000 it was a fact that 
 the whole of the allegations respecting these claims rested 
 entirely on his personal credit. After a close examination of 
 the details of the claims, Mr. Gladstone asked Did M. Pacifico 
 seek civil redress ? No, he did not even attempt it ; all such 
 complaints were received without scrutiny by the British 
 Minister, and reprisals were made upon Greek property to the 
 amount of 80,000. In summing up his charges against Lord 
 Palmerston, Mr. Gladstone affirmed that instead of trusting and 
 trying the tribunals of the country, and employing diplomatic 
 agency simply as a supplemental resource, he had interposed at 
 once in the cases of Mr. Finlay and M. Pacifico the authority of 
 foreign power, in contravention both of the particular stipula- 
 tions of the treaty in force between this country and Greece, 
 and of the general principles of the law of nations ; and had thus 
 set the mischievous example of abandoning the methods of law
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 115 
 
 and order, in order to repair to those of force. The fru^t of this 
 policy had been humiliation in regard to France, and a lesson 
 received without reply from the Autocrat of all the Kussias. 
 Non-interference had been laid down as the basis of our conduct 
 towards other nations ; but the policy of Lord Palmerston had 
 been characterised by a spirit of active interference. British 
 influence might, on fit occasions, be exercised with other coun- 
 tries to extend institutions from which we derived so much 
 benefit ; but we were not to make occasions, and become pro- 
 pagandists of even sound political doctrines. No Minister could 
 really protect Englishmen, except upon principles of policy 
 which universal consent had prescribed for the government of 
 nations. Mr. Gladstone then replied in the following terms to 
 Lord Palmerston's allusion to the Koman citizen : 
 
 ' Sir, great as is the influence and power of Britain, she cannot afford to follow, 
 for any length of time, a self-isolating policy. It would be a contravention of the 
 law of nature and of God, if it were possible for any single nation of Christendom 
 to emancipate itself from the obligations which bind all other nations, and 
 to arrogate, in the face of mankind, a position of peculiar privilege. And now I 
 will grapple with the noble lord on the ground which he selected for himself, in 
 the most triumphant portion of his speech, by his reference to those emphatic 
 words, Civis Romanus sum. He vaunted, amidst the cheers of his supporters, that 
 under his administration an Englishman should be, throughout the world, what 
 the citizen of Rome had been. What then, sir, was a Roman citizen ? He was the 
 member of a privileged caste ; he belonged to a conquering race, to a nation that 
 held all others bound down by the strong arm of power. For him 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, 
 then, the view of the noble lord as to the relation which is to subsist between 
 England and other countries ? Does he make the claim for us that we are to be 
 uplifted upon a platform high above the standing-ground of all other nations ? 
 It is, indeed, too clear, not only from the expressions but from the whole tone 
 of the speech of the noble viscount, that too much of this notion is lurking in his 
 mind ; that he adopts, in part, that vain conception that we, forsooth, have a mission 
 to be the censors of vice and folly, of abuse and imperfection, among the other 
 countries of the world ; that we are to be the universal schoolmasters ; and that 
 all those who hesitate to recognise our office can be governed only by prejudice 
 or personal animosity, and should have the blind war of diplomacy forthwith 
 declared against them. And certainly, if the business of a Foreign Secretary 
 properly were to carry on diplomatic wars, all must admit that the noble lord 
 is a master in the discharge of his functions. What, sir, ought a Foreign Secretary 
 to be? Is he to be like some gallant knight at a tournament of old, pricking 
 forth into the lists, armed at all points, confiding in his sinews and his skill, 
 challenging all comers for the sake of honour, and having no other duty than to 
 lay as many as possible of his adversaries sprawling in the dust ? If such is the 
 idea of a good Foreign Secretary, I, for one, would vote to the noble lord his 
 present appointment for his life. But, sir, I do not understand the duty of a 
 Secretary for Foreign Affairs to be of such a character. I understand it to be his 
 duty to conciliate peace with dignity. I think it to be the very first of all his 
 duties studiously to observe, and to exalt in honour among mankind, that great 
 code of principles which is termed the law of nations, which the honourable and 
 learned member for Sheffield has found, indeed, to be very vague in their nature, 
 and greatly dependent on the discretion of each particular country, but in which I 
 find, on the contrary, a great and noble monument of human wisdom, founded on 
 the combined dictates of reason and experience, a precious inheritance bequeathed 
 to us by the generations that have gone before us, and a firm foundation on which 
 we must take care to build whatever it may be our part to add to their acquisi- 
 
 I 2
 
 116 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 tions, if, indeed, we wish to maintain and to consolidate the brotherhood of nations 
 and to promote the peace and welfare of the world.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone went on to contend that it was our insular temper, 
 and our self-glorifying tendency, which the policy of the noble 
 lord, and the doctrines of his supporters, tended so much to 
 strengthen, and which had given to that policy the quarrelsome 
 character that marked some of their speeches. Then came the 
 peroration of his speech : 
 
 ' Sir, I say the policy of the noble, lord tends to encourage and confirm in us that 
 which is our besetting fault and weakness, both as a nation and as individuals. 
 Let an Englishman travel where he will as a private person, he is found in general 
 to be upright, high-minded, brave, liberal, and true ; but with all this, foreigners 
 are too often sensible of something that galls them in his presence, and I appre- 
 hend it is because he has too great a tendency to self-esteem too little disposition 
 to regard the feelings, the habits, and the ideas of others. Sir, I find this character- 
 istic too plainly legible in the policy of the noble lord. I doubt not that use will be 
 made of our present debate to work upon this peculiar weakness of the English 
 mind. The people will be told that those who oppose the motion are governed by 
 personal motives, have no regard for public principles, no enlarged ideas of national 
 policy. You will take your case before a favourable jury, and you think to gain 
 your verdict ; but, sir, let the House of Commons be warned let it warn itself 
 against all illusions. There is in this case also a course of appeal. There is an 
 appeal, such as the honourable and learned member for Sheffield has made, from 
 the one House of Parliament to the other. There is a further appeal from this 
 House of Parliament to the people of England ; but, lastly, there is also an appeal 
 from the people of England to the general sentiment of the civilised world ; and I, 
 for my part, am of opinion that England will stand shorn of a chief part of her 
 glory 'and pride if she shall be found to have separated herself, through the policy 
 she pursues abroad, from the moral supports which the general and fixed convic- 
 tions of mankind afford if the day shall come when she may continue to excite 
 the wonder and the fear of other nations, but in which she shall have no part in 
 their affection and regard. 
 
 No, sir, let it not be so ; let us recognise, and recognise with frankness, the equality 
 of the weak with the strong ; the principles of brotherhood among nations, and of 
 their sacred independence. When we are asking for the maintenance of the rights 
 which belong to our fellow-subjects resident in Greece, let us do as we would be done 
 by, and let us pay all the respect to a feeble State, and to the infancy of free insti- 
 tutions, which we should desire and should exact from others towards their 
 maturity and their strength. Let us refrain from all gratuitous and arbitrary 
 meddling in the internal concerns of other States, even as we should resent the same 
 interference if it were attempted to be practised towards ourselves. If the noble 
 lord has indeed acted on these principles, let the Government to which he belongs 
 have your verdict in its favour ; but if he has departed from them, as I contend, 
 and as I humbly think and urge upon you that it has been too amply proved, then 
 the House of Commons must not shrink from the performance of its duty under 
 whatever expectations of momentary obloquy or reproach, because we shall have 
 done what is right ; we shall enjoy the peace of our own consciences, and receive, 
 whether a little sooner or a little later, the approval of the public voice for having 
 entered our solemn protest against a system of policy which we believe, nay, which 
 we know, whatever may be its first aspect, must, of necessity, in its final results 
 be unfavourable even to the security of British subjects resident abroad, which it 
 professes so much to study unfavourable to the dignity of the country, which the 
 motion of the honourable and learned member asserts it preserves and equally 
 unfavourable to that other great and sacred object, which also it suggests to our 
 recollection, the maintenance of peace with the nations of the world.' 
 
 In a debating sense, this speech was the finest which Mr. 
 Gladstone had yet delivered in the House of Commons, and its 
 power was acknowledged by members on both sides of the House.
 
 A MEMOEABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 117 
 
 The importance attached to it may be gathered from a sentence 
 in the speech of Mr. (now Lord Chief Justice) Cockburn, who on 
 the following night rose to reply to it. Referring to Mr. 
 Gladstone, the distinguished advocate said, ' I suppose we are 
 now to consider him as the representative of Lord Stanley in this 
 House Gladstone vice Disraeli, am I to say, resigned or 
 superseded ?' On a division upon Mr. Roebuck's motion, the 
 Government succeeded in obtaining a majority of 46, the 
 numbers being Ayes, 310 ; Noes, 264. 
 
 A lamentable accident which occurred to Sir Robert Peel on 
 the 29th June, 1850, deprived England of one of her most 
 illustrious statesmen. It appears that only a few minutes before 
 this sad incident, Sir Robert had called at Buckingham Palace 
 for the purpose of leaving his card upon her Majesty. In pro- 
 ceeding up Constitution Hill he had met one of Lady Dover's 
 daughters, and exchanged salutes with her. Immediately after- 
 wards his horse became slightly restive, swerved towards the 
 rails of the Green Park, and threw Sir Robert sideways on 
 his left shoulder. Assistance was speedily at hand Dr. 
 Foucart amongst others having witnessed the accident, and 
 hastened to the spot. On being raised, Sir Robert groaned 
 heavily, and in reply to the question whether he was much hurt, 
 said, ' Yes, very much.' He was conveyed home, but the effect 
 of meeting his family was extremely painful, and he swooned in 
 the arms of Dr. Foucart. He was placed upon a sofa in the 
 dining-room, and from this room he was never removed. A 
 consultation was held between Sir Benjamin Brodie, Mr. Cesar 
 Hawkins, Dr. Seymour, and Mr. Hodgson, but Sir Robert's 
 sufferings were so acute, that a minute examination of his 
 injuries could not be made. He lingered for two or three days 
 before the end came. An examination made after death 
 disclosed the important fact that the fifth rib on the left side 
 was fractured. This was the region where Sir Robert com- 
 plained of suffering the greatest pain, and was probably the seat 
 of the mortal injury the broken rib pressing on the lung, and 
 producing what is technically known as effusion and pulmonary 
 engorgement.* The news of Sir Robert Peel's death caused a 
 feeling of poignant grief throughout the country. Great and 
 universal were the tokens of respect paid to the memory of one 
 who, whatever may have been his errors (and they were few and 
 insignificant compared with his merits), had reflected undying 
 lustre upon English statesmanship. 
 
 The French Assembly gave testimony of their appreciation of 
 
 * Annual Register for 1850.
 
 jtlQ WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the deceased by unanimously entering an official minute respect- 
 ing his death, with a record of their sympathetic regret. In 
 England, the national sorrow found voice in the House of 
 Commons. On the 3rd of July, Mr. Hulme alluded to the great 
 loss which the nation had sustained, and moved that the House 
 should at once adjourn, without transacting any further business. 
 In the Lords, the Duke of Wellington and Lord Brougham 
 referred in touching terms to the departed statesman. The 
 latter, who had frequently been in antagonism with Sir 
 Robert Peel, acknowledged cheerfully and unreservedly the 
 splendid merits of that eminent individual, and said, * At the 
 last stage of his public career, chequered as it was and I told 
 him in private that chequered it would be when he was differing 
 from those with whom he had been so long connected, and 
 from purely public-spirited feelings was adopting a course which 
 was so galling and unpleasing to them I told him, I say, that 
 he must turn from the storm without to the sunshine of an 
 approving conscience within. Differing as we may differ on the 
 point whether he was right or wrong, disputing as we may 
 dispute on the results of his policy, we must all agree that to the 
 cause which he believed to be advantageous to his country he 
 firmly adhered, and that in pursuing it he made sacrifices 
 compared with which all the sacrifices exacted from public men 
 by a sense of public duty, which I have ever known or read of, 
 sink into nothing.' Such was the leader whom Mr. Gladstone had 
 faithfully followed for many years. In his own tribute to his 
 late chief in the House of Commons, some of the emotion which 
 naturally arose in his breast after the loss of one so eminent 
 found vent in words. Supporting Mr. Hume's motion, Mr. Glad- 
 stone said : 
 
 ' I am quite sure that every heart is much too full to allow us, at a period so 
 early, to enter upon a consideration of the amount of that calamity with which 
 the country has been visited in his, I must even now say, premature death ; for 
 though he has died full of years and full of honours, yet it is a death which our 
 human eyes will regard as premature ; because we had fondly hoped that, in what- 
 ever position he was placed, by the weight of his character, by the splendour of 
 his talents, by the purity of his virtues, lie would still have been spared to render 
 to his country the most essential services. I will only, sir, quote those most touch- 
 ing and feeling lines which were applied by one of the greatest poets of this country 
 to the memory of a man great indeed, but yet not greater than Sir .Robert Peel : 
 
 " Now is the stately column broke, 
 The beacon light is quenched in smoke ; 
 The trumpet's silver voice is still ; 
 The warder silent on the hill. " * 
 
 Sir, I will add no more in saying this I have, perhaps, said too much. It might have 
 been better had I simply confined myself to seconding the motion. I am sure the 
 tribute of respect which we now offer will be all the more valuable from the silence 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott's lines on William Pitt, which will be found in the introduction 
 to the First Canto of Marmion.
 
 A MEMORABLE DECADE 1841-1850. 119 
 
 with which the motion is received, and which I well know has not arisen from the 
 want, but from the excess, of feeling on the part of members of this House.' 
 
 After the death of Sir Kobert Peel began the disintegration of 
 the party distinguished by his name. Several of its members 
 formally joined the Conservative ranks ; but others, such as Sir 
 James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney Herbert, held 
 themselves aloof both from the Whigs and the Tories. They did 
 not feel themselves at liberty at once to throw in their lot with 
 the former, for Conservative traditions still exercised considerable 
 influence over them, and they could not join the latter, as they 
 were already the subjects of strong liberalising tendencies. From 
 this time forward, and almost until Sir James Graham's death, 
 eleven years afterwards, Mr. Gladstone was greatly indebted to 
 that statesman for his growth in the principles and the admink 
 trative art in politics. Although by no means always a popular, 
 Sir James Graham was eminently a practical statesman, skilled 
 in the routine of Parliamentary life, and capable of greatly 
 influencing and impressing younger politicians with strongly- 
 developed business aptitudes. Indeed, the influence he wielded 
 over many of his contemporaries appears to have been much 
 greater than that exercised by men of more commanding talents 
 in the world of statesmanship. His knowledge of Parliamentary 
 tactics made him a power ; and it was said of him that if he could 
 be prevailed upon to speak in the course of a great debate, his 
 speech was worth fifty votes. His Parliamentary lore was dis- 
 played with such advantage in the Committee on Privilege, in 
 reference to the right of the Lords to interfere on a money bill, 
 that he averted a collision between the two Houses of the Legis- 
 lature. He was confessedly said an estimate formed of him 
 upon his death the best educated and most thoroughly accom- 
 plished statesman of the period, though in regard to particular 
 endowments he was inferior to several other distinguished men. 
 No contemporary speaker was able so entirely to command the 
 undivided attention of the House of Commons. He appears, 
 however, to have had two serious defects- in the first place, his 
 great understanding was not balanced by an equally strong 
 judgment ; and, secondly, he suffered from a moral timidity 
 which paralysed him at the most anxious and critical moments. 
 However great may have been the indebtedness of Mr. Gladstone 
 to Sir James Graham, if the former had not been possessed of far 
 wider sympathies to say nothing of superior special intellectual 
 qualities than his political mentor, he could never have 
 conceived and executed those important legislative Acts by 
 which his name will now chiefly be remembered.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's Visit to Naples Letters to Lord Aberdeen on the Despotism of the 
 Neapolitan Government Opposition Deputies Imprisoned 'The Negation of 
 God erected into a System of Government' Description of the Prisons The 
 Case of Poerio Mr. Gladstone's Second Letter to Lord Aberdeen His Charges 
 substantially correct The matter brought before the House of Commons Lord 
 Palmerston's reply Character of the Answers to Mr. Gladstone's Pamphlet 
 Official Reply of the Neapolitan Government Completely inadequate in its Nature 
 Examination of the Document Mr. Gladstone supported in his Charges 
 Results of his Intervention The Struggles for Italian Independence Work of 
 Cavour and Garibaldi The Movement assisted by Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 FOR several months in the course of the winter of 1850-51, Mr. 
 Gladstone resided at Naples, circumstances which the right hon. 
 gentleman himself described as ' purely domestic ' having taken 
 him thither. The results of this residence in the Neapolitan 
 capital were destined to acquire a more than even European 
 celebrity. Having learned that a large number of the 
 citizens of Naples, who had formed the Opposition in the 
 Chamber of Deputies, had been exiled or imprisoned by 
 King Ferdinand, and that upwards of twenty thousand of 
 that monarch's subjects (as reported) had been thrown 
 into prison on a charge of political disaffection, Mr. 
 Gladstone's sympathies were immediately enlisted on behalf 
 of the oppressed Neapolitans, The question possessed both 
 a humanitarian and a political aspect, though in the outset it 
 was upon the former ground that Mr. Gladstone felt himself 
 impelled to attempt the redress of evils which \vere a scandal to 
 the name of civilisation in Europe. 
 
 England and the Continent shortly rang with his denunciations 
 of the Neapolitan system of Government. Having first carefully 
 inquired into the truth of the statements made, only to attest 
 their accuracy, Mr. Gladstone published two letters on the 
 subject, addressed to the Earl of Aberdeen. In the first of these, 
 he disclaimed any idea of having gone to Naples for the purpose 
 of political criticism or censorship, to look for grievances in the 
 administration of the Government, or to propagate ideas belong-
 
 THE NEAPOLITAN PEISONS. 121 
 
 ing to another meridian. But after a residence of three or four 
 months in the southern city, he had returned home with a deep 
 sense of the duty upon him to make some endeavour to mitigate 
 the horrors amidst which the Government of Naples was carried 
 on. Three reasons had chiefly led him to adopt the present 
 course: 'First, that the present practices of the Grovernment of 
 Naples, in reference to real or supposed political offenders, are an 
 outrage upon religion, upon civilisation, upon humanity, and 
 upon decency. Secondly, that these practices are certainly, and 
 even rapidly, doing the work of Eepublicanism in that country 
 a political creed which has little natural or habitual 
 root in the character of the people. Thirdly, that as a 
 member of the Conservative party in one of the great 
 family of European nations, I am compelled to remember that 
 that party stands in virtual and real, though perhaps uncon- 
 scious, alliance with all the established Governments of Europe 
 as. such ; and that, according to the measure of its influence, 
 they suffer more or less of moral detriment from its reverses, and 
 derive strength and encouragement from its successes.' 
 
 Passing over the important prefatory consideration whether 
 the actual Government of the Two Sicilies was one with or 
 without a title, one of law or one of force, Mr. Gladstone came 
 to the real purpose of his letter. His charge against the 
 Neapolitan Government was not one of mere imperfection, not 
 corruption in low quarters, not occasional severity, but that 01 
 incessant, systematic, deliberate violation of the law by the 
 power appointed to watch over and maintain it. In this, 
 perhaps the most impassioned passage of his letter, Mr. Glad- 
 stone formulates his indictment : 
 
 'It is such violation of human and written law as this, carried on for the purpose 
 of violating every other law, unwritten and eternal, human and divine; it is the 
 wholesale persecution of virtue, when united with intelligence, operating upon 
 such a scale that entire classes may with truth be said to be its object, so that the 
 Government is in bitter and cruel, as well as utterly illegal, hostility to whatever 
 in the nation really lives and moves, and forms the main spring of practical pro* 
 gress and improvement; it is the awful profanation of public religion, by its 
 notorious alliance in the governing powers with the violation of every moral rule 
 under the stimulants of fear and vengeance ; it is the perfect prostitution of the 
 judicial office which has made it, under veils only too threadbare and transparent, 
 the degraded recipient of the vilest and clumsiest forgeries, got up wilfully and 
 deliberately, by the immediate advisers of the Crown, for the purpose of destroying 
 the peace, the freedom, aye, and even, if not by capital sentences, the life of men 
 amongst the most virtuous, upright, intelligent, distinguished, and refined of the 
 whole community; it is the savage and cowardly system of moral as well as in a 
 lower degree of physical torture, through which the sentences obtained from the 
 debased courts of justice are carried into effect. 
 
 The effect of all this is a total inversion of all the moral and social ideas. Law, 
 instead of being respected, is odious. Force, and not affection, is the foundation of 
 government. There is no association, but a violent antagonism, between the idea 
 of freedom and that of order. The governing power, which teaches of itself that 
 it is the image of God upon earth, is clothed in the view of the overwhelming
 
 122 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 majority of the thinking public with all the vices for its attributes. I have seen 
 and heard the strong and too true expression used, "This is the negation of God 
 erected into a system of Government." ' * 
 
 There was a general belief that the political prisoners in the 
 kingdom of the Two Sicilies numbered between fifteen or twenty 
 and thirty thousand ; but as the Government withheld all means 
 of information the exact numbers could not be given. From 
 inquiries made Mr. Gladstone believed that twenty thousand was 
 not an unreasonable estimate. In Naples alone there were some 
 hundreds under indictment, capitally. He had been inclined to 
 regard as monstrous and incredible a statement that nearly all 
 those who formed the Opposition in the Chamber of Deputies under 
 the Constitution were in prison or exile ; but he was confronted 
 with a list in detail which too fully proved the truth of the asser- 
 tion. Out of 140 deputies this being the average of those who 
 came to Naples to exercise the functions of the Chamber 76 had 
 been either arrested or had gone into exile. So that the Govern- 
 ment of Naples had ' consummated its audacity by putting into 
 prison, or driving into banishment undergone for the sake of 
 escaping prison, an actual majority of the representatives of 
 the people.' 
 
 So much for the numbers of those incarcerated. But the 
 mode of procedure, also, was arbitrary in the extreme. The law 
 of Naples required that personal liberty should be inviolable, 
 except under a warrant from a court of justice. Yet in utter 
 defiance of this law the Government watched the people, paid 
 domiciliary visits, ransacked houses, seized papers and effects, 
 and tore up floors at pleasure under pretence of searching for 
 arms, imprisoned men by the score, by the hundred, by the 
 thousand, without any warrant whatever, sometimes without even 
 any written authority at all, or anything beyond the word of a 
 policeman, constantly without any statement whatever of the 
 nature of the offence. Charges were fabricated to get rid of 
 inconvenient persons. Perjury and forgery were resorted to ir 
 order to establish charges, and the whole mode of conducting 
 trials was a burlesque of justice. Describing the dungeons, Mr. 
 Gladstone says, ' The prisons of Naples, as is well known, are 
 another name for the extreme of filth and horror. I have really 
 seen something of them, but not the worst. This I have seen, 
 my Lord : the official doctors not going to the sick prisoners, but 
 the sick prisoners, men almost with death on their faces, toiling 
 up-stairs to them at that charnel-house of the Vicaria, because 
 the lower regions of such a palace of darkness are too foul 
 and loathsome to allow it to be expected that piofessional 
 
 * *J3 la negazione di Dio eretta a sittema di governo.'
 
 THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS. 123 
 
 men should consent to earn bread by entering them.' The diet 
 was abominable, and the filth of the prisons unendurable. After 
 narrating the hardships of one Pironte, formerly a judge, and of 
 the Baron Porcari, Mr. Gladstone deals with the case of the distin- 
 guished patriot, Carlo Poerio. He was a refined and accomplished 
 gentleman, a copious and elegant speaker, a respected and blame- 
 less character, yet he had been arrested and condemned for 
 treason. After a pretty full examination of his case, the writer said, 
 ' The condemnation of such a man for treason is a proceeding 
 just as conformable to the laws of truth, justice, decency, and 
 fair play, and to the common sense of the community in fact, 
 just as great and gross an outrage on them all as would 
 be a like condemnation in this country of any of our best- 
 known public men Lord John Kussell, or Lord Lansdowne, 
 or Sir James Graham, or yourself.' There was no name 
 dearer to the English nation than was that of Poerio to his 
 Neapolitan fellow-countrymen. The case of Settembrini was 
 also a mournful and remarkable one. The capital sentence 
 passed upon him was not executed, but he was reserved for 
 a fate much harder double irons for life on a remote sea- 
 girt rock, and it was feared that he was directly subjected to 
 physical torture. The mode specified was that of thrusting sharp 
 instruments under the finger nails. Mr. Gladstone narrates in 
 detail the iniquitous proceedings in connection with Poerio, who 
 had been tried and condemned on the sole acusation of a 
 worthless character named Jervolino. Yet Poerio would have 
 been acquitted by a division of four to four of his judges, had not 
 Navarro (who sat as a judge while directly concerned in the 
 charge against the prisoner), by the distinct use of intimidation, 
 procured the number necessary for a sentence. A statement is 
 furnished, on the authority of an eye-witness, as to the inhu- 
 manity with which invalid prisoners were treated by the Grand 
 Criminal Court at Naples ; and Mr. Gladstone also minutely 
 describes the manner of the imprisonment of Poerio and sixteen 
 of his co-accused. Each prisoner bore a weight of chain amount- 
 ing to thirty-two pounds, and for no purpose whatever were 
 these chains undone. All the prisoners were confined night and 
 day in a small room, which may be described as amongst the 
 closest of dungeons. But Poerio was condemned after this to even 
 a still lower depth of calamity. * Never before have I conversed,' 
 says Mr. Gladstone, speaking of Poerio, ' and never probably 
 shall I converse again, with a cultivated and accomplished gentle- 
 man, of whose innocence, obedience to law, and love of his 
 country, I was as firmly and as rationally assured as of your 
 lordship's or that of any other man of the very highest character,
 
 124 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 whilst he stood before me amidst surrounding felons, and clad in 
 the vile uniform of guilt and shame. But he is now gone where 
 he will scarcely have the opportunity even of such conversation. 
 I cannot honestly suppress my conviction that the object in the 
 case of Poerio, as a man of mental power sufficient to be feared, 
 is to obtain the scaffold's aim by means more cruel than the 
 scaffold, and without the outcry which the scaffold would 
 create.' Mr. Gladstone concluded his letter by saying that it 
 was time either the veil should be lifted from scenes fitter for 
 hell than for earth, or that some considerable mitigation should 
 be voluntarily adopted. 
 
 The second letter to Lord Aberdeen was the sequel to the first. 
 In it the writer said he had been anxious, in the first instance, 
 that all that was possible in the way of private representation and 
 remonstrance should be attempted ; and he did not regret the 
 course he had taken, though it entailed serious delays. Meeting 
 the natural inquiry why he should simply appear in his personal 
 capacity through the press, instead of inviting to this grave and 
 painful question the attention of that House of Parliament to 
 which he belonged, Mr. Gladstone said that he had advisedly 
 abstained from mixing up his statements with any British 
 agencies or influences which were official, diplomatic, or political. 
 The claims and interests which he had in view were either wholly 
 null and valueless, or they were broad as the extension of the 
 human race, and long lived as its duration. As to his general 
 charges he had nothing to retract. He stood upon the conviction 
 that his representations had not been too highly charged and 
 that the most disgraceful circumstances were those which, rested 
 upon public notoriety, or upon his own personal knowledge. It 
 was alleged that he had greatly overstated the number ot 
 prisoners ; and though his own calculation was founded on reason- 
 able opinion, he would give the Neapolitan Government the full 
 benefit of the contradiction. The number of political prisoners, 
 in itself, was a secondary feature of the case ; if they were fairly 
 and legally arrested, fairly and legally treated before trial fairly 
 and legally tried, that was the main matter. He was aware that, 
 for the honour of human nature, statements such as he had 
 made should in the first instance be received with incredulity. 
 Men ought to be slow to believe that such things could happen, 
 and happen in a Christian country, the seat of almost the oldest 
 European civilisation. But though thus disposed in the outset, 
 he hoped they would not bar their minds to the entrance of the 
 light, however painful were the objects it might disclose. The 
 general probability of his statements could not, unfortunately, 
 be gainsaid. Having established this, he proceeds to set forth
 
 THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS. 125 
 
 certain material points connected with the political position of 
 the Government of Naples. He examines the articles of the 
 Neapolitan Constitution, and contrasts them with the actual 
 government of the country, in contradiction and defiance, 
 at every point, of its indisputable and fundamental law. 
 He also shows, from a catechism in vogue, the debased 
 ideas concerning moral, political, and religious questions taught 
 to the youths of Naples. He concludes, however, by exempting 
 regarding them as a body the clergy of the Eoman 
 Catholic Church from implication in the proceedings of the 
 Government. 
 
 As a natural consequence, these letters excited great 
 indignation in this country, the proceedings of the Neapo- 
 litan Government being utterly repugnant and abhorrent 
 to the feelings of every true Englishman. Before the House 
 of Commons was prorogued, attention was drawn to Mr. 
 Gladstone's statements. Sir De Lacy Evans put the following 
 question to the Foreign Secretary : ' From a publication 
 entitled to the highest consideration, it appears that there 
 are at present above 20,000 persons confined in the prisons 
 of Naples for alleged political offences ; that these prisoners 
 have, with extremely few exceptions, been thus immured 
 in violation of the existing laws of the country, and without 
 the slightest legal trial or public inquiry into their respec- 
 tive cases; that they include a late Prime Minister and 
 a majority of the late Neapolitan Parliament, as well as 
 a large proportion of the most respectable and intelligent 
 classes of society ; that these prisoners are chained two and 
 two together ; that these chains are never undone, day or 
 night, for any purpose whatever, and that they are suffering 
 refinements of cruelty and barbarity unknown in any other 
 civilised country. It is, consequently, asked if the British 
 Minister at the Court of Naples has been instructed to employ 
 his good offices in the cause of humanity, for the diminu- 
 tion of these lamentable severities, and with what result?' 
 Lord Palmerston replied that her Majesty's Government had 
 received with pain a confirmation of the impressions which 
 had been created by various accounts they had received from 
 other quarters, of the very unfortunate calamitous condition 
 of the kingdom of Naples, The British Government, however, 
 had not deemed it a part of their duty to make any formal 
 representations to the Government of Naples on a matter that 
 related entirely to the internal affairs of that country. ' At the 
 same time,' his lordship continued, ' Mr. Gladstone whom I 
 may freely name, though not in his capacity of a member of
 
 12C WILLIAM EW.ART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Parliament has done himself, I think, very great honour 
 by the course he pursued at Naples, and by the course he 
 lias followed since ; for I think that when you see an 
 English gentleman, who goes to pass a winter at Naples, instead 
 of confining himself to those amusements that abound in that 
 city, instead of diving into volcanoes and exploring excavated 
 cities when we see him going to courts of justice, visiting 
 prisons, descending into dungeons, and examining great numbers 
 of the cases of unfortunate victims of illegality and injustice 
 with a view afterwards to enlist public opinion in the endeavour 
 to remedy those abuses I think that is a course that 
 does honour to the person who pursues it ; and concurring 
 in feeling with him that the influence of public opinion in 
 Europe might have some useful effect in setting such 
 matters right, I thought it my duty to send copies of his 
 pamphlet to our Ministers at the various Courts of Europe, 
 directing them to give to each Government copies of the 
 pamphlet, in the hope that, by affording them an opportunity 
 of reading it, they might be led to use their influence in 
 promoting what is the object of my hon. and gallant friend a 
 remedy for the evils to which he has referred.' This announce- 
 ment by the Foreign Secretary was warmly cheered by the 
 House. A few days afterwards Lord Palmerston was requested 
 by Prince Castelcicala to forward the reply of the Neapolitan 
 Government to the different European Courts to which Mr. 
 Gladstone's pamphlet had been sent. His lordship, with his 
 wonted courage and independent spirit, replied that he 'must 
 decline being accessory to the circulation of a pamphlet which, 
 in my opinion, does no credit to its writer, or the Government 
 which he defends, or to the political party of which he professes 
 to be the champion.' He also informed the Prince that infor- 
 mation received from other sources led him to the conclusion 
 that Mr. Gladstone had by no means overstated the various evils 
 which he had described ; and he (Lord Palmerston) regretted that 
 the Neapolitan Government had not set to work earnestly and 
 effectually to correct the manifold and grave abuses which 
 clearly existed. 
 
 The replies to Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet were both virulent 
 and numerous. They appeared in London, Paris, Turin, and 
 Naples. M. Jules Gondon, editor of the Univers, took up the 
 cause of the Government which Mr. Gladstone had sucessfully 
 assailed ; but the value of his reply may be gauged from the con- 
 cluding sentence of his work, in which he describes the Sovereign 
 of Naples as follows : * Oui, je m'etais renferme dans les 
 limites de la vtrite la plus rigoureuse, en appelant Ferdinand
 
 THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS. 127 
 
 //. le plus digue et le meilleur des Rois ! '* M. Gondon wrote 
 from the standpoint of a bigoted son of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, and his work evidently proves him to have been much 
 more concerned that the virtues of that ' most religious monarch ' 
 King Ferdinand should have been called into question, than he 
 was over the sufferings of thousands of men who had been 
 unjustly convicted, and condemned to languish in the prisons of 
 Naples. Another French critic, M. Alphonse Balleydier, also 
 replied to Mr. Gladstone, but in a similar strain. In high- 
 sounding periods (which did nothing to remove the impressions 
 that Mr. Gladstone's revelations had created) he attacked both 
 the writer of the pamphlet and Lord Palmerston with extra- 
 ordinary bitterness and disingenuousness. He attributed much 
 of what had been said against King Ferdinand to the spite of 
 the democrats, who had never forgiven him for having dared to 
 dispute his crown with them, and to vanquish them. He denied 
 the right of Lord Palmerston to constitute himself a judge of 
 the Neapolitan Government, and demanded, ' Mais quSimporte 
 la, verite a Lord Palmerston, qu'importe Inexactitude des 
 faits a celui dont la conduite politique se regie sur le 
 tnensonge ? ' f These answers were, in truth, no answers at all, 
 but pamphlets written from the controversial point of view, 
 because something was necessary to be said by way of defence. 
 And the professed corrections they made of Mr. Gladstone's 
 statement did not touch the real basis of the question. The 
 writer announced in his second letter that to such contradictions 
 of his allegations as were not subject to be verified, cross- 
 examined, or exposed, he should decline to attend. One answer 
 was put forward, however, which demanded some attention, viz., 
 the official reply of the Neapolitan Government.} 
 
 To this, accordingly, Mr. Gladstone addressed himself, in a 
 pamphlet published in the following year, 1852. He hastened 
 to place the reply point by point in the scales along with his own 
 accusations. The reply was in reality a tacit admission of the 
 accuracy of nine- tenth parts of the statements in the letters to 
 Lord Aberdeen. Mr. Gladstone then proceeded to enumerate the 
 few retractations which he had to make, and which were five in 
 number. He had been in error as to the prisoner Settembrini 
 having been tortured, and also as to his having been condemned 
 
 * La Terreur dans le Royaume de Naples. Lettre au Riyht Honoralle W. E. Glad- 
 stone, memlre du Parlement Uritannique, en reponse a. ses deux lettres a lord Aberdeen. 
 Par Jules Gondon. Paris. 
 
 t La Verite sur les Affaires de Naples : Refutation des Lettres de M. Gladstone. 
 Par Alphonse Balleydier. Paris. 
 
 J Rasseyna deyli Errori e delle Fallacie pullicate dal Sig. Gladstone, in due sue 
 Leitere indiritte al Conte Aberdeen. Napoli, Stamperia del Fibreno, 1851.
 
 128 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 to double irons for life ; the statement that six judges had been 
 dismissed at Reggio upon presuming to acquit a batch of political 
 prisoners required modifying to three ; seventeen invalids had not 
 been massacred in the prison of Procida during a revolt, as stated ; 
 and certain prisoners alleged to have been still incarcerated after 
 acquittal had been released after the lapse of two days. These 
 were the only modifications he had to make in his previous 
 {statements. Not one amongst the whole list of his accusations 
 rested on hearsay, and he now proceeded to demonstrate how 
 Email and insignificant a fraction of error had made its way into 
 his letters. He fearlessly asserted that corporal agony was 
 inflicted, and that without judicial authority, by the Neapolitan 
 police in the prisons. Settembrini, a political prisoner, was 
 confined in a small room with eight other prisoners. One of 
 the latter boasted of having murdered, at different times, thirty- 
 five persons. Several of these exploits he had committed upon 
 his prison companions, and the murders in this Ergastolo had 
 exceeded fifty in a single year. Although in the massacre at 
 Procida invalids were not slain, yet prisoners who took refuge 
 and hid under beds were dragged forth and shot in cold blood by 
 the gendarmi after order had been restored. The work of 
 slaughter was twice renewed, and two officers received promotion 
 or honours for that abominable enormity. 
 
 Dealing with the points in which the Neapolitan Government 
 had controverted the substance of his inculpatory statements, Mr. 
 Gladstone found no cause to recede from, but rather to heighten 
 those statements. After examining thoroughly various points of 
 detail, he defended at length his statement as to the enormous 
 number of the prisoners. One sample of the blunders made by 
 his critics may be given. M. Gondon had published a romantic 
 account of Poerio's career, his connection with Mazzini at Paris, 
 his contributions to the Giovine Italia, &c., whereas Poerio never 
 knew Mazzini, never was at Paris, never wrote a line in the 
 Giovine Italia. All the replies had failed to prove him wrong 
 in any of his substantial charges. ' The arrow has shot deep into 
 the mark,' observed Mr. Gladstone, * and cannot be dislodged. But 
 I have sought, in once more entering the field, not only to sum 
 up the state of the facts in the manner nearest to exactitude, but 
 likewise to close the case as I began it, presenting it from first to 
 last in the light of a matter which is not primarily, or mainly, 
 political, which is better kept apart from Parliamentary 
 discussion, which has no connection whatever with any peculiar 
 idea or separate object or interest of England, but which 
 appertains to the sphere of humanity at large, and well deserves 
 the consideration of every man who feels a concern for the
 
 THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS. 129 
 
 well-being of his race, in its bearings on that well-being; on the 
 elementary demands of individual domestic happiness ; on the 
 permanent maintenance of public order ; on the stability oi 
 thrones ; on the solution of that great problem which, day and 
 night in its innumerable forms, must haunt the reflections of 
 every statesman both here and elsewhere, how to harmonise the 
 old with the new conditions of society, and to mitigate the 
 increasing stress of time and change upon what remains of this 
 ancient and venerable fabric of the traditional civilisation of 
 Europe.' Although the question had been asked whether a 
 Government ' could be induced to change its policy because 
 some individual or other had by lying accusations held it up 
 to the hatred of mankind,' yet he had the satisfaction of 
 knowing that upon the challenge of a mere individual, the 
 Government of Naples had been compelled to plead before 
 the tribunal of general opinion, and to admit the jurisdic- 
 tion of that tribunal. It was to public sentiment that 
 the Neapolitan Government was paying deference when it 
 resolved on the manly course of an official reply ; and he hoped 
 that further deference would be paid to that public sentiment 
 in the complete reform of its departments and the whole future 
 management of its affairs. After a consideration of the political 
 position of the throne of the Two Sicilies in connection with its 
 dominions on the mainland, Mr. Gladstone thus concluded his 
 examination of the official reply of the Neapolitan Govern- 
 ment : ' I express the hope that it may not become a hard 
 necessity to keep this controversy alive until it reaches its 
 one possible issue, which no power of man can permanently 
 intercept ; I express the hope that while there is time, 
 while there is quiet, while dignity may yet be saved in showing 
 mercy, and in the blessed work of restoring Justice to her seat, 
 the Government of Naples may set its hand in earnest 
 to the work of real and searching, however quiet and unosten- 
 tatious, reform ; that it may not become unavoidable to reite- 
 rate these appeals from the hand of power to the one common 
 heart of mankind ; to produce those painful documents, 
 those harrowing descriptions, which might be supplied in 
 rank abundance, of which I have scarcely given the faintest 
 idea or sketch, and which, if they were laid from time to time 
 before the world, would bear down like a deluge every effort at 
 apology or palliation, and would cause all that has recently been 
 made known to be forgotten and eclipsed in deeper horrors yet ; 
 lest this strength of offended and indignant humanity should rise 
 up as a giant refreshed with wine, and, while sweeping away 
 these abominations from the eye of Heaven, should sweep away 
 
 K
 
 130 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 along with them things pure and honest, ancient, venerable, 
 salutary to mankind, crowned with the glories of the past, and 
 still capable of bearing future fruit.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was not left single-handed in the defence of his 
 original letters to Lord Aberdeen. There was published anony- 
 mously A Detailed Exposure of the Apology put forth by the 
 Neapolitan Government a remarkably able and conclusive 
 pamphlet.* Mr. Gladstone himself acknowledged the carefulness 
 and knowledge with which this reply was written. The author 
 examined the official answer point by point, showing its utter 
 inadequacy to meet Mr. Gladstone's charges. He thanked the 
 authors, prompters, and distributors of the Government defence, 
 the more so because of their imprudent step in answering at all. 
 There was ' no Machiavel in the Neapolitan Cabinet,' or he 
 would have advised them with cutting irony, ' Let others write, 
 but do you answer nothing. Be content with having beaten 
 down by armed violence the liberties you guaranteed by oaths. 
 Be content with the fact of oppression upholding the fact of 
 perjury. Be wise and be silent.' 
 
 Although Mr. Gladstone's pamphlets struck a powerful yet 
 indirect blow at Neapolitan despotism, and thus contributed 
 towards the great movement for a regenerated and a united 
 Italy, his original objects were not immediately gained. 
 If France and England had unitedly brought strong pressure to 
 bear upon the Government of Naples, substantial redress might 
 possibly have been obtained ; but such joint action was not at 
 once forthcoming. In a note appended to the fourteenth edi- 
 tion of his letters, Mr. Gladstone stated that by a royal decree of 
 the 27th of December, 1858, ninety-one political prisoners therein 
 named had their punishment commuted into perpetual exile 
 from the kingdom of the Two Sicilies ; but a Ministerial order of 
 January the 9th, 1859, directed that they should be conveyed to 
 America. Out of these ninety-one prisoners no fewer than 
 fourteen had died long before in dungeons ; such as Emilio Mazza, 
 who died in 1851 ; Luigi Lanza and Father Girolamo da Car- 
 dinale, a Capucin, who died in 1854 : Giuseppe Dardano, who died 
 in 1855 ; and others. Sixty-six embarked on the 16th oi 
 January, and were taken to Cadiz, where they were shipped on 
 board an American sailing vessel, which was to have conveyed 
 them to New York, but eventually landed them at Cork. 
 Eleven more were kept behind, either because it was afterwards 
 thought advisable not to release them, as in the case of Longo 
 and Delli Franci, two artillery officers, who were still in the 
 
 * Longmans, 1852.
 
 THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS. 131 
 
 dungeons of Gaeta ; or because the prisoners were too ill to 
 be moved, as was the case with Pironti, who was paralytic ; or 
 because they were in some provincial dungeons too far from 
 Naples. Such was the fate of some of the patriots officially 
 liberated by Ferdinand's successor, Francis II. 
 
 It may be mentioned here, while we are treating of Italian 
 questions, that Mr. Gladstone executed and published- in 1851 a 
 translation of Farini's important and bulky work, The Roman 
 State, from 1815 to 1850. In a letter from the author to his 
 translator, the former said that he had dedicated the concluding 
 volume of his work to Mr. Gladstone, who, by his love of Italian 
 letters, and by his deeds of Italian charity, had established a 
 relationship with Italy in the spirit of those great Italian writers 
 who had been their masters in eloquence, in civil philosophy, 
 and in national virtue, from Dante and Macchiavelli down 
 to Alfieri and Gioberti. Signor Farini endorsed the charges 
 made by Mr. Gladstone against the Neapolitan Government. 
 ' The scandalous trials for high treason,' he observed, still continue 
 at Naples ; accusers, examiners, judges, false witnesses, all are 
 bought ; the prisons, those tombs of the living, are full ; two 
 thousand citizens, of all ranks and conditions, are already 
 condemned to the dungeons ; as many to confinement ; double 
 that number to exile ; the majority guilty of no crime but that 
 of having believed in the oaths made by Ferdinand II.' But, in 
 truth, nothing more was needed to press home the indictment. 
 
 Italy, generally, was at the period of Mr. Gladstone's visit to 
 Naples and, indeed, had been for some time previously in a 
 disturbed condition. Italian nationality was already the cry of 
 many ardent patriots, and the whole of northern Italy was 
 chafing under the galling yoke of Austria. The Sicilians were 
 eventually reduced to subjection, after a noble struggle on their 
 part, and Brescia and Eome fell before the overwhelming Austrian 
 power. In the south, however, Venice bravely prolonged the 
 contest for independence, though unfortunately ineffectually. 
 We have seen the infamous measures which the King of Naples 
 adopted for the suppression of every aspiration after liberty in 
 his dominions. This system of misgovernment went on for some 
 years longer, and was the principal cause of the revolutionary 
 movements which continually disturbed the Italian peninsula. 
 Meanwhile, Count Cavour was working for the independence of 
 Italy, and in April, 1856, he addressed to the British and French 
 Governments a protest against the failure of the Paris Conference 
 to settle the Italian question. Italy, he said, had been disturbed 
 for the last seven years, during which a violent system of 
 repression had prevailed. A settlement had been hoped tor from 
 
 K2
 
 132 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the Conference, but, as this had failed, he feared that the com- 
 motions would break out with greater excitement than ever. 
 Remonstrances were afterwards made with the King of Naples 
 and his Ministers, but these were of no avail, only drawing forth 
 an assertion of the liberty of the Sovereign to deal with his 
 subjects as he pleased. France and England accordingly with- 
 drew their representatives from Naples. 
 
 The storm shortly afterwards broke. It is unnecessary to 
 follow in detail the noble struggles for Italian independence, 
 which are matter of recent and familiar history. In 1860 the 
 brilliant successes of Garibaldi drove Francis II. into a 
 condition of terror. Like all evil men, when faced with the 
 consequences of their misdeeds, he made the most lavish pro- 
 testations of amendment, and promised liberal reforms. But it 
 was now too late. The victorious General pushed forward, and 
 the work of liberation proceeded apace. A decree was ultimately 
 issued by Garibaldi, stating that the Two Sicilies, which had 
 been redeemed by Italian blood, and which had freely elected him 
 their dictator, formed an integral part of one and indivisible Italy, 
 under the constitutional king Victor Emmanuel and his descen- 
 dants. One by one the great questions connected with Italian 
 unity were solved. The dethronement and expulsion from his 
 kingdom of Francis II. were the just and legitimate fruits of the 
 hateful policy pursued by himself and his predecessor. Count 
 Cavour was the brain, as Garibaldi was the hand, of that mighty 
 movement which resulted in the unity of Italy ; but, as 
 Englishmen, we may take pride in the fact that not the least 
 amongst the precipitating causes of this movement was the 
 fearless exposure by Mr. Gladstone of the cruelties and tyrannies 
 of the Neapolitan Government. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, indeed, reflected the national sentiment of 
 England when he declared from his place in the House of 
 Commons that Mr. Gladstone had done himself honour by the 
 course he had thus pursued in relation to the Neapolitan prisons. 
 He had lifted his voice with energy and effect on behalf of 
 oppressed humanity, and in condemnation of one of the worst 
 and most despotic Governments that have ever afflicted mankind. 
 This episode remains, and ever will remain in the estimation 
 both of his fellow-countrymen and the friends of justice and 
 freedom throughout the world one of the brightest in his career.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S FIRST BUDGET. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone and the Conservative Party The Session of 1851 Papal Aggression 
 The Government losing Popularity Ecclesiastical Titles Bill Speech of Mr. 
 Gladstone Dismissal of Lord Palmerston Defeat of the Russell Government 
 Lord Derby forms a Ministry Death of the Duke of Wellington Meeting of the 
 New Parliament A Free Trade Debate Mr. Sidney Herbert's Rebuke of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer A Dramatic Scene Mr. Disraeli's Budget 
 Attacked by Mr. Gladstone Defeat and Resignation of the Government Lord 
 Aberdeen takes office Mr. Gladstone Chancellor of the Exchequer Opposition 
 to his Re-election for Oxford University Returned by a Substantial Majority 
 Policy of the Aberdeen Ministry Mr. Gladstone's Scheme for the Reduction 
 of the National Debt His First Budget Eloquently Expounded Its Effect upon 
 the House Details of the Financial Statement Masterly Analysis of the Income- 
 tax Comprehensive Character of the Budget Opposition on the Question of the 
 Income-tax The Budget passes Its Reception by the Press and the Country 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer a worthy Successor of Pitt and Peel. 
 
 BEFORE discussing the brilliant financial measures of 1853, 
 which caused Mr. Gladstone's name to be associated with those 
 of Pitt and of Peel, it is of importance to touch, however 
 briefly, on the sessions of 1851 and 1852. It was during this 
 period that Mr. Gladstone became finally alienated from the 
 Conservative party, although he did not throw himself completely 
 into the Liberal ranks until some years afterwards. The precise 
 date at which he ceased to be nominally a Conservative cannot 
 be assigned, for Mr. Gladstone has himself stated that so late as 
 1851 he had not formally left the Tory party. Nevertheless his 
 advance towards Liberalism in the sessions above-named was very 
 pronounced. There was certainly a marked declination from the 
 old Conservative standard. His trusted leader was dead, and 
 there were questions coming to the front which he felt demanded 
 from him something more than the non possumus of his early 
 political creed. 
 
 A few days after the opening of Parliament, in 1851, Lord 
 John Russell moved for leave to bring in a bill to counteract the 
 aggressive policy of the Church of Rome. The country was well- 
 nigh in a condition of panic in consequence of Papal aggression, 
 and Lord John Russell had given an impetus to the popular 
 feeling by his famous Durham letter. For four days the House
 
 134 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 of Commons debated the question, and at length the Premier's 
 motion was carried by 395 votes against 63. This enormous 
 majority attested the existing wide-spread fear of Komish 
 machinations ; but before the measure thus approved could be 
 carried through the House, political events of an important 
 nature transpired. The Ministerial party was to a great extent 
 demoralised, while the Conservatives were strong and compact, 
 and had received the temporary adhesion of the Peelites. The 
 deep distress which prevailed in the agricultural districts induced 
 Mr. Disraeli to renew his motion upon the burdens on land and 
 the inequalities of taxation, and accordingly he brought forward 
 a resolution to the effect that it was the duty of the Govern- 
 ment to introduce measures for the alleviation of the distress 
 without delay. The Government admitted that there was a 
 prevalence of distress, but denied that it was increasing. They 
 advanced statistics proving that pauperism had greatly declined 
 in all parts of the kingdom England, Scotland, and Ireland. 
 The revenue had increased so as to reach the unexampled 
 amount of 70,000,000, and commerce was in a most prosperous 
 condition. Sir James Graham stigmatised the motion as an 
 attempt to turn out the Administration, to dissolve Parliament, 
 and to return to Protection. Ministers, however, only obtained 
 the small majority of 14 in a House consisting of 548 members. 
 An actual defeat of the Government occurred on the 20th of 
 February, upon Mr. Locke King's motion to introduce a bill for 
 assimilating the county franchise to that of the boroughs. Lord 
 John Russell spoke against the resolution, but it was carried 
 by 100 against 52. The Government also lost prestige by the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer's budget, introduced on the 17th 
 of February. It demanded a renewed lease for three years 
 of the unpopular .income-tax, but promised a partial remission 
 of the window duties, together with some relief to the agricul- 
 turists. Later in the session, the first financial statement 
 having been stifled, a second budget was produced. A house-tax 
 was imposed, and the bonus to the agriculturists withdrawn. 
 The window-tax was also repealed, but the income-tax was 
 re-demanded for three years. Although the main features of 
 the budget were accepted by the House, the Government 
 sustained several defeats on minor financial questions, which 
 tended still further to diminish their popularity. 
 
 In February, Lord John Russell having determined to retire, 
 Lord Stanley was sent for by the Queen, but was unable to form 
 a Ministry ; the Earl of Aberdeen was next summoned, but the 
 penal measures against the Roman Catholics being unpalatable 
 to the Peelites, he declined to take office. The crisis ended in
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S FIRST BUDGET. 135 
 
 Lord John Eussell's consenting to reteia his position. The 
 Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was now pushed forward. This measure 
 'encountered the strong opposition of almost all the men who 
 had assisted in removing those restrictions on the religious 
 liberty of Englishmen which Lord John Eussell had done more 
 perhaps than any living man to take away.' But, besides 
 this, the measure was so emasculated as to be viewed with little 
 satisfaction by the staunch Protestants, while to the Roman 
 Catholics it appeared only in the light of an insult. The Peelites 
 were most strongly opposed to the bill. 
 
 The debate on the second reading was one of the longest 
 Parliamentary discussions which had occurred for many years. 
 Sir James Graham delivered an effective speech against the bill, 
 but perhaps the most powerful oration on the same side came 
 irom Mr. Gladstone. He said he chose to rest upon the fact that 
 our Constitution was strong enough to resist any aggression by 
 any power whatsoever. If they attempted to defend the Church of 
 England by temporal legislation, they would utterly fail. If the 
 Papal authorities had interfered with the temporal affairs of 
 the country, in a manner not permitted to any other religious 
 body, legislation was not only permissible and just, but 
 demanded. But till that could be shown, we had no right 
 to interfere. Referring to the vaunting and boastful character 
 of the Papal documents, Mr. Gladstone condemned this spirit, 
 but he asked whether it was just to make our Roman 
 Catholic fellow-subjects suffer for language for which they were 
 not responsible ? The bill was most inadequate for its purpose, 
 and he proceeded to analyse its provisions. Because the 
 Roman Catholics recognised the Pope as their spiritual head, 
 this did not justify us in interfering with their religious freedom. 
 The friends of the bill must show that the bishops were not spiritual 
 officers, but appointed for temporal purposes, before there was, 
 ground for interference : and if the appointment of bishops* 
 per se, was a spiritual, not a temporal act, why exempt the 
 Scottish bishops ? There was nothing in the rescript to show 
 that it possessed any temporal character, and therefore there 
 was not a shadow of ground for the bill. Mr. Gladstone next 
 pointed out the effect which such a measure would have upon 
 the two parties existent in the Romish community. The Roman 
 Catholic laity and secular clergy, who were the moderates, had 
 for several centuries been struggling for the appointment of 
 diocesan bishops, while the regulars and cardinals at the Vatican 
 the extreme party had persistently struggled against it. By 
 adopting the proposed legislation, the Roman Catholics would be 
 driven back upon the Pope, and consequently become alienated
 
 136 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 and estranged from ourselves. Mr. Gladstone, in concluding, 
 paid that the opponents of the bill, though in a minority, were 
 strong in the consciousness of a strong cause. They had justice 
 on their side, and believed that public opinion would soon 
 follow. 
 
 The division list reflected the temper of the time. The Govern- 
 ment obtained an overwhelming majority, the numbers 1 eing 
 For the second reading of the bill, 438 ; against, 95. But in this 
 small minority were many of the most distinguished men in the 
 House men who had always been true to the principles of civil 
 and religious liberty Gladstone, Roundell Palmer, Bright, 
 Cobden, Hume, Graham, Milner Gibson, and others. The bill, 
 though opposed in its subsequent stages, eventually passed. 
 
 On the 24th of December, 1851, Lord Palmerston was dismissed 
 from the office of Foreign Secretary, on the ground that he had 
 on various occasions acted independently of his colleagues. While 
 the Cabinet had passed a resolution to abstain from the expres- 
 sion of opinions in approval or disapproval of the recent coup 
 d'etat in France, it was complained that Lord Palmerston had, 
 both in public despatches and private conversation, spoken 
 favourably of the policy adopted by Louis Napoleon. In the 
 following February the Militia Bill came on for discussion, and 
 upon an amendment moved by Lord Palmerston the Government 
 were defeated. Lord John Russell resigned, and Lord Derby suc- 
 ceeded. The latter made unsuccessful overtures to Mr. Gladstone 
 to join his Ministry : in the irony of events, it was destined 
 that the Derby Administration should not be supported, but 
 virtually driven out of office, by Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 A Militia Bill, and some other measures chiefly of a social 
 and sanitary character were passed, and then the Government 
 dissolved, being in a minority in the House. During the recess, 
 England was called upon to lament the death of the great Duke 
 of Wellington, who passed away on the afternoon of the 14th of 
 September. A public funeral was awarded to the victor of 
 Waterloo, and on the assembling of Parliament many eloquent 
 tributes were paid to his memory. Less ornate than some other 
 speeches, Mr. Gladstone's eulogy of the Duke was valuable as 
 drawing out the special lessons to be deduced from a career like 
 his a life which had been extended by Providence to a green 
 old age, and which had ended full of honours. Here is a passage 
 from the address : 
 
 ' While many of the actions of his life, while many of the qualities he possessed, 
 are unattainable by others, there are lessons which we may all derive from the 
 life and actions of that illustrious man. It may never be given to another subject 
 of the British Crown to perform services so brilliant as he performed ; it may never 
 be given to another man to hold the sword wliich was to gain the independence of
 
 MB. GLADSTONE'S FIEST BUDGET. 137 
 
 Europe, to rally the nations around it, and while England saved herself by her 
 constancy, to save Europe by her example ; it may never be given to another man, 
 after having attained sucli eminence, after such an unexampled series of victories, 
 to show equal moderation in peace as he has shown greatness in war, and to devote 
 the remainder of his life to the cause of internal and external peace for that 
 country which he has so served ; it may never be given to another man to have 
 equal authority both with the Sovereign he served, and with the Senate of which 
 he was to the end a venerated member ; it may never be given to another man after 
 such a career to preserve even to the last the full possession of those great faculties 
 with which he was endowed, and to carry on the services of one of the most 
 important departments of the State with unexampled regularity and success, even to 
 the latest day of his life. These are circumstances, these are qualities, which may 
 never occur again in the history of this country. But there are qualities which 
 the Duke of Wellington display^ d, of which we may all act in humble imitation : 
 that sincere and unceasing devotion to our country, that honest and upright 
 determination to act for the benefit of the country on every occasion ; that devoted 
 loyalty, which, while it made him ever anxious to serve the Crown, never induced 
 him to conceal from the Sovereign that which he believed to be the truth ; that 
 devotedness in the constant performance of duty; that temperance of his life, 
 which enabled him at all times to give his mind and his faculties to the services 
 which he was called on to perform ; that regular, consistent, and unceasing piety by 
 which he was distinguished at all times in his life ; these are qualities that are 
 attainable by others, and these are qualities which should not be lost as an example.' 
 
 The new Parliament, which had not strengthened the hands 
 of the Grovernment, assembled in November. A debate which 
 opened on the 23rd demands some mention for its extraordinary 
 incidents. Mr. Villiers proposed a resolution affirming that 
 the improved condition of the people had been mainly owing 
 to commercial legislation, and especially to the Act of 1846 for 
 the free importation of foreign corn, and that the principle 
 of Free Trade ought to be consistently extended and carried 
 out, Mr. Disraeli regarded this motion as a vote of want of 
 confidence, and in the course of the long discussion which 
 ensued, accepted an amendment suggested by Lord Palmerston. 
 Lord John Russell held that the real question at issue was Free 
 Trade or Protection, and the Peelites warmly vindicated the 
 policy of their deceased leader. Mr. Villiers's motion was 
 negatived by 336 to 256 ; and Lord Palmerston's amendment 
 which affirmed that the principle of unrestricted competition, 
 together with the abolition of protecting taxes, had diminished 
 the cost and increased the supply of the chief articles of food, and 
 so brought about the improved state of the country was adopted 
 by 468 to 53. During the debate, Mr. Disraeli whose power 
 of forgetfulness of the past is one of the most fortunate ever 
 conferred upon a statesman declared that the main reason why 
 his party had opposed Free Trade was not that it would injure 
 the landlord, nor the farmer, but that 'it would prove injurious 
 to the cause of labour. ' He also added, amidst exclamations of 
 astonishment and cries of ' Oh, oh ! ' that ' not a single attempt 
 had been made in the House of Commons to abrogate the 
 measure of 1846.' Mr. Bright and others having spoken, Mr.
 
 138 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Sidney Herbert whose chivalrous spirit had been wounded to 
 the quick by the assaults on Sir Kobert Peel rose to defend 
 the great Conservative statesman. His speech contained one 
 passage of scathing invective addressed to Mr. Disraeli. After 
 expressing his admiration for Sir Kobert Peel as a politician and 
 a political leader, and his love for the man, Mr. Herbert 
 continued, ' I don't confound hon. gentlemen opposite with 
 those who calumniated Sir Kobert Peel. I recollect, even at the 
 moment when party strife was embittered to the uttermost, when 
 men's passions rose high, when great disappointment was felt at 
 the course Sir Kobert Peel had taken even at that moment there 
 were hon. gentlemen opposite who continued a general support 
 to his Government, and who never, when they opposed this very 
 bill, either threw a doubt upon his motives or assailed his 
 integrity. I say, then, that the memory of Sir Robert Peel 
 requires no vindication his memory is embalmed in the grateful 
 recollection of the people of this country ; and I say, if ever 
 retribution is wanted for it is not words that humiliate, but 
 deeds if a man wants to see humiliation, which God knows is 
 always a painful sight, he need but look there !' and upon 
 this Mr. Herbert pointed with his finger to Mr. Disraeli, sitting 
 on the Treasury Bench. The sting of invective is truth, and 
 Mr. Herbert certainly spoke daggers if he 'used none ;' yet the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer sat impassive as a Sphinx. There 
 were those even upon the Government benches who admitted 
 the truth of the charges which called forth Mr. Herbert's 
 dramatic condemnation.* 
 
 Early in December, Mr. Disraeli, in an exhaustive speech 
 extending over five hours and a quarter, brought forward his 
 budget. Its leading features may be shortly indicated. It 
 proposed to remit a portion of the taxes upon malt, tea, and 
 sugar ; and, in order to counterbalance these losses to the 
 revenue, the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to extend 
 the income-tax to funded property and salaries in Ireland, and 
 to fix the point of exemption on industrial incomes at 100 a-year 
 and on incomes from property at 50, the rate in Schedules 
 A and C being as before 7d. in the pound, and in B, D, and E 5d. 
 It was, moreover, proposed to extend the house-tax to houses rated 
 at 10 a-year and upwards, instead of 20, as well as to increase 
 the rate of the assessment. Private houses then paid 9d. and 
 
 * In 1846, 1849, and 1850, on four or five distinct occasions, Mr. Disraeli declared 
 the Free Trade policy of Sir Robert Peel a failure, and in one of his speeches he 
 described that statesman's career as ' one great appropriation clause.' Mr. BernaJ. 
 Osborne expressed his astonishment that Mr. Disraeli, ' in a November session in 
 1852, and with a face which he never saw equalled in the theatre, dared to tell the 
 House that he had never attempted to reverse the policy of Free Trade !'
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S FIRST BUDGET. 139 
 
 shops 6d. in the pound ; and Mr. Disraeli proposed that the 
 former should pay Is. 6d. and the latter Is. The tax would 
 then amount in the whole to about 150,000 a-year less than the 
 window duty. To meet the extra expenditure of 2,100,000, 
 the Chancellor would have half a year's income-tax, 2,500,000. 
 He calculated that in 1854-55 there would be a loss arising from 
 the various remissions, together with an increase of 600,000 in 
 the estimates, of 3,587,000, while the Ways and Means would 
 amount to 3,510,000. 
 
 Both the exemptions and remissions in this budget excited 
 great opposition, and Mr. Gladstone, in a speech which extracted 
 admiration for its energy and luminosity but which was also 
 regarded by some as almost too bitter and pungent fiercely 
 assailed the scheme. The debate was prolonged over several 
 sittings, and towards its conclusion Mr. Disraeli, in reply, 
 attacked several members of the House, but especially Sir 
 James Graham, with unusual acerbity. In rebuking him, 
 Mr. Gladstone began by telling the right hon. gentleman 
 that he was not entitled to charge with insolence men of 
 as high position and of as high character in the House 
 as himself. Having been prevented by the cheers of the 
 House from completing this sentence, Mr. Gladstone thus 
 concluded : c I must tell the right hon. gentleman that he is 
 not entitled to say to my right hon. friend, the member for 
 Carlisle, that he regards but does not respect him. And I must 
 tell him that whatever else he has learnt and he has learnt much 
 he has not learnt to keep within those limits of discretion, of 
 moderation, and of forbearance that ought to restrain the 
 conduct and language of every member in this House, the dis- 
 regard of which, while it is an offence in the meanest amongst us, 
 is an offence of tenfold weight when committed by the leader of 
 the House of Commons.' The whole debate was conducted with 
 an exceptional amount of personal feeling on both sides of the 
 House. Mr. Gladstone insisted that the income-tax was the first 
 question to be discussed, inasmuch as the Government proposed 
 its reconstruction as well as its extension ; but he condemned the 
 whole financial scheme as unsound and delusive, and if the House 
 gave it its sanction, he predicted that the day would come when 
 the vote would be looked back upon with bitter but ineffectual 
 repentance. 
 
 That day, however, was destined never to appear, a result 
 chiefly due to Mr. Gladstone's opposition to the Government 
 proposals. His crushing expos6 of the blunders of the budget 
 was almost ludicrous in its completeness, and it was universally 
 felt that the scheme could not survive his brilliant onslaught.
 
 140 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 The resolution respect! ag the house duty was put to the vote 
 on the loth of December, when the numbers were For the 
 Government, 286 ; against, 305 majority against the Ministry, 
 19. From this debate may be said to date that actual and 
 formal political antagonism between Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. 
 Gladstone whose record now extends over a generation. It may 
 have been foreshadowed in previous debates, but it was the 
 session of 1852 which first witnessed these distinguished states- 
 men pitted against each other as political leaders and rivals. 
 
 Lord Derby resigned in consequence of the defeat on the 
 budget, and the Earl of Aberdeen was called upon to form a 
 Ministry. There was but one possible Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone, and he accordingly acceded to the 
 office. Ke-elections were necessary in the case of those members 
 of the new Ministry who had seats in the House of Commons, 
 and Mr. Gladstone again appealed to his University to return 
 him, and endorse his acceptance of office under the Earl of 
 Aberdeen. But the right hon. gentleman speedily discovered 
 that he had made many enemies by his obvious tendencies 
 towards Liberal-Conservatism. He had given decisive indica- 
 tions that he held less firmly the old traditions of that unbending 
 Toryism of which he was once the most promising representative. 
 Mr. Gladstone's seat at Oxford was accordingly warmly con- 
 tested. 
 
 In the outset, some difficulty was experienced in procuring a 
 candidate of strong Conservative principles. The Marquis of 
 Chandos was first applied to, but he declined to oppose Mr. 
 Gladstone, and at length an opponent was found in Mr. Dudley 
 Perceval, of Christ Church, son of the Right Hon. Spencer 
 Perceval. The nomination took place on the 4th of January. 
 Mr. Gladstone was proposed by Dr. Hawkins, Provost of Oriel, 
 and Mr. Perceval by Archdeacon Denison. In accordance with 
 custom at University elections, neither candidate was present. 
 The opposition to the Chancellor of the Exchequer was based 
 chiefly on his votes on ecclesiastical questions, and on his 
 acceptance of office in a hybrid Ministry. The Times, writing 
 sarcastically of Mr. Perceval, described him as ' a very near 
 relative of our old friend Mrs. Harris. To remove any doubt 
 on this point, let him be exhibited at Exeter Hall with document- 
 ary evidence of his name, existence, and history ; his First-class, 
 his defeat at Finsbury, his " talents, " his principles. If we 
 must go to Oxford to record our votes, it would at least be 
 something to know that we were voting against a real man, and 
 not a mere name.' The Morning Chronicle affirmed that a section 
 of the Carlton Club were ' making a tool of the Oxford Convocation
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S FIEST BUDGET. 141 
 
 for the purpose of the meanest and smallest political rancour 
 against Mr. Gladstone.' 
 
 Two days after the nomination, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer wrote the following letter to the Chairman of his 
 Election Committee : * Unless I had a full and clear conviction 
 that the interests of the Church, whether as relates to the 
 legislative functions of Parliament, or the impartial and wise 
 recommendation of fit persons to her Majesty for high 
 ecclesiastical offices, were at least as safe in the hands of Lord 
 Aberdeen as in those of Lord Derby (though I would on no 
 account disparage Lord Derby's personal sentiments towards the 
 Church), I should not have accepted office under Lord Aberdeen. 
 As regards the second, if it be thought that during twenty years 
 of public life, or that during the latter part of them, I have failed 
 to give guarantees of attachment to the interests of the Church 
 to such as so think I can offer neither apology nor pledge. To 
 those who think otherwise, I tender the assurance that I have 
 not by my recent assumption of office made any change whatever 
 in that particular, or in any principles relating to it.' The poll 
 lasted for fifteen days, and at its close Mr. Gladstone was found 
 to have been returned by a substantial majority. The numbers 
 were Gladstone, 1,022 ; Perceval, 898 majority of 124. Mr. 
 Gladstone had large majorities in Christ Church, Balliol, and 
 Exeter ; Mr. Perceval had small majorities in Queen's New, St. 
 John's, Wadham, and Magdalen Hall. Of Professors, 74 voted for 
 Gladstone, and only 15 for Mr. Perceval, while 12 were neutral. 
 
 On the assembling of Parliament, the Earl of Aberdeen 
 announced in the House of Lords that the measures of the 
 Government would be both Conservative and Liberal, for both 
 were necessary. At home, their mission would be to maintain 
 and extend Free Trade principles, and to pursue the commercial 
 and financial system of the late Sir Kobert Peel. With regard 
 to foreign affairs, it was their earnest desire to secure the general 
 peace of Europe, without any relaxation of the defensive 
 measures which had lately been undertaken. 
 
 Before introducing his budget, on the 8th of April, Mr. 
 Gladstone unfolded his scheme for the reduction of the National 
 Debt. This took the form of fifteen resolutions, divided into 
 three parts. The funded debt stood in 1852 at 765,126,582, 
 and the unfunded debt at 17,742,800. By the Chancellor's 
 first operation he proposed to liquidate a number of minor 
 stocks, including the bank annuities of 1726, the three per cent, 
 annuities of 1751, and the South Sea stock and annuities. 
 These stocks furnished a total amount of 9,500,000, and being 
 different in denomination, needlessly complicated the debt. He
 
 H2 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 offered to convert the stocks into new securities, or to pay them 
 off, at the option of the holders, and he calculated that on the 
 former process, by the reduction of a quarter per cent, in the 
 interest, a permanent saving would be effected of 25,000 per 
 annum, while if the stocks were paid off altogether, the saving 
 would be far greater. By the second series of resolutions Mr. 
 Gladstone proposed to deal with the Exchequer bonds in such a 
 manner as to secure a saving of one per cent. Thirdly, he desired 
 4 to effect the voluntary commutation of the three per cent, 
 consols and the three per cent, reduced, amounting altogether 
 to 500,000,000, into one or other of two new stocks which he 
 proposed to create, and which would be as like each other as 
 possible in their conditions, so that the fund-holders would pro- 
 bably be induced to take portions of both.' 
 
 These resolutions were not only supported by the general 
 adherents of the Government, but also by the most prominent 
 Radical members in the House, and in the end were adopted. 
 That the new Finance Minister had not miscalculated the advan- 
 tages of his scheme is shown by the fact that after it came into 
 operation, and before the outbreak of the Crimean war, the debt 
 had been reduced by no less a sum than ,11533,581. At the 
 commencement of 1854 the funded debt of the country stood at 
 755,311,701 ; and the unfunded debt at 16,024,100. 
 
 On the 18th of April the House of Commons listened spell- 
 bound to the details of a budget which, for statesmanlike 
 breadth of conception, had, perhaps, never been surpassed, and 
 has not since been equalled. Mr. Gladstone spoke for five hours 
 with the greatest ease and perspicuity, and without begetting in 
 the minds of his audience the slightest feeling of ennui. Even 
 while dealing with the most abstruse financial details, the 
 orator's command of language never failed him. A contem- 
 porary writer states that he never once paused for a word during 
 the whole of the five hours, and awards to him the palm of an 
 unsurpassed fluency and a choice diction. 'The impression 
 produced upon the minds of the crowded and brilliant assembly 
 by Mr. Gladstone's evident mastery and grasp of the subject was, 
 that England had at length found a skilful financier, upon whom 
 the mantle of Peel had descended. The cheering when the right 
 hon. gentleman sat down was of the most enthusiastic and 
 prolonged character, and his friends and colleagues hastened to 
 tender him their warm congratulations upon the distinguished 
 success he had achieved in his first budget.' When the louder 
 plaudits had subsided, a hum of approbation still went round the 
 House, and extended even to the fair occupants of the ladies' 
 gallery..
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S FIEST BUDGET. 143 
 
 Mr. Gladstone began his statement by submitting to the com- 
 mittee the account of the country. The revenue, he observed, 
 had been estimated by Mr. Disraeli at 51,625,000, but at the 
 termination of the financial year it was actually no less than 
 53,089,000, showing an increase of 1,464,000. The expendi- 
 ture, which had been estimated at 51,163,000, had only reached 
 50,782,000 ; so that altogether there was a surplus of income 
 over expenditure to the amount of 2,460,000. But it would 
 be a precipitate inference to conclude that the whole of this 
 amount was available for the remission of taxation. No less than 
 1,400,000, or nearly three-fifths of the surplus, had already been 
 disposed of by votes of the House for the defence of the country, 
 and by the charges on account of miscellaneous services. After 
 all necessary deductions, and making allowance for fluctuations 
 in the revenue, there would only be a balance of 700,000. The 
 total estimated expenditure for 1853-54 was 52, 183,000 ; and 
 the total estimated income for the year 52,990,000. Mr. Glad- 
 stone then proceeded to state that the relief desired by the West 
 Indian interests could not be granted, nor could any change in 
 the law be proposed in the nature of an equalisation of spirit 
 duties as between colonial and domestic produce. 
 
 Anticipating the most striking passages of the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer's exposition, it will be convenient here to sum- 
 marise the leading features of the Budget. The surplus in round 
 numbers without making allowance for uncertainties in 
 revenue amounted to 805,000. This it was proposed to 
 increase to 2,149,000, by the imposition of new taxes estimated 
 to yield 1,344,000 during the current year, but whose ultimate 
 production was anticipated to be as follows : Extension oi 
 income-tax to all incomes between 100 and 150 per annum, 
 at. the rate of 5d. per pound, 250,000 ; extension of income-tax 
 to Ireland, 460,000 giving (after deducting the loss by 
 exemption on account -of life assurance) a net increase in the 
 income-tax of 590,000 ; extension of legacy duty to real pro- 
 perty, 2,000,000; increase in spirit duties, 436,000; and 
 increase in alteration from scale of licences to brewers and 
 dealers: in tea, coffee, tobacco, and soap, 113,000. But from 
 the total gain of 3,139,000 was to be deducted the interest 
 apon 4,000,000, the amount of the debt due from Ireland in 
 connection with the establishment of the Poor Law system and 
 the visitation of the famine, which it was proposed entirely to 
 forego, and for which she had hitherto been liable to an annual 
 charge of 245,000. Taking the other side of the account, the 
 intended reduction of taxation was as follows : Abolition of the 
 soap tax, 1,126,000 ; reduction of the duty on life assurance,
 
 144 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 29,000 ; reduction in the scale of receipt stamps, 155,000 , 
 reduction of duty on indentures of apprenticeship, attorneys* 
 certificates, and articles of apprenticeship, 50,000 ; reduction of 
 advertisement duty and abolition of stamp duties upon news- 
 paper advertisement supplements, 160,000 ; reduction of duty 
 on hackney carriages, 26,000 ; reduction of tax on men- 
 servants, 87,000 ; reduction of tax on private carriages, 
 95,000 ; reduction of tax on horses and ponies (less alteration 
 of duty on dogs), 108,000 ; alteration in the post-horse duties, 
 54,000; reduction of colonial postage to a uniform rate of 
 sixpence, 40,000 ; reduction of the tea duty (which was 
 ultimately to descend to one shilling), 3,000,000 ; reduction of 
 duties on apples, cheese, &c.. 262,000 ; reduction of duties on 
 one hundred and thirty-three minor articles of food, 70,000; and 
 abolition of duties on one hundred and twenty-three other minor 
 articles of food, 53,000. Speaking in round numbers, the total 
 amount of relief by these reductions was 5,300,000, though for 
 the actual financial year it was limited to 2,568,000. The loss 
 to the revenue, after allowing for increased consumption, was thus 
 1,656,000. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in order to meet 
 this loss, proposed new taxes for the same period which would 
 yield 1,344,000, making, with the surplus already calculated of 
 805,000, an available aggregate of 2,149,000. Consequently, 
 on the 5th of April, 1854, a favourable balance of 493,000 was 
 still to be anticipated. Nor were these various estimates at all 
 sanguine, judging from the actual financial condition of the 
 country. But he dipped too deeply into the future. In 1854 
 the balance between the taxes imposed and those taken off 
 would give an additional 220,000 in favour of the country ; 
 while between that period and 1860, when the 6,140,000 of 
 income-tax was to be surrendered, the saving from the reduction 
 of the three and a quarter per cents, and the lapse of the long 
 annuities, and of a large amount of terminable annuities, would 
 have been sufficient to render its re-imposition unnecessary. 
 But more than this ; arguing from past experince, the revenue 
 would have entirely recovered itself, so that the savings, as they 
 accrued, would be applicable to new reductions. These bright 
 financial prospects were, unfortunately, doomed to be clouded 
 by events which even the most sagacious could scarcely at this 
 time be expected to foresee. 
 
 The most masterly and effective portion of Mr. Gladstone's 
 speech was that in which he dealt with the income-tax. He 
 reminded the House of what this tax had done for the country in 
 times of national emergency and peril, and asksd them to 
 consider what it might do again, if it pleased God that those
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S FIRST BUDGET. 145 
 
 times of peril should return. ' It was in the crisis of the 
 revolutionary war that, when Mr. Pitt found the resources of 
 taxation were failing under him, his mind fell back upon the 
 conception of the income-tax ; and when he proposed it to 
 Parliament, that great man, possessed with his great idea, raised 
 his eloquence to an unusual height and power.' The speaker 
 then briefly sketched the results which had been achieved by 
 this colossal engine of finance, which was in full force from 1806 
 to 1815. The average annual expenses of war and government 
 during these years, together with the charge upon the debt 
 contracted before 1793, was 65,794,000 ; while, in consequence 
 of the income-tax, the revenue of the country (which before 
 1798 amounted only to 20,626,000) amounted to 63,790,000. 
 The deficiency was thus reduced from fifteen millions, or 
 thereabouts, to two millions. After citing some other figures, 
 showing the potency of the income-tax as a means of raising 
 money, Mr. Gladstone dwelt upon the great ends it had answered 
 in times of war, and then examined the composition of the tax, 
 as well as the charge that gross inequality was its leading charac- 
 teristic. As to the questions raised by the two classes of payers, 
 the owners of land and houses and those engaged in trade, he would 
 pass by the inquiry whether there ought to be any difference what- 
 ever between the two classes; but he conclusively showed that, 
 according to a rational estimate, land paid at that moment nine- 
 pence and trade sevenpence in the pound; and he asked any 
 moderate man whether, if he were now about to establish a different 
 rate of payment between the two classes, he would think of making 
 the difference greater than it existed at that moment? The 
 speaker entered his protest against the averaging of classes, stating 
 that some trades were worth twenty-five years' purchase, while 
 others were not worth more than five, four, or three years' purchase. 
 How were they to average the interest of a trade worth three and 
 another worth twenty-five years' purchase? As regarded the 
 state of the case between land and trade, there was no sufficient 
 ground to attempt the reconstruction of the income-tax. Her 
 Majesty's Government were opposed to the breaking-up of the 
 tax; such a policy would inevitably lead them into a quagmire. 
 To relinquish it was altogether safe, because it was altogether 
 honourable ; but to break it up was to encourage the House of 
 Commons to venture upon schemes which might look well on 
 paper, and were calculated to serve the purpose of the moment, 
 but which would end in the destruction of the tax by the 
 absurdities and iniquities which they involved. The Govern- 
 ment, while recognising the fact that the income-tax was 
 au engine of gigantic power for great national purposes, were 
 
 L
 
 146 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 of opinion, from the circumstances attending its operation, that 
 it was, perhaps, impossible, and certainly not desirable, to main- 
 tain it as a portion of the permanent and ordinary finances of 
 the country. Its inequality was a fact important in itself; the 
 inquisition it entailed was a most serious disadvantage ; and the 
 frauds to which it led were evils which it was not possible to 
 characterise in terms too strong. ' Depend upon it, when you 
 come to close quarters with this subject, when you come to 
 measure and see the respective relations of intelligence and 
 labour and property, and when you come to represent these 
 relations in arithmetical results, you are undertaking an opera- 
 tion which I should say it was beyond the power of man to 
 conduct with satisfaction, but which, at any rate, is an operation 
 to which you ought not constantly to recur ; for if, as my hon. 
 friend once said very properly, this country could not bear a 
 revolution once a year, I will venture to say that it could not 
 bear a reconstruction of the income -tax once a year. Whatever 
 you do in regard to the income-tax you must be bold, you must 
 be intelligible, you must be decisive. You must not palter with 
 it. If you do, I have striven at least to point out as well as 
 my feeble powers will pe^sraJt the almost desecration I would 
 say, certainly the gross breach of duty to your country, of which 
 you will be found guilty, in thus jeopardising one of the most 
 valuable among all its material resources. I believe it to be 
 of vital importance, whether you keep this tax or whether you 
 part with it, that you should either keep it or leave it in a state 
 in which it would be fit for service in an emergency, and that it 
 will be impossible to do if you break up the basis of your 
 income-tax.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone next observed that what the Government wished 
 to do was to put an end to the uncertainty that prevailed respecting 
 the income-tax, and to take effectual measures to mark the tax 
 as a temporary one. In detailing the proposed modes of its 
 future operation, he was met with signs of dissatisfaction from 
 the Opposition benches, for which, however, he declared himself 
 prepared. The Government proposition was to renew the 
 income-tax for two years, from April, 1853, to April, 1855, at 
 the rate of 7d. in the pound. From April, 1855, it would be 
 enacted for two more years at 6d. in the pound, and then for 
 three more years from April, 1857, at 5d. Under this proposal 
 the income-tax would expire on the 5th of April, 1860. The 
 means were then detailed for creating a fund by which, in con- 
 junction with the existing surplus, an extensive and beneficial 
 remission of taxes might be accomplished. The various items 
 of increase and reduction in taxation have already been given,
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S FIEST BUDGET. 147 
 
 and we will therefore only add the conclusion of the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer's memorable speech : 
 
 'If the Committee have followed me, they will understand that we stand on the 
 principle that the income-tax ought to be marked as a temporary measure; that 
 the public feeling that relief should be given to intelligence and skill as compared 
 with property ought to be met, and may be met ; that the income-tax in its 
 operation ought to be mitigated by every rational means, compatible with its 
 integrity, and, above all, that it should be associated in the last term of its 
 existence, as it was in the first, with those remissions of indirect taxation which 
 have so greatly redounded to the profit of this country, and have set so admirable 
 an example an example that has already in some quarters proved contagious to 
 other nations of the earth. These are the principles on which we stand, and the 
 figures. I have shown you that if you grant us the taxes which we ask, the 
 moderate amount of 2,500,000 in the whole, and much less than that sum for the 
 present year, you, or the Parliament which may be in existence in 1860, will be in 
 the condition, if you so think fit, to part with the income-tax. I am almost afraid 
 to look at the clock, shamefully reminding me, as it must, how long I have tres- 
 passed on the time of the House. All I can say in apology is, that I have endea- 
 voured to keep closely to the topics which I had before me 
 
 " imniensum spatiis confeoimus aequor, 
 Et jam tempus equum fumantia solvere eolla." 
 
 These are the proposals of the Government. They may be approved or they may 
 be condemned, but I have this full confidence, that it will be admitted that we 
 have not sought to evade the difficulties of the position ; that we have not con- 
 cealed those difficulties either from ourselves or from others ; that we have not 
 attempted to counteract them by narrow or flimsy expedients ; that we have 
 prepared plans which, if you will adopt them, will go some way to close up many 
 vexed financial questions, which, if not now settled, may be attended with public 
 inconvenience, and even with public danger, in future years and under less 
 favourable circumstances ; that we have endeavoured, in the plans we have now 
 submitted to you, to make the path of our successors in future years not more 
 arduous but more easy ; and I may be permitted to add that, while we have sought 
 to do justice to the great labour community of England by furthering their relief 
 from indirect taxation, we have not been guided by any desire to put one class 
 against another.-f-We have felt we should best maintain our own honour, that we 
 should best meet the views of Parliament, and best promote the interests of the 
 country, by declining to draw any invidious 'distinction between class and class, 
 by adopting it to ourselves as a sacred aim to diffuse and distribute the burdens 
 with equal and impartial handi and we have the consolation of believing that by 
 proposals such as these we contribute, as far as in us lies, not only to develope the 
 material resources of the country, but to knit the various parts of this great nation 
 yet more closely than ever to that Throne and to those institutions under which it 
 is our happiness to live.' 
 
 \Vhen the long-continued cheering which followed this 
 speech had subsided, the feeling of admiration for the 
 brilliant manner in which the budget had been propounded was 
 succeeded by one of speculation upon its advantages and disad- 
 vantages. Members required time to grasp the details of so 
 comprehensive a scheme. Mr. Hume alluded to the extensive 
 changes proposed, and although he rejoiced over one great resolve 
 manifested in the statement the determination to carry out 
 the principles of Free Trade he regretted the manner in which 
 the question of the income-tax had been taken up. The 
 Government allowed some days for the House to digest the pro- 
 positions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and on the 25th of 
 April they came on for discussion. 
 
 L2
 
 148 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 The first question raised was that of the income-tax. Sir E. 
 Bulwer Lytton proposed an amendment to the effect that the 
 continuance of the income-tax, with its extension to classes 
 which had hitherto been exempt from its operation, was alike 
 unjust and impolitic. The debate that ensued was very 
 animated. Mr. Cobden, and Mr. Hume also, wished for such a 
 reduction in the expenditure of the country as would render the 
 objectionable impost unnecessary. Mr. Cardwell maintained 
 that the scheme was replete with comfort and happiness to the 
 people, and Mr. Lowe said that it was conceived in no servile 
 spirit. Mr. Disraeli supported the amendment on the ground 
 that the proposals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer added to 
 the burdens on land, while they lightened those which pressed on 
 particular classes. He held that such privileged classes were 
 always a source of the greatest danger to a nation, and for him- 
 self he could see no difference between a privileged noble and a 
 privileged tobacconist. The right hon. gentleman took the 
 opportunity of attacking Lord John Kussell, whom he charged 
 with having thrown over the Whig party, and with having 
 accepted a subordinate office under former subordinate officers 
 of Sir Kobert Peel. Lord John Kussell, in his reply, showed the 
 inconsistency of Mr. Disraeli in supporting an amendment which 
 left the burdens on land just where they were, and lowered the 
 rate of tax in favour of trades and professions. He concluded 
 with a panegyric upon Mr. Gladstone, who, he said, was to be 
 envied amongst English Finance Ministers. If, in order to 
 achieve his ends, it had been his fortune to live before his age, his 
 lordship trusted he would find his reward in the approbation and 
 support of the House, and in the gratitude of an admiring people. 
 On a division being taken, the numbers were For the Govern- 
 ment plan, 323 ; against, 252 majority for Ministers, 71. The 
 defeat of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's amendment was a virtual 
 endorsement of the budget. It was now safe in its main feature?, 
 and it finally passed the House of Commons on the 27th of 
 June. 
 
 It is seldom that a venture of such magnitude as Mr. Glad- 
 stone's first budget meets with unequivocal success. But from 
 the outset the plan was received with unusual favour ; and, being 
 ' supported by a strong majority in-doors, and wafted forwards by 
 a favourable breeze of popular confidence from without, it was 
 carried over all opposition, with such modifications only as its 
 author saw reason to admit. It was felt by all classes of 
 persons throughout the country that its financial operations 
 were now directed by a master-hand ; that the work which 
 Peel had so ably commenced was being carried out by Gladstone,
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S FIEST BUDGET. 149 
 
 not in a spirit of servile imitation, but with a bold originality 
 of conception, and a happy force and eloquence of expression, 
 which placed him fully on a level with the lamented statesman 
 whose work he was successfully endeavouring to complete. The 
 people therefore submitted cheerfully to the burden of a heavy 
 and oppressive tax, in the full conviction that the continuance 
 of it was necessary in order to enable the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer to place the national finances on a footing which 
 would increase the wealth and well-being of all classes of the 
 people.'* 
 
 The satisfaction with which the budget was received by the 
 House was echoed by the- press and the country generally. Mr. 
 Gladstone had not only conceived a scheme for the reduction of 
 the National Debt, whereby the heavy burdens which accrued 
 during Mr. Pitt's time should be successfully attacked ; but it 
 was shown with regard to his budget proposal, that, notwith- 
 standing the increased taxation, a man with, say, 120 per 
 annum, was really better off through these changes, in conse- 
 quence of the remissions upon a vast number of articles of daily 
 consumption, and the total abolition of the duty upon others. 
 The whole scheme was regarded as the most able, far-sighted, 
 and practicable of financial measures since Robert Peel's famous 
 budget of 1844. Mr. Gladstone, in his plan, laid aside all 
 questions of party, and those alluring baits by which he might 
 have acquired an unbounded popularity, and legislated for the 
 whole country for England in the future as well as in the 
 present. The scheme first astonished, and then pleased and 
 satisfied the people ; and the unfortunate events which shortly 
 afterwards transpired preventing the fruition of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's fiscal policy at this period cannot deprive it of its 
 high statesmanlike qualities. It demonstrated what marvellous 
 results a capable financier could achieve under the regime of 
 Free Trade. 
 
 * The History of England from the Year 1830. By the Rev. W. N. Molesworth, 
 M.A.
 
 OHAPTEK IX. 
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 Gathering of the Storm Policy of the British Government Lord John Russell's 
 Despatch on the Holy Places Russo-Turkish Negotiations Mr. Gladstone on 
 the Situation The Czar's Manifesto Fruitless Intervention of the Emperor 
 Napoleon War Inevitable Action of tha Aberdeen Cabinet Its Desire for 
 Peace National Sentiment for War The Chancellor of the Exchequer's War 
 Budget Approved by the House-^Jreat Britain and France declare war against 
 Russia Further Financial Proposals Mr. Gladstone's Defence of his Scheme It 
 is assailed unsuccessfully by the Opposition Prorogation of Parliament. 
 
 THE year 1853 opened with the gathering of ominous clouds 
 in the East. Englishmen look back to the stormy period which 
 ensued with mixed feelings admiration for the bravery dis- 
 played by our gallant troops in the Crimea, and humiliation over 
 the mistakes and disasters which attended the course of English 
 policy. The Czar Nicholas was in the outset responsible for the 
 bloodshed which followed, for the diplomatic acts of Kussia 
 left no doubt as to her ulterior designs upon Turkey. It is 
 necessary to recapitulate briefly the events of this period in 
 order to appreciate clearly Mr. Gladstone's attitude upon 
 foreign affairs, and to ascertain the position assumed by the 
 Government of which he was a member. The doctrine of 
 British interests in the East is one of which we have heard a 
 good deal in recent years, but to trace its origin is a matter 
 of superlative difficulty. Mr. Gladstone, however, must be held 
 to be right in his contention that this doctrine of British interests, 
 as involving the sole necessity of upholding the Ottoman Empire, 
 in its perfect and complete integrity, was not the avowed doctrine 
 of the British Government in the proceedings immediately an- 
 terior to the -Crimean war. The support and countenance which 
 Great Britain gave to Turkey would have been extended towards 
 any other Power which had been unjustly menaced by a powerful 
 neighbour. A wide difference of opinion has always existed, and 
 always will exist, as to the precise grounds upon which England 
 undertook the Crimean war. Some assert it to have been 'a war 
 lor British interests founded upon the traditional policy of 
 maintaining the Porte, with all its crimes, in its " integrity and
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 151 
 
 independence," as the proper bulwark of our own sway in India. 
 Others have thought that we undertook the war upon a ground 
 certainly more chivalrous; that, seeing a weaker country 
 oppressed by a stronger one, we generously interfered on behalf 
 of the weaker.' The truth may fairly be affirmed to lie in the 
 blending of the two motives ; for, as Mr. Gladstone has observed. 
 ' unless the Sovereign and her Consort, with their matchless 
 opportunities of knowledge, were absolutely blindfolded, the 
 policy which led us into that war was that of repressing an 
 offence against the public law of Europe, but only by the united 
 authority of the Powers of Europe.' France, and subsequently 
 Sardinia, joined with us in resisting a policy fraught with danger 
 to the future peace of the Continent. The Prince Consort justly 
 described the aim of the war to be that of putting a termination 
 to a policy which not only threatened the existence of the Otto- 
 man Empire, but, by making all the countries bordering on the 
 Black Sea dependencies of Russia, seriously endangered the 
 balance of power. 
 
 In January, 1853, Lord John Russell wrote his despatch on the 
 subject of the Holy Places. The difficulties which had arisen with 
 respect to these places already threatened disturbance to the 
 peace of Europe, and they were the primal origin of the ensuing 
 war. France and Russia were at this period at daggers drawn 
 with regard to the question of ecclesiastical privileges at 
 Jerusalem. Upon this particular difference, England was bound 
 to admit that Russia had right on her side ; but by-and-by the 
 nft widened. At the beginning of June fruitless negotiatio. s 
 took place between Prince Menschikoff and the Porte as to the 
 guarantees required by Russia in favour of the Greek Church. 
 At their conclusion, the Prince insisted upon the concession to 
 Russia of the protectorate and civil jurisdiction over the Greek 
 subjects of the Porte. The Sultan returned a decided negative 
 to this demand, and Prince Menschikoff departed for St. 
 Petersburg. The Czar approved of all the acts of his representa- 
 tive, and sent an ultimatum to the Porte. Turkey still proved 
 recalcitrant, and the Russian forces at once prepared to occupy 
 the Danubian Principalities. 
 
 On the 2nd of July, negotiations having completely failed, the 
 Russian troops effected a double passage across the Pruth, taking 
 simultaneous possession of the . provinces of Moldavia and 
 Wallachia. The Emperor Nicholas had prefaced this step by a 
 manifesto stating that the occupation of these Principalities was 
 indispensable to guarantee Russia the re-establishment of her 
 rights, but that it was not to be considered as a declaration of 
 war. It was still hoped that hostilities would be averted, but oil
 
 152 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 the 4th of October London was startled by a telegraphic despatch 
 announcing that the Sultan had formally declared war against 
 Russia. On the 12th of the same month Mr. Gladstone 
 attended the inauguration of a statue to Sir Robert Peel at 
 Manchester. At this period of excitement, when meetings and 
 conferences for and against war were already being held, it was 
 natural, and indeed almost imperative, that the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer should make some reference to the great question 
 then agitating the public mind. He alluded to the designs of 
 Russia, describing her as a Power which threatened to override all 
 the rest, and to prove a source of danger to the peace of the world. 
 This disastrous state of affairs would be precipitated by the over- 
 throw of the Ottoman Empire, and against this result England 
 had determined to set herself at whatever cost. The Government 
 did not desire war a calamity which stained the face of nature 
 with human gore, gave loose rein to crime, and took bread from 
 the people. ' No doubt,' the speaker continued, ' negotiation is 
 repugnant to the national impatience at the sight of injustice 
 and oppression; it is beset with delay, intrigue, and chicane; 
 but these are not so horrible as war, if negotiation can be made 
 to result in saving this country from a calamity which deprives 
 the nation of subsistence, and arrests the operations of industry. 
 To attain that result, if possible still to attain it, if still 
 possible, which is even yet their hope her Majesty's Ministers 
 have persevered in exercising that self-command and that self- 
 restraint, which impatience may mistake for indifference, feeble- 
 ness, or cowardice, but which are truly the crowning greatness 
 of a great people, and which do not evince the want of readiness 
 to vindicate, when the time comes, the honour of this country.' 
 These weighty words emphatically prove Mr. Gladstone and his 
 colleagues did not contemplate entering upon the impending 
 war with ' a light heart.' They felt profoundly the responsibility 
 which threatened to devolve upon them. Already the popular 
 voice was beginning to make itself heard, charged with indigna- 
 tion against Russia, and clamouring for active measures in 
 support of Turkey. 
 
 One passage in this Manchester speech completely dis- 
 proves the assertion, frequently made since 1876, that at 
 the time of the Crimean War, Mr. Gladstone was a blind sup- 
 porter either of Ottoman rule or of the integrity of the 
 Ottoman Empire as such. He expressly stated that the Govern- 
 ment were not engaged in maintaining the independence and 
 integrity of the Ottoman Empire, as those words might be used 
 with reference to the integrity and independence of England or 
 of France. He further referred to the anomalies of the Eastern
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 153 
 
 Empire, the political solecism of a Mussulman faith exercising 
 a dominion over twelve millions of our fellow-creatures, the 
 weakness inherent in the nature of the Turkish Government, and 
 the eventualities that surrounded the future of that dubious 
 empire, though he added that these were not the things with 
 which any British Government had then to deal. This much 
 will, therefore, be allowed, that nearly a generation before the 
 period of the * Bulgarian atrocities,' Mr. Gladstone admitted and 
 deplored the corruptions of the Turkish Government, and the 
 anomalous relations existing between the Porte and its Christian 
 subjects. 
 
 The Emperor of Russia issued a manifesto to his people on the 
 1st of November, 1854, declaring that he had earnestly sought 
 for peace, but that, owing to the ' blind obstinacy' of the Ottoman 
 Porte, war was forced upon him. Hostilities were shortly after- 
 wards rapidly precipitated. A Note, proposed collectively by 
 the European Powers to Kussia, and known as the Vienna Note, 
 was accepted by Russia ; but being subsequently objected to by 
 Turkey, the signatory Powers threw it over. Negotiations were 
 then resumed, and towards the close of the year a new document, 
 drawn up at Constantinople and approved by England and the other 
 Powers, was presented to Russia. The Emperor Nicholas rejected 
 this second Note in January, 1854, and in two months from that 
 time war was an actuality. In England, the press and the people, 
 with few exceptions, were unanimous in their feeling of hostility 
 to Russia. The Government was supported in its warlike 
 resolution by a rush of national feeling and enthusiasm rarely 
 exhibited. The allied fleets had already entered the Black Sea 
 in the month of January, which also witnessed that execrable 
 act on the part of the Russians known as the massacre of 
 Sinope. The Czar cut the Gordian knot of a complicated series 
 of negotiations by assuming a firm and resolute attitude, and on 
 the 28th of March, England formally declared war against 
 Russia. 
 
 A final effort to preserve peace had been made by the 
 Emperor Napoleon, in a letter addressed to the Czar, and dated 
 January 29th. This letter fully explained the position of France 
 in the great European imbroglio which had arisen, and set forth 
 the reasons why she would be compelled to act as the ally of 
 England in the event of hostilities. The two Powers had 
 assumed a protective but passive attitude towards Turkey, but 
 the affair of Sinope forced them to take a more defined position. 
 ' It was no longer our policy that received a check in that affair ; 
 it was our military honour. The cannon-shots of Sinope have 
 echoed mournfully in the hearts of all those who, in England
 
 154 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 and in France, have a strong sense of the national dignity/ 
 Hence the order given to the allied squadrons to enter the 
 Black Sea, to prevent by force, if necessary the recurrence 
 of a similar event. The Emperor Napoleon went on to say that 
 if the Czar desired a pacific solution to the existing difficulties, 
 an armistice might at once be signed, things could resume their 
 diplomatic course, and all the belligerent forces could retire from 
 the places .whither motives of war had called them. But matters 
 had gone too far for reasonable appeals of this kind. The Czar 
 was obstinate, and a telegraphic despatch was received in Paris 
 from the French representative at St. Petersburg, consisting ot 
 these few but ominous words, ' I return with refusal. ' War was 
 now inevitable, and the French became the warm and enthusiastic 
 allies of England. 
 
 Some critics of the Aberdeen Ministry have severely condemned 
 that Government for the course upon which it now entered. 
 The members of the Peace Society were naturally foremost in 
 their efforts to secure peace ; and a deputation even went to St. 
 Petersburg with a view of securing this object. It should be 
 borne in mind, in estimating the responsibilities of Ministers at 
 ihis period, that the tone of the public miiid of England was 
 hurrying them forward with surprising rapidity. Lord Aberdeen 
 and Mr. Gladstone were both averse to war. The former had, 
 indeed, a holy horror of war in the abstract, and as Mr. King- 
 lake has pointed out he was especially averse to a war with 
 Russia, not only by reason of the impressions of his early life, 
 but because of the relations of mutual esteem which had long 
 existed between the Emperor Nicholas and himself ; he also 
 anticipated evil to Europe by a forcible breaking up of the ties 
 established by the Congress of Vienna and riveted by the Peace 
 of Paris. The Premier had, in fact, gone so far in the early 
 stage of the Eastern difficulty as to resolve not to remain at the 
 head of the Government unless he could maintain peace. The 
 only phrase which can now be used to describe his policy at this 
 period is that he i drifted ' into war. He did not wish it ; he 
 deplored it ; and yet he was gradually borne on towards it, 
 without being able to take the retrograde steps he desired. But 
 there was also Mr. Gladstone, perhaps the next conspicuous 
 member of his Cabinet, equally averse to war. On humanitarian 
 as well as on national grounds, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 was opposed to the arbitrament of arms. That war, moreover, 
 was costly, and added greatly to the burdens of the people, was 
 a.n argument to which he gave due weight, but he was still more 
 deeply swayed by those loftier principles which made him 
 ardently cling to the chances of peace. The brilliant historian
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 155 
 
 of the Crimean war thus describes him at this period, and depicts 
 the feelings with which the course of his immediate career was 
 regarded by the country : 
 
 ' If he was famous for the splendour of his eloquence, for his unaffected piety, 
 and for his blameless life, he was celebrated far and wide fora more than common 
 liveliness of conscience. He had once imagined it to be his duty to quit a Govern- 
 ment, and to burst through strong ties of friendship and gratitude, by reason of a 
 thin shade of difference on the subject of white or brown sugar. It was believed 
 that, if he were to commit even a little sin, or to imagine an evil thought, he would 
 instantly arraign himself before the dread tribunal which awaited him within his 
 own bosom; and that, his intellect being subtle and microscopic, and delighting in 
 casuistry and exaggeration, he would be likely to give his soul a very harsh trial, 
 and treat himself as a great criminal for faults too minute to be visible to the 
 naked eyes of laymen. His friends lived in df ead of his virtues as tending to 
 make him whimsical and unstable, and the practical politicians, perceiving that 
 he was not to be depended upon for party purposes, and was bent upon none bat 
 lofty objects, used to look upon him as dangerous used to call him behind his 
 back a good man a good man in the worst sense of the term/ * 
 
 Here we have stated that view of Mr. Gladstone which has 
 always been held by those politicians who are the disciples of 
 the doctrine of expediency. Mr. Gladstone, from his earliest 
 appearance in political life, has always thrown over the conven- 
 tional doctrines of politics, when they threatened to interfere 
 with his unswerving conscientiousness, and taken his stand upon 
 what he believed to be the strict principles of right and justice. 
 He has, of course, with other statesmen, made mistakes : cela va 
 sans dire. In 1853 he reconciled these principles of right and 
 justice with the dread necessity which had arisen in Europe. 
 War, he came to see, was inevitable, and even peace-loving men 
 must bow to a fate that is inexorable. There can be no doubt 
 that the presence of Lord Aberdeen and Mr. Gladstone in the 
 Cabinet was a guarantee that peace would be prolonged to the 
 very utmost limit of time, and that only the gravest necessity 
 would reconcile them to retaining office at this momentous 
 period. 
 
 But in truth the question of peace or war had passed out of 
 the hands of these statesmen, and of any individuals, however 
 great their power. There was already felt the flow of a wave 
 of public opinion which swept the Ministry onward. It was 
 no longer a question whether war could be avoided the 
 people of England demanded it with a fervour and an 
 unanimity rarely witnessed in the annals of the country. On 
 the one great and broad principle of resistance to the 
 threatened overwhelming power of Kussia is that war now 
 to be defended. It was a defensive war, undertaken in the 
 interests of Europe, against the aggressive and domineering 
 ,-policy of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. English statesmen 
 
 * The Invasion of the Crimea. By Alex. William Kinglate.
 
 156 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 regretted the necessity which drove England to assume the part 
 of policeman in Europe, but the actual circumstances of the 
 time, combined with the future prospects of the various 
 European States and especially those immediately concerned 
 in the Eastern Question demanded that she should not shirk 
 her responsibilities. It is not upon England that the blame 
 can fall for that terrible visitation of the Angel of Death (to 
 borrow an image of Mr. Bright's), whose wings were shortly heard 
 rustling upon the darkened horizon of Eastern Europe. History 
 has even now written with unerring finger the name of him who 
 lit the flame of carnage in Europe. And Providence ordained in 
 this, as in other striking examples of unjust war levied in the 
 course of the history of the human race, that if not, literally, 
 still in effect he who took the sword should perish by the 
 sword. The Emperor Nicholas, though he fell not upon the 
 battle-field, is understood to have died of chagrin, and his end 
 was undoubtedly hastened by the disasters which befell his 
 armies in the Crimea. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has been so long known as a Minister who has 
 uniformly desired the prosperity of his country, that we can well 
 understand the poignant regrets he must have felt over the 
 paralysation of British industry, and an arrested commercial 
 progress, which were the natural result of a declaration of war. 
 A war in which Russia and Turkey in the East, and England 
 and France in the West, are concerned, must of necessity be 
 fraught with serious consequences to the whole of Europe. No 
 longer were smiling harvests to gladden the face of nature in 
 those districts which formed the seat of war; the peasant from 
 the fruitful fields of France was to leave his occupation, and 
 exchange the cultivation of the arts of peace for those of war ; the 
 English toiler in docks, workshops, and factories was doomed to 
 see the course of his labour arrested, and to hear his children cry 
 for the bread which was ruthlessly destroyed by the devastating 
 influence of war. Yet, though England foresaw the evils which 
 must necessarily follow from the expected war, with one voice 
 scarcely broken by the cries of a small minority in favour of 
 abstention she called aloud for the chastisement of the disturber 
 of the peace of Europe. Ministers could scarcely commit error 
 in following the lead of -a national sentiment so emphatically 
 expressed ; if they did, it is an error which history has already con- 
 doned, and as regards the individual members of Lord Aberdeen's 
 Cabinet, none can be found to challenge the disinterestedness and 
 purity of their motive. To Mr. Gladstone himself the dire necessity 
 must have seemed painfully hard. Instead of that relief of taxa- 
 tion to which he had looked forward, he was called upon to
 
 THE CEIMEAN WAE. 157 
 
 prepare a war budget. The increase of revenue which had unex- 
 pectedly fallen in, and which amounted to upwards of a million 
 sterling, was alienated from its peaceful purposes, and, in addition, 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer found himself compelled to 
 increase the income-tax, the spirit duties, and the malt-tax. He 
 had hoped to meet the popular wishes, moreover, by a remission 
 of the sugar duty, but this financial boon must now be postponed. 
 Faced by no ordinary difficulties, Mr. Gladstone's fertility in 
 resource was again apparent at this juncture. . He conceived a 
 scheme by which the country should not be permanently 
 burdened with the expenses of the impending war. Prince 
 Albert, in a letter to Baron Stockmar, referred to this plan. 
 Mr. Gladstone desired to pay for the war out of current revenue, 
 provided it did not require more than ten millions sterling 
 beyond the ordinary expenditure. In order to meet this extra 
 charge, however, he had no option but to increase the taxes. 
 Mr. Disraeli in duty bound, perhaps, as the mouthpiece of a 
 strong Opposition propounded a different scheme. He desired 
 to borrow, thus increasing the Debt ; he was opposed to the im- 
 position of any fresh taxes. ' The former course,' said the Prince 
 Consort to his friend, ' is manly, statesmanlike, and honest ; 
 the latter is convenient, cowardly, and perhaps popular.' But in 
 a remarkable manner the people of England rose to the exigen- 
 cies of the situation. They approved the plans of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, though fraught with temporary 
 inconvenience. Mr. Gladstone had not misinterpreted the 
 feeling of the country. It was ready to bear the burden 
 which it in reality called down upon itself, and to meet, 
 as they occurred, the expenses of the war. Never was 
 patriotism more strongly displayed than at this period. A 
 Minister may frequently acquire popularity by leaving to 
 succeeding generations the discharge of those pecuniary liabilities 
 which arise in connection with exceptional events. But Mr. 
 Gladstone fought against this policy. Though, as he said, 
 ' every good motive and every bad motive, combated only by the 
 desire of the approval of honourable men and by conscientious 
 rectitude every motive of ease, of comfort, and of certainty 
 spring forward in his mind to induce a Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer to become the first man to recommend a loan ' he 
 resisted the temptation, and was rewarded by the support of 
 Parliament and the country. 
 
 Under circumstances widely different, therefore, from those 
 attending his first financial statement, Mr. Gladstone pro- 
 duced his budget of 1854. His prognostications of the previous 
 year had been exceeded by the results of the revenue. He
 
 158 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 estimated the income for the year 1853-54 after all reductions 
 should have heen effected at 52,990,000. The actual receipts 
 were 54,025,000, showing an excess of 1,035,000. Moreover, 
 not only did the revenue thus largely exceed the estimate, but 
 tlie expenditure fell short of it by no less than 1,012,000, the 
 two items together furnishing a surplus of 2,047,000. On the 
 6th of March the budget was introduced. The Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer announced with regard to the estimate for the war in 
 the East, that it was impossible to say it would suffice for the 
 wants of the whole year. The measure which he then proposed 
 was to vote for extraordinary military expenditure a sum of 
 1,250,000. There was a deficiency of nearly three millions to 
 provide for, and even this did not exhaust the whole cost of the 
 war. * But while he hoped that this sum might be raised without 
 returning to the higher duties on various articles which had 
 recently been diminished, he urged strongly that it should not be 
 raised by resorting to a loan, and so throwing the burden on 
 posterity. Such a course was not required by the necessities of 
 the country, and was therefore not worthy of its adoption. No 
 country had played so much as England at this dangerous game 
 of mortgaging the industry of future generations. Jt was right 
 that those who make war should be prepared to make the sacri- 
 fices needed to carry it on ; the necessity for so doing was a most 
 useful check on mere lust of conquest, and would lead men to 
 make war with the wish of realising the earliest prospects of an 
 honourable peace.' Mr. Gladstone then went on to speak generally 
 of the war, and the following passage of his speech was warmly 
 applauded : 
 
 ' We have entered upon a great struggle, but we have entered upon it under 
 favourable circumstances. We have proposed to you to make great efforts, and 
 you have nobly and cheerfully backed 'our proposals. Ydu have already by your 
 votes added nearly 40,000 men to the establishments of the country ; and taking 
 into account changes that have actually been carried into effect with regard to 
 the return of soldiers from the Colonies, and the arrangements which, in the present 
 state of Ireland, might be made but which are not made with respect to the 
 constabulary force, in order to render the military force disposable to the utmost 
 possible extent, it is not too much to say that we have virtually an addition to 
 the disposable forces of the country, by land and by sea, at the present moment, as 
 compared with our position twelve months ago, to the extent of nearly 50,000 men. 
 This looks like an intention to carry on your war with vigour, and the wish and 
 hope of her Majesty's Government is, that that may be truly said of the people of 
 England, with regard to this war, which was, I am afraid, not so truly said of 
 Charles II. by a courtly but great poet, Dryden 
 
 " He without fear a dangerous war pursues, 
 Which without rashness he began before." 
 
 That, we trust, will be the motto of the people of England ; and you have this 
 advantage, that the sentiment of Europe, and we trust the might of Europe, is with 
 you. These circumstances though we must not be sanguine, though it would 
 be the wildest presumption for any man to say, when the ravages of European war 
 had once begun, where and at what point it would be stayed these circumstances 
 justify us in cherishing the hope that possibly ihis may not be a long war.'
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 159 
 
 The speaker held that there were economical reasons and also 
 moral reasons why the House should adhere to the sound policy 
 of raising the supplies within the year. Coming to the gist of his 
 plan, the Government proposed, he said, to repair the deficiency 
 of 2,840,000, and to provide a moderate margin besides, by 
 increasing the income-tax by one-half, levying the whole addition 
 for and in respect of the first moiety of the year in other words, 
 to double the tax for the half-year. He took the amount of the 
 income-tax for 1854-55 at 6,275,000 ; a moiety of that sum 
 was 3,137,500 ; but, in the case of the income-tax, the cost 
 of collection diminished in proportion as the amount increased, 
 and he took the real moiety consequently at 3,307,000, which 
 would make the whole produce of the income-tax 9,582,000. 
 The aggregate income for 1854-55 would then amount to 
 56,656,000, and the expenditure being estimated at 
 56,186,000, a small surplus would be left of 470,000. Mr. 
 Gladstone next announced a proposed financial reform of some 
 importance to the commercial community. It was designed to 
 abolish the distinction then existing between home and foreign 
 drawn bills, making them pay the same rate of tax. As the addi- 
 tions to the revenue could not be realised before Christmas, 
 whereas a large portion of war expenditure must be provided for 
 in the next quarter, he laid on the table of the House a resolution 
 for a vote of 1,750,000 for an issue of Exchequer bills. This 
 would enable the Government to provide for the interval. He 
 did not anticipate that it would be necessary to exercise this 
 permission to its full extent ; but if it should be, the unfunded 
 debt would only stand as it stood twelve months before, when its 
 amount was 17,750,000, as compared with 16,000,000 for the 
 current period. 
 
 In the course of the discussion which ensued, Mr. Hume 
 approved the principle that the revenue should be raised within 
 the year, on the ground that those who had urged the Govern- 
 ment to a war whose propriety could not be judged should bear 
 their share of its burdens. Mr. Disraeli announced that he 
 should not oppose the vote, as the House was bound to support 
 her Majesty in all just and necessary wars ; but he protested 
 against the doctrine that in a prolonged contest we should rely 
 upon taxation alone to raise the requisite supplies, or that even 
 in resorting to taxation it might not be necessary to rely upon 
 indirect as well as upon direct taxation. 
 
 The resolution for doubling the income-tax was passed in the 
 House of Commons, without discussion or division, on the 20th 
 of March ; but on the report being brought up the following day, 
 an animated debate unexpectedly occurred. Sir H. Willoughby
 
 160 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONPL 
 
 moved an amendment to the effect that the collection of the 
 additional moiety extend over the whole year, and not be levied 
 during the first half of the year. Sir F. Baring regarded the 
 proposition involved in the budget as the best arrangement 
 which could have been made ; but Mr. Disraeli contended that 
 the Government were justified in demanding increased 
 taxes to provide for a war only upon the condition of proving 
 that the war was unavoidable. This they had not done. 
 He replied to the objection that no criticism should be 
 pronounced on the Ministerial policy unless the critic were pre- 
 pared to propose a vote of no confidence ; and he urged that it 
 was apparent the Government had no confidence in the House, 
 or even in themselves. He also contrasted the expressions of 
 different Ministers at different times to show how loose and con- 
 flicting had been their opinions on the great question of peace or 
 war. The Opposition leader declared that the war had been 
 brought about by this divergence of opinion. A united Cabinet 
 would have averted it altogether ; it was a coalition war. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's reply to this speech was an obvious one. 
 He observed that the omission, on the part of his rival, to 
 propose a vote of want of confidence was defended upon the 
 very grounds that should have prompted it ; and he characterised 
 the conclusion to which Mr. Disraeli had landed his argument as 
 ' illogical and recreant.' He then vindicated at length his 
 financial policy as regarded the reduction of interest on 
 Exchequer bills, the conversion of stock, and the partial employ- 
 ment of the Treasury balances in buying up the public debt ; 
 concluding by explaining his motives in asking that the whole 
 increase in the income-tax should be paid within the first six 
 months. The amendment was negatived ; the report of the 
 resolution was agreed to, and a bill was ordered to be brought 
 in. On the 30th of March the bill was read a third time, and 
 passed by the House of Commons. 
 
 The Emperor of Eussia having refused to return an answer to 
 the demand made upon him by Great Britain and France to 
 evacuate the Danubian Principalities, the Allies (as we have seen) 
 made a formal declaration of war on the 28th of March. The 
 British people entered upon the contest with hope and courage. 
 Everything seemed to presage a speedy termination to the war ; 
 but it was discovered that the Emperor Nicholas was not so 
 deficient in resources as had been represented. The conflict 
 which had begun must necessarily be a protracted and an 
 expensive one. There probably never was a continental monarch 
 not even the first Napoleon so execrated in England as the Czar, 
 to crush whom English income-tax payers now cheerfully con til-
 
 THE CEIMEAN WAE. 161 
 
 buted, at the rate of fourteenpence in the pound, to the National 
 Exchequer. The two Houses of Parliament discussed her 
 Majesty's Message on the 31st of March. Mr. Bright failed to 
 impress the members of the Lower House with his arguments 
 against the war, while Lord Palrnerston roused the same audience 
 to a high pitch of enthusiasm by his vindication of the policy 
 which had been pursued by the Government, and by his review 
 of the tremendous interests, national and European, which were 
 at stake. Between the 8th of February and the 1st of May, some 
 25,000 English troops had been conveyed to their destination in 
 the Crimea. Hostilities had commenced, and with a bitterness 
 of feeling rarely, paralleled in the annals of war. 
 
 The war thus initiated entailed on England an exceed- 
 ingly heavy expenditure, and on the 8th of May accord- 
 ingly the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward 
 additional proposals in connection with his war budget. 
 Adverting to the necessity which had existed for demanding a 
 doubled income-tax at a time when war was not declared, he 
 said it was then impossible for the Government to form a trust- 
 worthy estimate of the expenses of the war. In moving his 
 resolution for an increased income-tax, he had asked what was 
 at the time known to be requisite, but had also guarded himself 
 by stating that his demand was not adequate to the purposes of 
 war. He now asked for the means of satisfactorily carrying on 
 the struggle. Before unfolding his plans, Mr. Gladstone defended 
 himself against the accusations of having mismanaged the 
 unfunded debt, and of having made a bad bargain in paying off 
 the holders of South Sea Stock. The new Navy, Army, and 
 Ordnance Estimates, with an additional 500,000 for the militia, 
 would, he said, absorb 6,000,000 ; but he had also to provide 
 for charges as yet unknown, and should be compelled to ask for 
 6,850,000 in addition to what had been already granted. This 
 would have to be raised by taxation, and it was proposed to 
 repeat the operation which had already been performed upon the 
 income-tax. The former operations had yielded from this source 
 9,582,000, and the addition would give 3,250,000 in all, 
 from this source, 12,832,000. This augmentation would be 
 asked for the period of the war, and- should it terminate 
 which he prayed God might grant during the existence of 
 the tax under the Act of 1853, the augmentation would cease. 
 In this way he calculated that two-thirds of the expenses would 
 be provided for. Touching the remainder, there was some diffi- 
 culty. Government could not propose any other direct tax, 
 neither could they resort to the assessed taxes. As regarded 
 indirect taxes, they had resolved not to alter the system of 
 
 M
 
 162 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 postage, which had been so prosperous and beneficial. Nor did 
 Government intend to reimpose taxes which had been taken off. 
 They must go to the consumer in .the least oppressive and 
 injurious way. It was proposed to repeat the operation of last 3 r ear 
 on Scotch and Irish spirits, and to augment the duty in Scotland 
 by Is. per gallon, and in Ireland by 8d. This would be a gain 
 to the Exchequer of 450,000. By a new classification of thu 
 sugar duties, 700,000 would be raised. When Mr. Gladstone 
 proceeded to announce that it was proposed to augment jfche duty 
 on malt, considerable sensation was apparent amongst the Oppo- 
 sition, who gave expression to their disapprobation. The 
 speaker, however, went on to say that he considered we might 
 fairly come upon the wealthy for the first charges of the war, 
 but that a national war ought to be borne by all classes. The 
 malt-tax pressed on all, and as it was easily collected, and 
 required no increased staff for the purpose, it seemed to fulfil 
 the conditions which should be sought for. The malt-tax stood, 
 in round figures, at 2s. 9d. per bushel, and he proposed to rai j 
 it to 4s., which would still leave it lower than it was in 1810, and 
 less than half what it was from 1804 to 1816, during the great war 
 struggle. Taking the consumption at forty million bushels, this 
 would give 2,450.000. The united amounts thus to be obtained 
 by increased income-tax, spirit duty, sugar duty, and malt duty 
 would be 6,850,000, which was the required sum. Mr. Gladstone 
 next stated that it was necessary to have a resource for 
 extraordinary contingencies, and for a possible rapid increase in 
 the rate of war expenditure. He explained and vindicated his 
 policy with regard to the issue of Exchequer bonds, and unfolded 
 his plan for providing the further interim funds which would be 
 required. He would take authority to confirm the contracts for 
 the Exchequer bonds of the Class A, and power to issue a second 
 series. He would also take power to issue two millions of 
 Exchequer bills, and so many more as should not be taken on the 
 four millions of Exchequer bonds. This would give a command 
 of 5,500,000, and the total sum of 66,746,000 of revenue, set 
 against 63,039,000 of expenditure, would show for the year a 
 margin which he would for safety put at three millions and a 
 half. 
 
 Such is a digest of Mr. Gladstone's proposals in this urgent 
 financial crisis, and after stating the mode of proceeding with 
 his plan, the Chancellor of the Exchequer turned to answer the 
 charges made by the opponents of the Government. 'It 
 was hardly necessary,' he observed, 'to meet the absurd 
 accusation of want of foresight as to the inevitability of 
 war, or to defend themselves for having believed that a
 
 THE CEIMEAN WATJ. 163 
 
 Sovereign of Europe was a man of honour ; but he met the 
 equally ridiculous charge of having abandoned public revenue, 
 by asking in what state Government had found the revenue when 
 the income-tax itself was in peril, because Mr. Disraeli had 
 thought it consistent with his duty to his Sovereign and his 
 country to promise a remodelling of that tax without having 
 formed any plan for the purpose. The man who did that was 
 the one who surrendered public revenue.' Mr. Gladstone 
 claimed that the Government had re-established that tax ; and 
 he thanked the House for the aid of its generous confidence, 
 whereby various financial reforms had been secured. He con- 
 cluded by justifying himself at length for rejecting the counsel 
 which had recommended a loan for the expenses of the war. 
 Recapitulating the history of Mr. Pitt's enormous and costly 
 loans, he warned the House against the system, advising 
 Parliament to struggle against it as long as possible. Mr. Pitt 
 himself, he added, discovered his error, and afterwards made 
 gallant efforts to redeem it. While the Duke of Wellington 
 in the great wars at the commencement of the century was 
 covering the name of England with fresh glories, our fathers 
 were making noble struggles to bear the current expenses 
 of the war ; and he wished his hearers to show themselves worthy 
 of such sires. The country was at that moment prosperous, 
 and could afford some sacrifice. The Minister observed 
 finally that such was the vigour, and such the elasticity of 
 our trade, that even under the disadvantages of a bad harvest, 
 and under the pressure of war, the imports from day to day, 
 and almost from hour to hour, were increasing, and the very 
 last papers laid on the table showed that within the closing 
 three months of the year there were 250,000 increase in the 
 exports. In view of these circumstances, and while the effects of 
 the war had not as yet seriously touched the people, Mr. Glad- 
 stone was fully justified in the opinion of most critics of his 
 financial policy in proposing that the expenses of the war 
 should be met as they were incurred. 
 
 The speech in which these proposals were made occupied 
 three hours and a half ; at its conclusion the Opposition chiefs 
 were evidently taken by surprise. The Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer had not only regaled the House with his accustomed 
 eloquence, but had sketched a bold and masterly financial policy. 
 Mr. Disraeli agreed to the resolutions only on the understand- 
 ing that a full opportunity should be afforded for the discussion 
 of the principle embodied in them. On the following Monday, 
 May 15th, on the order for the second reading of the Excise 
 Duties (Malt and Spirits) Bill, Mr. Cay ley moved to defer 
 
 M 2
 
 164 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the second reading for six months. A discussion ensued, in 
 which the Government policy was severely criticised by Sir 
 E. Bulwer Lytton, Sir John Pakington, and others. Lord 
 John Russell replied in very pointed and effective style. 
 The question before the House was, whether, when a 
 formidable military power threatened to swallow up one of our 
 allies, one shilling and threepence a bushel upon malt was too 
 great a sacrifice. ' Don't tell me,' said his lordship, ' that the 
 tax is so objectionable that you are ready to vote any other, and 
 that the landed interest will resist this small addition to the 
 malt duty ; tell me not that this is really the obstacle which 
 prevents you from supporting the Government, but that, 
 although you are in favour of the war, you are not ready to vote 
 the necessary supplies.' Mr. Disraeli replied, saying that he still 
 supported the policy of the war, but that he objected to this tax, 
 not merely because it was unjust and unnecessary, but because it 
 hampered the industry, crippled the progress, and in every way 
 injured the agricultural interest of this country. The division 
 list showed the temper of the House, and its determination to 
 uphold the Government, Mr. Cayley's amendment being 
 negatived by 303 votes against 195. 
 
 A sharp passage of arms occurred between Mr. Gladstone and 
 Mr. Disraeli a few days afterwards. On the motion for going 
 into Committee of Ways and Means (Exchequer Bonds), the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer explained the situation in which 
 previous votes of the House had left the financial policy of the 
 Government. The expenditure had been authorised by decisive 
 votes, and the House had also formally agreed to the ways 
 and means by which it was to be raised. He now took the 
 opinion of the House on the single question, how the ready money 
 that was wanted should be obtained. The question turned 
 simply upon the alternative whether it was most expedient to 
 resort to an issue of Exchequer bills, or authenticate the 
 Ministerial project of Exchequer bonds. Hereupon Mr. Disraeli 
 rose to his feet, and, amid the cheers of his supporters, charged 
 the Ministry with sharp practice. They had taken votes on the 
 plea of administrative convenience, and these votes they now 
 accounted decisive, thus taking from the House the opportunity 
 of deciding upon the principle involved. Mr. Gladstone replied 
 that ample opportunity would be afforded for discussing the 
 principles embodied in the resolutions. On the resolution 
 empowering the Government to issue 2,000,000 of Exchequer 
 bonds being put from the chair, Mr. T. Baring moved an 
 amendment declaring that * it was not expedient at present to 
 authorise any further issue of Exchequer bonds with the
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAE. 165 
 
 engagement of repayment within the next six years.' At the 
 conclusion of the debate which ensued, Mr. Disraeli again 
 assailed the financial policy of the Government. They had 
 committed blunders, he held, out of which the present diffi- 
 culties had grown. Inaccurate and deceptive statements had 
 been made in successive budgets, fallacious estimates were 
 given of the costs of the war, and delusive announcements 
 hazarded regarding the aids that would be required to meet 
 the growing charges upon the revenue. *At last a con- 
 tinuance of mismanagement had culminated in the neces- 
 sity for a loan of six millions ; and this loan, in its turn, 
 was so mismanaged that the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 had offered four per cent, for the money, and yet could not 
 
 fet it. He had shown himself incompetent to deal with the 
 ulls and bears, and had been forced to appeal to the stags 
 of the Stock Exchange. And now came a last shift for raising a 
 loan in masquerade.' Mr. Gladstone replied to these charges 
 seriatim, carrying the sympathies of his followers warmly with 
 him. Having dealt with the allegations of the Opposition leader, 
 he declared that he stood by the budget, acknowledged the loyal 
 spirit in which the country responded to the calls being made 
 upon it for increased resources, and attributed the ability to 
 answer those calls in great measure to the ease and prosperity 
 derived from judicious legislation in former years. It was the 
 Opposition who had really been advocates of the borrowing system, 
 and 'loans in masquerade;' and as the name of Pitt had been 
 quoted against the Government, he reminded the House that this 
 had only reference to errors which the great Minister had himself 
 confessed and retrieved a few years later, while the Government 
 had followed in his footsteps in the better-advised course which 
 he subsequently adopted. 
 
 The division list gave For the resolution, 290 ; for the 
 amendment, 186 majority for the Government, 104. With 
 this division the opposition to Mr. Gladstone's financial 
 proposals collapsed. On the 24th of July, however, when a 
 vote of credit of 3,000,000 was moved by Lord John 
 Russell for the expenses of the war, Mr. Disraeli again severely 
 attacked the Government on the general question of their policy, 
 and asserted that there would have been no war if Lord Derby 
 and himself had not been compelled to resign the conduct of 
 affairs. He once more complained that the war was largely due 
 to the evil of a coalition Government. 
 
 The vote of credit really became one of a vote of confidence 
 in the Ministry, as the Prince Consort expressed it in a letter to 
 Baron Stockmar. When the report on the vote of credit was
 
 166 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 brought up, Lord D. Stuart moved an amendment to the effect 
 that her Majesty should be requested not to prorogue Parlia- 
 ment until it should have further information upon the subject. 
 A great debate was expected, but all parties shrank from 
 imperilling the existence of the Ministry ; and in the event the 
 report was received, the amendment being negatived without & 
 division. 
 
 Parliament was prorogued on the 12th of August, her Majesty 
 stating in the Speech from the Throne that, in cordial co-opera- 
 tion with the Emperor of the French, her efforts would be 
 directed during the * recess to the effectual repression of that 
 ambitious and aggressive spirit on the part of Russia which has 
 compelled us to take up arms in defence of an ally, and to 
 secure the future tranquillity of Europe/
 
 CHAPTEli X. 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR (continued). 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas and the Peace Party Dissolution of the European Concert 
 Position of the European Powers on the Eastern Question The Policy of Prussia 
 condemned The Queen and the War Dissensions in the Cabinet Management 
 of the War Debates in both Houses The Disasters in the Crimea Attacks 
 upon the Ministry Mr. Roebuck's Motion for a Committee to inquire into the 
 Condition of the English Army before Sebastopol Lord John Russell resigns 
 Condition of things in the Crimea Mr. Gladstone's Defence of the Government 
 Necessity for a Committee Great Majority against Ministers Collapse of the 
 Coalition Cabinet of. Lord Aberdeen Position of the Peelite Section Ministerial 
 Negotiations Formation of a Government under Lord Palmerston Its Difficul- 
 ties Mr. Roebuck's Motion Resignation of Mr. Gladstone, Sir J. Graham, and 
 Mr. Sidney Herbert Their Defence The Cabinet Reconstructed Death of the 
 Czar. 
 
 AT one point in the history of the negotiations which preceded 
 the great events of the Crimean War, there was some hope that 
 the concert between the four Great Powers England, France, 
 Austria, and Prussia would have succeeded in preserving peace. 
 It is true that the Emperor Nicholas encouraged himself in his 
 stubborn course by the utterances of Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and 
 other distinguished friends of peace in this country, to whose 
 speeches he attached a high degree of importance. Mr. Cobden 
 described Turkey as a decaying country, and said that the Turks 
 could not be permanently maintained as a ruling Power in 
 Europe ; Mr. Bright took up the strain, affirming that Russia was 
 an advancing nation, and that if England had not interfered the 
 differences between Russia and Turkey would have been settled 
 long ago, settled by the concessions of Turkey. Such were the 
 expressed opinions of these popular leaders, and, believing them 
 to be endorsed by a large body of their countrymen, the Czar 
 rigorously pursued his warlike policy, and began to doubt 
 whether after all England was serious in her resolve to go to 
 war, and to prosecute the threatened' struggle to the end.* 
 But though these things had their weight, the dissolution of 
 
 * It will be understood that the author is not at this moment either impugning 
 or endorsing the views of Mr. Bright and his friends upon tha Crimean war ; he is 
 simply stating their effect. The supporters of a peace policy mistook the spirit 
 and temper of the country in this great question, but it is only bare justice to 
 admit that they were consistent throughout
 
 168 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the European concert was another powerful influence in destroy- 
 ing the prospect of peace. Prussia and Austria, having 
 acknowledged upon paper the justness of the views of England 
 and France, practically refused to support them when the time 
 for doing so arrived. It is important briefly to state the 
 position of the various European Powers upon the Eastern 
 Question, when the crisis came in March, 1854. This we can 
 best do in the words of Mr. Gladstone himself :* 
 
 Austria urged the two leading states, England and France, to send in their 
 ultimatum to Kussia, and promised it her decided support. She redeemed the 
 pledge, but only -to the extent of a strong verbal advocacy. Without following 
 out the subsequent detail of her proceedings, she rendered thereafter to the Allies 
 but equivocal and uncertain service ; without, however, disavowing their policy 
 either in act or word. It was Prussia which, at the critical moment, to speak in 
 homely language, bolted ; the very policy which she had recommended, she declined 
 unconditionally to sustain, from the first moment when it began to assume the 
 character of a solid and stern reality. In fact, she broke up the European concert, 
 by which it was that France and England had hoped, and had had a right to hope, 
 to put down the stubbornness of the Czar, and to repel his attack upon the public 
 law of Europe. The question that these Allies had now to determine was whether, 
 armed as they had been all along with the panoply of moral authority, they would, 
 upon this unfortunate and discreditable desertion, allow all their demands, their 
 reasonings, their professions to melt into thin air.' 
 
 The early policy of England on the Oriental Question has 
 never been better stated and vindicated than it is here in few 
 words. We had no selfish ends to answer by the war, and, on 
 the defection of Austria and Prussia, might have shrunk from 
 encountering Russia, except with the aid of those who had 
 promised us their support. But what would have become of 
 the traditional glory of England in that case? She has ever 
 been the friend of the oppressed, and there is something nobler 
 in fulfilling one's moral obligations than in fighting for mere 
 personal and selfish rights. We had put our hand to the work, 
 and could not go backward. To have retreated at the supreme 
 moment might have endangered the permanent peace and welfare 
 of Europe ; and such a step would certainly have been consenting 
 tacitly to the establishment of a precedent valuable to aggressive 
 and ambitious Sovereigns in the future. 
 
 The Prince Consort, in a letter to King Leopold, dated the 
 6th of November, 1854, thus exposed the dangers attending the 
 vacillating policy of Prussia : 
 
 ' The longer Russia's resistance lasts, and the longer the struggle is devolved on 
 France and England alone, the more compact must their alliance become. As, 
 then, France and Napoleon are under all circumstances sure to cherish their 
 traditional arriere-pensees of territorial aggrandisement at their neighbours' expense, 
 the risk, as far as these neighbours are concerned, certainly is that England may 
 some day have to stand by and see things done which she herself cannot desire, 
 but must uphold in the interest of her ally. This danger, I repeat, Austria, Prussia, 
 
 * See Article on the 'Life of the Prince Consort,' in the Church of Enyland 
 Quarteriy Eeview for January, 1878.
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAK. 169 
 
 and Germany may avert by acting with us, not in the manipulation of Protocols, 
 which leave everything to the exertions of the Western Powers, and have no other 
 object but to make sure that no harm is done to the enemy. Such a course is 
 dishonourable, immoral, leads to distrust, and ultimately to direct hostility. 
 Already the soreness of feeling here against Prussia is intense, nor can it be less in 
 I 'ranee. I have made the Prince of Prussia aware of my anxiety on this head.'.* 
 
 The course pursued by the German Powers was utterly inde- 
 fensible, and on them must be placed the responsibility of having 
 tailed to use decisive pressure upon Kussia in favour of peace. 
 In all human probability, the Czar would have hesitated in 
 his career had he been warned to desist from his aggressions 
 by the united voice of all the leading Powers of Europe. 
 
 The war began in earnest, and on the 21st of September, 1854, 
 the Duke of Newcastle received a telegram announcing that 
 25,000 English troops, 25,000 French, and 8,000 Turks had 
 landed safely at Eupatoria, ' without meeting with any resistance, 
 and had already begun to march upon Sebastopol.' 
 
 Yet, popular as the war was in England, there were symptoms 
 during the autumn that Lord Aberdeen's Ministry the Govern- 
 ment which declared it was becoming just the reverse. If 
 there were not absolute dissensions in the Cabinet, there was a 
 great lack of unanimity of feeling as to the conduct of the war. 
 Ministerial changes had taken place during the preceding session ; 
 Lord John Russell had accepted the office of President of the 
 Council ; and the duties of War Minister having become too 
 onerous to be any longer associated with those of the Secretary 
 for the Colonies, the Duke of Newcastle was created Secretary at 
 War. The Queen was well aware of the repugnance with which 
 Lord Aberdeen had always viewed the war ; but he was a states- 
 man with whom she had ever been upon the most cordial 
 relations, and for whom she entertained feelings of the highest 
 personal esteem. Her communications and expressed wishes 
 alike prove that she was most desirous the war should be prose- 
 cuted with vigour, now that it had been entered upon, and she 
 looked to the Premier to second her own hopes and those of the 
 nation. But it soon became apparent that the Cabinet was not 
 entirely at one a most unfortunate circumstance at this critical 
 juncture. Mr. Martin observes upon this point : 
 
 ' If ever a Ministry strong in its own counsels and mutual trust, and strong also 
 in Parliament, was necessary^ it was so at the present time. But notoriously 
 discontents reigned within the Cabinet itself. Two at least of its members, Lord 
 Russell and Lord Palmerston, would have preferred to lead rather than to be led. 
 Each Kad his partisans within and without the Cabinet, and it was apparent to all 
 the world that no cordial unanimity existed between the Peelite section of the 
 Ministry and their colleagues. In the House of Commons the followers of the 
 Government showed no symptoms of coherence. The head of the Ministry was a 
 favourite object of attack with them, no less than with the Opposition. Nor was 
 
 * Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort. By Theodore Martin. Vol. III.
 
 170 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 this met by that display of loyalty on the part of his supporters which the head of 
 a Government has a right to expect. It was impossible for a Ministry thus obviously 
 not at one with itself to command either the respect or the obedience of the House ; 
 having themselves encouraged insubordination against their chief, some of tha 
 members were not entitled to complain if they found themselves thwarted in 
 their measures through a similar disregard of party tie by the body of the Liberal 
 party.' * 
 
 The. Queen was most anxious for the country to witness a 
 united Government, and the time must have been a peculiarly 
 trying one for Lord Aberdeen. Mr. Gladstone affirms that the 
 statement of Mr. Martin to the effect that there was no cordial 
 unanimity between the Peelite section of the Ministry and their 
 colleagues is an entire mistake. We are thus met by the 
 dilemma of Mr. Gladstone's statement on the one hand, and Mr. 
 Martin's equally emphatic statement on the other the latter 
 being founded on documents furnished to the writer, and views 
 expressed to him, as well as being confessedly sanctioned by the 
 highest personage in the realm. It is possible to harmonise the 
 two by reading Mr. Martin's statement in the light of a 
 confession which Mr. Gladstone himself makes, to the effect that 
 ' rifts there were without doubt in the imposing structure (of the 
 Cabinet), but they were due entirely to individual views or 
 pietensions, and in no way to sectional antagonism.' This is 
 quite sufficient to account for the rumours which arose 
 rumours that discredited the Ministry with a portion of the 
 House and with the country. Whether the differences were 
 merely 'rifts' or sectional disagreements matters little. Mr. 
 Martin may have expressed himself too strongly, but that 
 there were differences between individual members of the 
 Cabinet, which the Court lamented equally with the nation at 
 large, admits of no doubt. We may cheerfully admit Mr. 
 Gladstone's contention that there was no sectional demarcation, 
 nor any approach to it, within the Cabinet ; also that ' not even 
 when the Eastern Question became the engrossing subject of the 
 day was a sectional division to be traced. It may be true, if 
 nuances are to be minutely investigated, that the Peelite colour 
 was on the whole a shade or two more pacific than the Whig ; 
 but even this is true of the leading individuals rather than of 
 the sections, and it may be safely affirmed that, of all the steps 
 taken by that Government during the long and complicated 
 negotiations before the Crimean War, there was not one which 
 was forced, as will sometimes happen, by a majority of the 
 Cabinet upon the minority.' Yet, accepting all this, "there 
 could not have existed amongst the members of the Aberdeen 
 Ministry that spirit of full and frank cordiality which should 
 
 * Mr. Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, Vol. III., p. 90.
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAE. 171 
 
 distinguish a government in the time of a grave crisis. Or, if 
 there were this feeling, how came it that the knowledge of a 
 variation of sentiment not only permeated the ranks of both 
 political parties in the Houses of Parliament, and was widely 
 disseminated through the country, but caused uneasiness 
 likewise in Royal circles ? 
 
 But such differences as did exist in the Ministry became a 
 wholly secondary matter when the management of the war 
 came to be discussed. Parliament reassembled on the 12th 
 of December under circumstances more stirring and momentous 
 than any which had occurred since the year of Waterloo, 
 Debates immediately took place in both Houses on the conduct 
 of the Ministry. The battles of the Alma, Balaclava, and 
 Inkermann had been fought, and the British troops, as in times 
 past, had covered themselves with glory. But this had been 
 achieved by immense sacrifices, and the reports whic-L reached 
 England from the Crimea affecting the conduct of the war 
 were such as to cause a painful feeling throughout the 
 country, from the Queen down to her meanest subject. The 
 British army was suffering greatly, and to meet the exigencies of 
 the sick and wounded the fund known as the Patriotic Fund was. 
 set on foot. The country subscribed with a noble liberality, and 
 in fourteen days the sum of ^15,000 was received at the Times' 
 office alone. In less than three months the whole fund exceeded 
 half a million, and by the time of its closing it had reached 
 upwards of a million and a quarter. Nor was this all : Miss 
 Vlorence Nightingale, and thirty-seven lady nurses, proceeded to- 
 the Crimea to nurse the brave men who had been wounded. ' They 
 reached Scutari on the 5th of November, in time to receive the 
 soldiers who had been wounded at the battle of Balaclava. On 
 the arrival of Miss Nightingale, the great hospital at Scutari 
 in which up to this time all had been chaos and discomfort was 
 reduced to order ; and those tender lenitives, which only woman's 
 thought and woman's sympathy can bring to the sick man's 
 couch, were applied to solace and alleviate the agonies of pain, or 
 the torture of fever and prostration.' A supplementary staff of 
 lifty trained nurses afterwards followed Miss Nightingale and her 
 assistants to the seat of war. The ministrations of these noble 
 women form the brightest episode in this long and terrible war ; 
 and many pathetic stories are told in connection with the con- 
 solations they administered to the suffering and the dying. To 
 many a brave soldier, apparently a prey to the agents of death, 
 Miss Nightingale became a veritable angel of life. 
 
 Alike in palace and in cottage, the sufferings of the troops had 
 created a feeling of profound sympathy ; but these sufferings were
 
 172 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 aggravated by the rigours of an unusually severe winter. The 
 Queen herself wrote to Lord Eaglan : ' The sad privations of the 
 army, the had weather, and the constant sickness, are causes of 
 the deepest concern to the Queen and Prince. The braver her 
 noble troops are, the more patiently and heroically they bear all 
 their trials and sufferings, the more miserable we feel at their 
 long continuance. The Queen trusts that Lord Raglan will be 
 very strict in seeing that no unnecessary privations are incurred 
 by any negligence of those whose duty it is to watch over their 
 wants. . . . The Queen earnestly trusts that the large 
 amount of warm clothing sent out has not only reached Balaclava, 
 but has been distributed, and that Lord Raglan has been successful 
 in procuring the means of hutting for the men. Lord Raglan 
 cannot think how much we suffer for the army, and how pain- 
 fully anxious we are to know that their privations are 
 decreasing.' The Prince Consort, writing to King Leopold" a few 
 weeks later said : ' The present administration of the army is not 
 to be defended. My heart bleeds to think of it ! ' The solicitude 
 thus felt in the most illustrious quarters was shared by the 
 countiy, and it foun4 expression on the re-assembling of Parlia- 
 ment. This was natural and imperative, even if no iota oi 
 blame in connection with the army arrangements in the Crimea 
 <x)uld be directly attributed to the Ministry. 
 
 Acrimonious debates ensued in the two Houses. In the Upper 
 House the Earl of Derby severely condemned the inefficient 
 rr aimer in which the war had been carried on. ' Too late,' he 
 said, were the fatal words applicable to the whole conduct of 
 Government in the course of the war, while the number of 
 troops sent out had been quite insufficient to overthrow the 
 power of Russia. The Duke of Newcastle, in reply, while not 
 defending all the steps which had marked the conduct of the 
 war from its commencement, said the Ministry were prepared to 
 prosecute it with resolve and unflinching fimmess. They would 
 not reject overtures of peace, but they would not consent to any 
 but an honourable peace. The Government had confidence in 
 the army, in the people, and in their Allies, and cherished the 
 highest hope of bringing the contest to a satisfactory issue. In 
 the House of Commons, Mr. Disraeli attacked the policy of 
 Ministers from first to last. Everything was a blunder or a 
 mishap of some description or other. The Government had 
 invaded Russia with 25,000 men, and made no provision for 
 their support. With regard to the Treaty with Austria, he 
 threw grave doubts upon the sincerity of our new Ally. Mr. 
 Disraeli continued : ' I believe that this Cabinet of coalition 
 flattered themselves, and were credulous in their flattery, that
 
 THE CE1MEAN WAE. 173 
 
 the tremendous issues which they have had to encounter, and 
 which must make their days and nights anxious, which have 
 been part of their lives, would not have occurred. They could 
 never dream, for instance, that it would be the termination of the 
 career of a noble lord to carry on war with Russia, of which that 
 noble lord had been the cherished and spoiled child. . . . 
 It has been clearly shown that two of you are never of the same 
 opinion. You were candid enough to declare this, and it is 
 probable that no three of you ever supposed the result would be 
 what it has been found to be.' 
 
 The only thing which sustained the country under such a 
 deplorable state of affairs, said the leader of the Opposition, was 
 the unparalleled heroism of our troops. Mr. Disraeli concluded 
 with these words : ' No Austrian alliance ; no Four Points ; .no 
 secret articles but let France and England together solve this 
 great question, and establish and secure a tranquillisation of 
 Europe.' Lord John Russell retorted in a speech of considerable 
 dignity and power. There was not one gleam of patriotism, he 
 said, in anything which had fallen from the right hon. gentleman. 
 His object was to destroy confidence in Ministers, and to weaken 
 the Anglo-French alliance. He justified at length the course 
 of the Government, and defended the arrangement which had 
 been entered into with Austria. On the report of the Address 
 being brought up, Mr. Gladstone furnished details respecting the 
 British forces in the East, and took occasion to answer certain 
 criticisms which had been passed upon the Government. He did 
 not lay claim to impeccability on their behalf, but they were 
 guiltless of the errors which had been ascribed to them. They 
 had never supposed that an impression could be made upon 
 Russia with an army of 50,000 men that figure only represented 
 the number which could be carried on at once from Varna to the 
 Crimea. France had already despatched to the seat of war 
 between 90,000 and 95,000 men. 
 
 On the 15th of December the thanks of both Houses were 
 formally voted to the officers and men of the army in the East, 
 and to the French generals, their allies. 
 
 The Bill for the Enlistment of Foreigners was subsequently 
 introduced, and was fiercely attacked by the opponents of the 
 Government in both Houses. In answer to Lord Ellenborough's 
 strictures in the Lords, the Earl of Aberdeen denied that the 
 foreign recruits were to be used as substitutes for militiamen, or 
 to be employed in this country. At a later stage, the Duke of 
 Newcastle agreed to reduce the numbers to be enlisted from 
 15,000 to 10,000. In the House of Commons the bill was assailed 
 by the Opposition, who were reinforced by some of the usual sup-
 
 17 1 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 porters of the Ministry. Mr. Disraeli, at the second stage of the 
 bill, announced that he should oppose it at every stage. He 
 inveighed strongly against the conduct of the war and the 
 employment of mercenary troops, and" at the same time asserted 
 that there had been no parallel to the siege of Sebastopol since 
 the invasion of Sicily by the Athenians. If not in absolute peril. 
 we were in a condition to cause grave anxiety. Lord John 
 Russell rebuked his right hon. opponent for gloating over and 
 anticipating disaster to the British arms. Ministers could not 
 conduct the war if the present bill were rejected. Lord Palmer- 
 ston urged that enlistment in England was a slow process, -while 
 the enemy with whom we were engaged could command an 
 almost unlimited supply of men. In the debate on the third 
 reading Mr. Bright maintained that in "supporting Turkey we 
 were 'fighting for a hopeless cause and a worthless ally.' 
 Ministers, however, were victorious, the bill passing by a majority 
 of 38; a.nd on the 23rd of December after having accomplished 
 an almost incredible amount of work in a few days Parliament 
 adjourned for a month. 
 
 On its reassembling, it speedily became obvious that the 
 House was determined, if possible, to sift the charges made in 
 connection with the conduct of the war. The whole country 
 seemed to expect a formal attack upon the Ministry. Lord 
 Aberdeen was in a most unenviable position, and the Queen 
 expressed her sympathy with him in his difficulties, which 
 he had endeavoured to meet with admirable temper, forbear- 
 ance, and firmness. Lord Ellenborough and Lord Lynd- 
 hurst gave notice of motions hostile to the Government in 
 the Upper House, and in the Lower Mr. Koebuck announced 
 that he should move for the appointment of a select committee 
 ' to inquire into the condition of our army before Sebastopol, and 
 into the conduct of those departments of the Government whose 
 duty it has been to minister to the wants of that army.' Instead 
 of the Ministry being able to show a bold front before these 
 attacks, Lord John Russell took time by the forelock, and caused 
 universal astonishment by tendering to her Majesty his 
 resignation of the office of President of the Council. This was a 
 most extraordinary step, and Lord Aberdeen could only interpret 
 its object to be the overthrow of the Ministry. The Duke of 
 Newcastle, whose retirement from the office of Secretary at Wai- 
 Lord John Russell had long desired, offered to make himself the 
 scapegoat of the Ministry. Lord Palmerston was anxious that 
 the Government should not be broken up, believing that such an 
 event would prove a calamity to the country ; but he doubted 
 his superior fitness for the post of War Minister over the Duke
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAU. 175 
 
 of Newcastle. After much negotiation, the Cabinet resolved to 
 hold together, save for the secession of Lord John Eussell, who 
 had resigned, he said, because he did not see how Mr. Roebuck's, 
 motion was to be resisted. His lordship's decision should have 
 been come to earlier, if at all. The defects of management, the 
 blunders of detail, by which one of the noblest armies that ever 
 left British shores had been reduced to a pitiable condition, were 
 no new facts, or at least asserted facts by those who professed to 
 have authentic information on the subject; and Lord John 
 Russell would have done well to brave the storm with his 
 colleagues. His desertion was looked upon universally as an act 
 of cowardice. In explaining the reasons for his resignation, his 
 lordship paid a high compliment to many of his colleagues, 
 especially singling out Mr." Gladstone. 
 
 The debate upon Mr. Roebuck's motion came on in due course. 
 It was opposed by Mr. Sidney Herbert, who asserted that the 
 condition of things in the Crimea had been grossly exaggerated, 
 and that great improvements had already taken place. The 
 motion, if carried, would paralyse all action, both at home and 
 abroad. A speech was delivered by Mr. Stafford, however, which 
 caused great sensation. The hon. member -said he would only 
 describe what he had seen. He condemned the sites of the 
 hospitals at Scutari and Abydos as radically unhealthy, and 
 there were other defects in connection with the former. But 
 matters were much worse at the Balaclava hospital, where the 
 bed-clothes had never been washed, where men sick of one 
 disease had caught another by being put into the place where 
 a man had died just before of fever. In one room he 
 found fourteen, in another nine men lying upon the floor; 
 while in the passage between them were excellent bedsteads, 
 which might have been put up on an average of three minutes 
 each. He also detailed specific cases of neglect, and con- 
 sequent misery endured by the soldiers. He had seen 
 hospitals containing three hundred sick, yet without wine ; he 
 had seen soldiers in vain asking for their knapsacks, which were 
 stowed away under the cargoes of ships, and he had seen wounded 
 men lying on the bare boards. The general effect of what he had 
 witnessed had been summed up by a French officer, who observed 
 to the hon. member, 'You seem, sir, to carry on war according to 
 the system of the Middle Ages ; and our regret for our backward- 
 ness is increased because we see the noble lives you are losing.' 
 Mr. Stafford excepted from censure Miss Nightingale and her 
 nurses, and concluded by referring to the attachment of the soldiers 
 to their officers, and especially to the Duke of Cambridge, and 
 also to the effect produced upon the army by the Queen's letter.
 
 176 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 The situation of the Government was known to be critical, and 
 a majority for Mr. Roebuck's motion was evidently expected by 
 both sides of the House. Under these depressing and adverse 
 circumstances, Mr. Gladstone rose to reply to the severe strictures 
 which had been passed upon the Ministry. Thanking, in the 
 outset, Lord John Russell for the eulogium pronounced upon 
 him by the noble lord a few days before, he said he was at the 
 same time bound to state that his lordship had not urged his 
 remonstrances between the month of November and the time of 
 his resignation. In November there were no complaints against 
 the War Office, and only in the month preceding that, Lord 
 John Russell had written to the Duke of Newcastle expressing 
 his belief that he had done all in his office that a man could do. 
 But there was more than this ; for the Earl of Aberdeen, being 
 doubtful of the intentions of the President of the Council, 
 asked him on the 16th of December whether he still adhered 
 to his intention of pressing changes in the War Department, 
 : and the noble lord stated, in reply, that, on the advice of a 
 friend of his own, he had abandoned the views he pressed in 
 November. So that up to the previous Tuesday night when the 
 noble lord sent in his resignation, his colleagues did not know 
 that he was dissatisfied, or that he meant to press his former 
 views as to the reorganisation of the War Department ; and it 
 might be, thought that, after losing the services of the noble 
 lord, the -Government ought not to have left the House, or at 
 least not to have met them without some reorganisation. Then 
 followed this striking passage in the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer's address : ' He felt it was not for them either to 
 attempt to make terms with the House by a reorganisation, or 
 to shrink from a judgment of the House upon their past acts. 
 If they had shrunk, what sort of epitaph would have been 
 written over their remains ? He himself would have written it 
 thus : Here lie the dishonoured ashes of a Ministry which found 
 England at peace and left it in war, which was content to enjoy 
 the emoluments of office and to wield the sceptre of power so 
 long as no ma,n had the courage to question their existence. 
 They saw the storm gathering over the country ; they heard 
 the agonising accounts which "were almost daily received of the 
 state of the sick and wounded in the East. These things did 
 not move them. But so soon as the hon. member for Sheffield 
 raised his hand to point the thunderbolt, they became conscience- 
 Btricken with a sense of guilt and, hoping to escape punishment, 
 they ran away from duty.' 
 
 This eloquent language conveying as it did, by implication, 
 a withering rebuke to Lord John Russell was received with
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 177 
 
 tumultuous cheers by one portion of the House. It at any rate 
 demonstrated that the Government were not in the least 
 actuated by the spirit of their late colleague. Mr. Gladstone 
 next addressed himself to the motion before the House, observing 
 that he himself would be the first to vote for it if it could be 
 proved that it would benefit the army. He believed that it 
 would aggravate, rather than alleviate, the evils complained of. 
 There was also the less necessity for it, as by the latest accounts 
 matters were improving. The whole army was improving 
 warm clothing had been served out everywhere, the huts were 
 in course of being set up, the railway would be finished within 
 three weeks of its commencement, and, what was of greater 
 consequence, an arrangement had been effected between the 
 generals by which 1,600 Frenchmen would be permanently in 
 the trenches, relieving to that extent the same number of English- 
 men. There had been other exaggerations as to the state of the 
 army, which the Chancellor of the Exchequer now proceeded to 
 clear up. According to the latest returns, he said, there 
 were at that moment 28,000 English troops under arms before 
 Sebastopol, and to these were to be added from 3,000 to 4,000 
 seamen and marines ; thus bringing up the whole English force 
 now in existence to more than 30,000 men. It could not be 
 said, therefore, that the British army before Sebastopol was 
 extinguished. Comparisons unfavourable to the English army 
 having been made between our own military system and that of 
 the French, Mr. Gladstone maintained that, as regarded the 
 points to which he had referred, comparisons were rather 
 favourable to us, though this was a question which could scarcely 
 be made matter for public discussion. Next, replying to Sir E. 
 Bulwer Lytton, who had condemned the Government for not 
 destroying Odessa, Mr. Gladstone pointed out that Odessa was 
 an open town, with 100,000 inhabitants, and with an army of 
 300,000 men within easy reach. How could this have proved 
 comfortable winter quarters for the British army ? Allowing that 
 the administration of the War Departments at home was defec- 
 tive, he declined to admit that it had not improved, or that it 
 was so defective as to deserve censure. After indicating many 
 improvements which had been effected, he came to the gist of 
 the motion before the House, and warmly defended the Duke of 
 Newcastle from the censure sought to be cast upon him. 
 
 There was much in this spirited defence of the Government 
 calculated to mitigate the censures cast upon its policy. 
 Undoubtedly many improvements had been effected in the con- 
 dition of the army, and were even then being effected ; but the 
 country desired to get at the bottom of the mismanagement 
 
 N
 
 178 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 which had already resulted so disastrously for our troops, and 
 also to have some guarantee against similar blundering in 
 future. This could only be done by the adoption of some 
 such motion as that of Mr. Koebuck, which was confessedly 
 not the best means that could be devised for accomplishing 
 its object, but perhaps the only one practicable. Mr. 
 Disraeli, observing that the Government themselves had 
 admitted they required reconstruction, said they were now called 
 upon to vote confidence in an Administration of whose members 
 even they were ignorant. He denied that the motion was 
 levelled exclusively against the Duke of Newcastle, and he ought 
 not to be made the scapegoat for a policy for which the whole 
 Cabinet were responsible. Nor was the blame to be thrown upon 
 our military system, which in the hands of able men had accom- 
 plished great ends. He then used the severest language which 
 had hitherto been employed in describing the conduct of Lord 
 John Russell. That noble lord's explanatory speech reminded 
 him, he said, of a page from the Life of Bubb Doddington, in the 
 unconscious admission it contained of what, in the eighteenth 
 century, would have been described as ' profligate intrigue.' He 
 maintained that these Cabinet dissensions would prove most 
 injurious to the character of England. 4 Two years ago England 
 was the leading Power in Europe ; would any man say that she 
 now occupied that position ? ' Mr. Disraeli added that he was 
 compelled to give his vote against a 4 deplorable Administration.' 
 
 Lord John Russell had few friends at this juncture, for 
 although there were some who approved his secession from the 
 Government, there were apparently none who could commend the 
 manner of it. The noble lord defended himself in his place, and 
 paid that if the whole of what had passed between himself and 
 Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of Newcastle could be laid before 
 the House, the transactions would assume a different complexion. 
 He strongly denied Mr. Disraeli's imputation that he had been 
 guilty of intrigue ; for in his anxiety to keep clear of anything 
 like intrigue, he had, unadvisedly for himself, perhaps, not com- 
 municated his intention of resigning to anyone of his colleagues. 
 Lord Palmerston, following Lord John Russell, condemned the 
 motion as setting a dangerous precedent, and he hoped the House 
 would not discredit Parliamentary Government in the face of 
 Europe by continuing these discusions, and showing that a 
 constitutional government was not so well able to cany on war 
 as governments framed on other principles. 
 
 The noble lord made an energetic and telling defence, but it 
 came too late. The Government appealed to a wall of adamant. 
 
 The result of the division was one of the greatest surprises
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAE. 179 
 
 ever experienced in Parliamentary history. The numbers were 
 For Mr. Roebuck's committee, 305 ; against, 148 majority against 
 Ministers, 157. The scene was a peculiar and, probably, an 
 unparalleled one. The cheers which are usually heard from 
 one side or other of the House on the numbers of a division 
 being announced were not forthcoming. The members were 
 for the moment spellbound with astonishment ; then there 
 came a murmur of amazement, and finally a burst of general 
 laughter. 
 
 Thus collapsed the famous Coalition Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen 
 a Cabinet distinguished for its oratorical strength, and for the 
 conspicuous abilities of its chief members. Upon Lord John 
 Russell's secession, its last hope of being able to survive had 
 passed away. The member for Sheffield had, indeed, pointed 
 the thunderbolt, but it would not have fallen with such crushing 
 force had not the resignation of the President of the Council 
 carried confusion into the ranks of the Ministry. The time had 
 undoubtedly come for the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen to fall to 
 pieces ; but it would not have perished beneath such a tremen- 
 dous majority had it been able to make a strong and united stand 
 against the attacks of its foes. To the Premier himself a 'cessa- 
 tion from the cares of State must have been a -welcome relief; 
 and it was no secret that he would willingly have retired from 
 office long before. He had only consented to remain at his post 
 because there was no other member of his Ministry who could 
 hold the Cabinet together. 
 
 The members of the Aberdeen Government fell into deep 
 obloquy during this early period of the Crimean War ; yet a high 
 tribute has been paid by Mr. Martin to the Peelite section of the 
 Cabinet. His views acquire the greater importance, seeing that 
 they were also those of the Queen and the Prince Consort, who 
 not only took the keenest interest in the national affairs at this 
 crisis, but had every opportunity of judging of the sincerity and 
 patriotism of their advisers. This tribute, while paid chiefly to 
 the Premier and the War Secretaries, embraced also the most 
 distinguished Peelite in the Cabinet, Mr. Gladstone, who, up to 
 this period, could certainly not be suspected of lukewarmness in 
 the prosecution of the war. 
 
 The resignation of the Aberdeen Ministry was announced in 
 both Houses on the 1st of February, the Duke of Newcastle 
 stating in the Lords, that it was his intention to have given up 
 the office of Secretary at War whether the motion of Mr. Roe- 
 buck had been successful or not. He had, in fact, over and over 
 again offered to surrender his position to any of his colleagues. 
 The Earl ot Derby was summoned by her Majesty, to whom he 
 
 N 2
 
 180 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 explained the difficulties in the way of forming a Ministry. The 
 country demanded Lord Palmerston as War Minister, and he 
 was essential at the present moment to any Cabinet, though not 
 (the noble earl believed) fit to be entrusted with the Seals of 
 War. But even with Lord Palmerston's assistance, Lord Derby 
 assured her Majesty that he could not form a Government with- 
 out the co-operation of the Peelites. This he endeavoured to 
 secure, but as Lord Palmerston, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney 
 Herbert intimated that they could only extend to him an inde- 
 pendent support, Lord Derby again waited upon the Queen, and 
 informed her that he could not undertake the task entrusted to 
 him. Mr. Martin states that his lordship told her Majesty that 
 ' an independent support ' reminded him of the definition of the 
 independent M.P., viz., one who could not be depended upon. 
 Lord Lansdowne was next applied to for advice, and he recom- 
 mended that an opportunity should be afforded Lord John 
 Russell for the formation of a Ministry. The Queen herself 
 wrote to the noble lord, addressing him as a person ' who may be 
 considered to have contributed to the vote of the House of 
 Commons which displaced her last Government,' and hoping 
 ' that he will be able to present to her such a Government as will 
 give a fair promise successfully to overcome the great difficulties 
 in which the country is placed.' Her Majesty added that it 
 would give her particular satisfaction if Lord Palmerston would 
 join in this formation. Lord Palmerston readily agreed to serve 
 under Lord John Russell, but Lord Clarendon absolutely 
 declined to do so. 4 What would be thought of him,' he asked, 
 ' were he to accept as his leader the man who, while in the late 
 Ministry, had steadily worked for the overthrow of Lord 
 Aberdeen and his Peelite colleagues, and for the reinstatement 
 in office of an exclusively Whig Ministry ? ' He considered it 
 to be idle for Lord John Russell to attempt the task ; no one in 
 the country believed he could do it, and if a Ministry should 
 be formed under his auspices, it would be ' still-born.' Lord 
 John Russell being, as well-nigh everybody expected him to be, 
 unsuccessful, a new Ministry was eventually formed by Lord 
 Palmerston, though the changes from the Aberdeen Cabinet were 
 so few that it might rather be called a reconstruction than a 
 creation. Mr. Gladstone and his friends at first declined to 
 serve in this new Ministry, on the ground of their personal 
 attachment to Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of Newcastle, whom 
 they regarded as the real victims of the adverse vote in the 
 House of Commons. These noblemen, however, expressly desired 
 Mr. Gladstone not to allow his chivalrous feelings to stand in 
 the way, and Lord Palmerston's Government was accordingly
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 181 
 
 constituted as follows : First Lord of the Treasury, Viscount 
 Palmerston ; Lord Chancellor, Lord Cranworth ; President of 
 the Council, Earl Granville ; Privy Seal, Duke of Argyll ; Foreign 
 Secretary, Earl of Clarendon ; Colonial Secretary, the Eight Hon. 
 Sidney Herbert ; Home Secretary, Sir George Grey ; Secretary at 
 War, Lord Panmure ; Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Eight 
 Hon. W. E. Gladstone ; First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James 
 Graham ; Public Works, Sir William Molesworth ; in the 
 Cabinet, but without office, the Marquis of Lansdowne ; President 
 of the Board of Control, Sir Charles Wood. This Ministry was 
 generally considered to afford promise of stability. It was also 
 calculated to inspire confidence in the country. Lord Palmer- 
 ston had for some time been regarded as the coming man, and 
 his name carried great weight across the Channel. 
 
 It soon became evident, however, that though an apparently 
 durable Administration had been formed, it was surrounded with 
 grave difficulties. Whatever might have been the case as 
 touching the country, by many prominent members of the House 
 oi Commons the new Government was regarded with feelings of 
 distrust almost as keen as those which had led to the overthrow 
 of Lord Aberdeen. Yet the new War Minister, Lord Panmure, 
 entered upon his onerous duties with energy and determination. 
 On the 16th of February, he stated that he proposed to remedy 
 the evils complained ot at Sebastopol by a bill for the enlistment 
 oi experienced men for shorter periods of two or three years. A 
 great proportion of the forces sent to the Crimea were young and 
 unseasoned recruits, who rapidly sickened and died off. His 
 lordship also detailed other measures which had been taken to 
 remedy existing defects. In the House of Commons, on the 19th 
 of February, Mr. Layard rose to call attention to the existing 
 state of affairs. ' The country,' he asserted, * stood on the brink 
 ot ruin it had fallen into the abyss of disgrace, and become the 
 laughing-stock of Europe.' He complained that the new Minis- 
 try differed little from the last, and demanded answers from the 
 Premier to these questions Whether he was willing to accept 
 peace on any terms ? Whether the country was going to engage 
 in prolonged hostilities ? Whether it was proposed to engage on 
 our behalf oppressed nationalities? Whether the Circassians 
 would be assisted or not ? and, in short, What was the foreign 
 policy of the Government going to be ? The people of England 
 demanded a thorough reform. Mr- Layard then compared the 
 conduct of the British Parliament with that of the French 
 Convention, who, on the failure of their army, sent out their 
 own members, securing an immediate and brilliant result. Lord 
 Palmerston retorted that it would be an excellent thing if Mr.
 
 182 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Layard and his proposed committee could be sent out to the 
 Crimea, and compelled to remain there till the close of the 
 session. He lamented the sufferings of the army, and the mis- 
 takes which had been made ; but as the present Government 
 had come forward in an emergency, and from a sense of public 
 duty, he believed that it would obtain the confidence of the 
 country. 
 
 A few days later the curtain rose upon another strange scene 
 in the Parliamentary drama. Mr. Roebuck having given notice 
 of the appointment of his committee forthwith, and the country 
 supporting him in this, a serious split occurred in the Cabinet. 
 Hostility to the Ministry was disclaimed, but Mr. Gladstone, Sir 
 James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert took the same view of 
 the question they had previously held. They were opposed to 
 the investigation as a dangerous breach of a great constitutional 
 principle, and if the committee were granted it would be a 
 precedent from whose repetition the Executive could never 
 again escape, however unreasonable might be the nature of the 
 demands. They therefore retired from office. In defending 
 himself for this step, Sir James Graham said that he could not 
 consent to the appointment of a committee which included no 
 member of the Government, and he was also opposed to a select 
 committee. If secret, its investigations could not be checked by 
 public opinion ; and if open, the evidence taken would be imme- 
 diately made public and canvassed in a manner injurious to the 
 public service Mr. Herbert held that as a vote of censure the 
 motion for the committee was valueless, while as an inquiry it 
 would be a mere sham. Mr. Gladstone took up somewhat 
 different grounds. He said that the committee, being neither 
 for punishment nor remedy, must be for government, and could 
 not fail to deprive the Executive of its most important functions. 
 Holding the views they did, Mr. Gladstone and his friends could 
 scarcely have felt at ease in a Cabinet in which the purely Whig 
 element was strongly predominant. If their retirement had not 
 come upon this question of resisting Mr. Roebuck's committee, 
 it must have come sooner or later as the result of a wide diver- 
 gence between the Peelite and the Whig sections of the Cabinet- 
 Yet one point, notwithstanding, deserves some consideration, 
 viz., whether it was not unwise on the part of Mr. Gladstone 
 to have resisted this committee, seeing that the country was 
 determined and almost unanimous upon the subject. Lord 
 Palmerston and the Whigs probably relished the idea of the 
 committee as little as the Peelites, but they perceived that it 
 would be impossible for any Government to stand at that time 
 without yielding to the universal demand for an investigation.
 
 THE CEIMEAN WAE. 183 
 
 Of course, Mr. Gladstone took high constitutional grounds, as he 
 had a perfect right to do, but the emergency was an exceptional 
 one, and the appointment of the committee was the only way 
 of allaying the popular excitement. 
 
 Lord Palmerston was at once able to fill up the vacancies in 
 the Cabinet. Sir Charles Wood succeeded Sir J. Graham at the 
 Admiralty ; Sir G. C. Lewis succeeded Mr. Gladstone as Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer ; and Lord John Kussell already English 
 Plenipotentiary at Vienna was appointed Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies. An attempt to make Mr. Roebuck's committee a 
 secret one failed, and the Government promised to afford every 
 facility during its investigations. But before the committee 
 began its sittings, an event occurred which, for the moment, in 
 many minds at least, gave strong hopes of the restoration o 
 peace. On the 2nd of March, the Emperor Nicholas died 
 suddenly from pulmonic apoplexy. England, as well as the 
 whole European Continent, heard the news with mingled 
 feelings surprise at the unexpected nature of the event : 
 speculation upon the consequences which were likely to follow 
 therefrom. The question now arose, Would your Sebastopol 
 Committee be relegated to the limbo of all abortive schemes, 
 and the paeans of peace be heard ringing throughout Europe ; or 
 would the successor of the Emperor Nicholas prosecute to the 
 bitter end the struggle upon which his sire had entered ?
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR (concluded). 
 
 S"hc Vienna Conference The Four Points Failure of the Negotiations Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Defence of the Expedition to the Crimea Excitement caused by his 
 Attitude Lord John Russell and the Government Mr. Disraeli's Attack on Lord 
 Palmerston Mr. Roebuck's Vote of Censure defeated Continued War Debates 
 Progress of Events in the Crimea Report of the Sebastopol Committee Mr. 
 Gladstone's Defence of his Conduct during the War Difficulties of the Peelites 
 The Eastern Dramas of 1853-6 and 1875-8 Position of the Eastern Question in 
 the two Periods Difficulties of Foreign Policy Reasons for Arrest of Judgment. 
 
 - 
 
 As Grand Duke Alexander, the new Autocrat of all the Eussias 
 had been distinguished for his enlightened and even somewhat 
 liberal views ; but he was now called to a position in which 
 private sentiments counted for very little. Succeeding to an 
 inheritance of war, it speedily became evident that he had 
 resolved to pursue that war to its conclusion, rather than yield 
 the positions taken up by the late Czar. He issued a warlike 
 proclamation, and though he agreed to take part in the 
 deliberations of the Vienna Conference, there was no sign 
 made that he intended to abate one jot or tittle ot the Eussian 
 claims. Meanwhile, before the Vienna Conference came to an 
 end, the Anglo-French alliance was strengthened by the acces- 
 sion of Sardinia. A treaty was drawn up by which the King oi 
 Sardinia engaged to furnish and maintain a body of 15,000 men 
 for the requirements of the war, and he was to receive in return 
 a loan of 1,000,000 from the British Government. 
 
 Lord John Eussell left England at the close of February as 
 Plenipotentiary to Vienna. The two great objects which British 
 statesmen had in view were the limitation of the preponderance 
 of Eussia in the Black Sea and the acknowledgment of Turkey 
 as one of the great European Powers. If these points could be 
 gained, it was hoped they would result in putting an end to the 
 war. The Conference began on the 1 5th of March at Vienna, 
 but little progress was made, it being obvious at an early stage 
 that Eussia did not intend to yield. The Eussian Plenipoten- 
 tiary told Lord John Eussell that Eussia would not consent to 
 limit the number of her ships if she did so she forfeited her
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAE. 185 
 
 honour, she would be no more Kussia. They did not want 
 Turkey, they would be glad to maintain the Sultan, but they 
 knew it was impossible : he must perish ; they were resolved not 
 to let any other Power have Constantinople they must not have 
 that door to their dominions in the Black Sea shut against 
 them.' In -order that the reader may clearly understand the 
 preliminary basis upon which the negotiations at Vienna were 
 founded, we append the* Four Points' which were the subject of 
 so much discussion : 
 
 ' 1. Russian Protectorate over the Principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Servia 
 to cease ; the privileges granted by the Sultan to these provinces to be placed under 
 a collective guarantee of the Powers. 2. Navigation of the Danube at its mouth 
 to be freed from all obstacles, and submitted to the application of the principles 
 established by the Congress of Vienna. 3. The Treaty of the 13th of July, 1841, to 
 be revised in concert by all the high contracting parties in the interest of the 
 balance of power in Europe, and so as to put an end to the preponderance of 
 Russia in the Black Sea. 4. Russia to give up her claim to an official protectorate 
 over the subjects of the Sublime Porte, to whatever rite they may belong; and 
 France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia to assist mutually in obtaining 
 from the Ottoman Government the confirmation and the observance of the religious 
 privileges of the different Christian communities, and to turn to account, in the 
 common interests of their co-religionists, the generous intentions manifested by 
 the Sultan, at the same time avoiding any aggression on his dignity and the 
 independence of his crown.' 
 
 After these propositions had been discussed for two days by the 
 representatives of the Powers at Vienna, an arrangement was 
 come to on the first point, by which Russia agreed to abandon all 
 exclusive protection over the Danubian Principalities of Wal- 
 lachia, Moldavia, and Servia; and an amicable settlement was 
 also arrived at with regard to the free navigation of the Danube. 
 But the third point was the crucial one. It not only provided 
 for the revision of the Treaty of 1841, but sought to curtail the 
 power of Russia in the Black Sea. After much deliberation, and 
 many adjournments, Prince Gortschakoff, on behalf of Russia, 
 declared that he could not agree to the limitation of her navy 
 in any way, whether by treaty or otherwise. The Turkish envoys 
 proposed a kind of compromise, but on the Conference meeting 
 again on the 21st of April, Prince Gortschakoff reiterated his 
 former declaration. Russia could not, without loss of dignity, 
 accept any proposal limiting the amount of her forces in the 
 Black Sea. Counter-proposals by Russia were now submitted, 
 which the French and English Plenipotentiaries declared they 
 had no authority to discuss ; though the Austrian representative 
 said that these proposals admitted of discussion, and contained 
 elements of which Austria would endeavour to avail herself for 
 an understanding. Finally, Austria put forward propositions 
 which Lord John Russell and M. Drouyn de Lhuys regarded as 
 affording a prospect of an amicable settlement of the question.
 
 186 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 These propositions, however, being a virtual surrender of th 
 chief points for which England and France had uniformly con- 
 tended, M. Drouyn de Lhuys and Lord John Russell incurred 
 great unpopularity for admitting them to be feasible. The 
 former was compelled to resign his office of Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs in France, and the latter was ultimately also compelled 
 to secede from Lord Palmerston's Cabinet. 
 
 The failure of the Vienna Conference caused great excitement 
 in England. Ministers were attacked again and again in both 
 Houses. On the 24th of May, Mr. Disraeli brought forward the 
 following resolution in the House of Commons : l That this 
 House cannot adjourn for the recess without expressing its dis- 
 satisfaction with the ambiguous language and uncertain conduct 
 of her Majesty's Grovernment in reference to the great question 
 of peace or war ; and that, under these circumstances, this House 
 feels it a duty to declare that it will continue to give every 
 support to her Majesty in the prosecution of the war, until her 
 Majesty shall, in conjunction with her allies, obtain for this 
 country a safe and honourable peace.' 
 
 Mr. Disraeli supported this motion in a speech of nearly 
 three hours' duration. He made a powerful attack on Lord 
 John Russell, who had been distinguished (he said) for his inflam- 
 matory-denunciations of Russia, and was incompetent to negotiate 
 a peace. Yet an impossible peace had nearly been concluded 
 without that House, and a motion was placed on the table by Mr 
 Milner Gibson, affirming that the propositions of Russia were 
 reasonable, and that some blame attached to the Government for 
 refusing them. He (Mr. Disraeli) complained that there were 
 diplomacy and war existent at the same time, and he concluded 
 by denouncing this subterfuge of negotiation and Ministerial 
 trifling.' 
 
 Rising during the debate on this motion, Mr. Gladstone 
 defended the expedition to the Crimea. He denied that it had 
 been entirely unsuccessful, for while in August, 1854, Russia 
 refused to accept the Four Points, in the month of December 
 following the Emperor accepted those very propositions as a basis 
 of negotiations which he had so strenuously opposed before. 
 Looking at the question at issue as one only of terms, how 
 did it stand ? Russia had agreed to the First and Second 
 points and part of the Third point. The Fourth would be 
 agreed to at any time. The only matter to be settled now 
 was as to the limitation of the power of Russia in the Black 
 Sea. When a member of the late Government, he was 
 in favour of limiting the power of Russia in the Black Sea, 
 but he now thought that such a proposition implied a great
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 187 
 
 indignity upon Russia. He was of opinion that the Russian 
 proposal to give to Turkey the power of opening and shutting 
 the Straits was one calculated to bring about a settlement. As 
 regarded the position of Russia now, he challenged any person to 
 show him a case in the whole history of the world in which the 
 political objects of war had been more completely gained without 
 the prostration of the adverse party. He felt that he would be 
 incurring a fearful responsibility if he did not raise his voice to 
 beseech ' the House to pause before they persevered in a war so 
 bloody and so decimating, while there was a chance of returning 
 to the condition of a happy and an honourable peace. If we 
 now fought merely for military success, 'let the House look at 
 this sentiment with the eye of reason, and it would appear im- 
 moral, inhuman, and un-Christian. If the war were continued 
 in order to obtain military glory, we should tempt the justice of 
 Him in whose hands was the fate of armies, to launch upon us 
 His wrath.' Though the orator's eloquence was warmly admired, 
 however, he spoke to an audience largely unsympathetic. Lord 
 John Russell, in replying to the arguments of Mr. Glad- 
 stone, contended that it was essential in the interests of 
 Europe that the power of Russia should be considerably 
 curtailed. There was no more indignity now to Russia in 
 enforcing this than when Mr. Gladstone agreed to support the 
 policy by measures so costly in blood and treasure. There 
 was no security for Turkey or for Europe that Russia would not 
 pursue her aggrandising designs, unless some limitation of her 
 power was obtained. He denounced the conduct and the 
 ambition of Russia in very eloquent terms. The Government 
 secured a majority of 100 upon Mr. Disraeli's motion. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's attitude at this juncture was much canvassed 
 and condemned. One member, Mr. J. G. Phillimore, said that 
 after reading Mr. Gladstone's recent speech, ' he could 
 comprehend how great and magnificent preparations had shrunk 
 into a miserable defence, how disaster and defeat had sprung 
 from the bosom of victory, and how a fatal and malignant 
 influence had long paralysed the influence of our fleets and 
 armies. ' As further demonstrating the excitement which Mr. 
 Gladstone's speech had caused in many quarters, we will quote a 
 portion of a letter which Prince Albert wrote to Lord Aberdeen, 
 in view of the discussions that were still to come on in the 
 House of Commons upon Sir F. Baring's motion relative to the 
 conduct of the war, and Mr. Lowe's amendment thereupon. t Any 
 such declaration as Mr. Gladstone has made upon Mr. Disraeli's 
 motion,' said his Royal Highness, ' must not only weaken us 
 abroad in public estimation, and give a wrong opinion as to the
 
 188 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 determination of the nation to support the Queen in the war iu 
 which she has been involved, but render all chance of obtaining 
 an honourable peace without great fresh sacrifices of blood and 
 treasure impossible, by giving new hopes and spirit to 
 the enemy.' The Prince recognised the fact that Mr. 
 Gladstone and his friends had been falsely accused of supineness 
 at an earlier stage of the war, but he could not blind himself to 
 the further very important fact that his latest speech would be laid 
 hold upon both by the Opposition and the enemies of the war. 
 Indeed, during the same debate, Sir E Bulwer Lytton was 
 vehemently cheered when he asked, ' When Mr.- Gladstone was 
 dwelling, in a Christian spirit that moved them all. on the gallant 
 blood that had been shed by England, by her Allies, and by her 
 foemen in that quarrel, did it never occur to him that all the 
 while he was speaking, this one question was forcing itself upon 
 the minds of his English audience, " And shall all this blood have 
 been shed in vain ? " 
 
 The debate was resumed, and Sir F. Baring's motion, which was 
 not inimical to the Government, was accepted by Lord Palmer- 
 ston, Mr. Gladstone acquiescing in this course. Mr. Lowe's 
 amendment was negatived. That the great majority of the 
 House were still in a most warlike mood was evident from the 
 cheers which greeted Lords Palmerston and Russell when they 
 announced that the war must be vigorously proceeded with. 
 
 But the mistakes which had been made by our Plenipotentiary 
 at Vienna could not be blotted out, and the Opposition left the 
 Government no peace. Questions and hostile motions, or threats 
 of resolutions, showered upon them. On the 10th of July, Sir E. 
 Bulwer Lytton gave notice of this resolution : * That the con- 
 duct of our Ministry in the recent negotiations at Vienna has, in 
 the opinion of this House, shaken the confidence of this country 
 in those to whom its affairs are entrusted.' It was felt that 
 something must be done with this motion, and Lord John 
 Russell again prepared to run' away ; indeed, there was nothing 
 else left for him to do, if his colleagues were to be saved. Accord- 
 ingly, on the 13th, he resigned. On the 16th. the day fixed for 
 the debate upon Sir E. B. Lytton's motion, the resignation was 
 announced in the House. Lord John Russell defended himself 
 by saying that it was not true he had promised to support the 
 Austrian propositions. They had been considered and rejected by 
 the Cabinet, after due deliberation. He had felt bound to fulfil 
 his promise to Count Buol at Vienna, but having done that, he 
 also felt bound to submit as a plenipotentiary to the decision of 
 the Government. He thanked the members of the Cabinet and 
 other friends for the kindness thev had shown him. There were
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAE. 189 
 
 some friends, however, who professed great attachment, 4 but 
 whenever there was a rub in his fortunes they fell away like 
 water, and were never found again except to sink him. For 
 these he felt nothing but contempt.' 
 
 Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, upon the announcement of Lord John 
 Russell's resignation, withdrew his motion, but in doing so he 
 said he believed there was still a peace party in the Cabinet, 
 which must be closely watched. Lord Palmerston said that his 
 ex-colleague's resignation had been offered to him before, but he 
 had declined it, and expressed a desire to stand or fall by 
 him. Mr. Disraeli humorously sketched the conduct of the 
 Premier and Mr. Bouverie, ' the friends of the noble lord, and 
 very devoted to him, but who had managed notwithstanding to 
 get him out of office.' The right hon. member for Bucking- 
 hamshire then went on to say that the end of it was this ' the 
 noble lord, with a reputation of a quarter of a century a man 
 who for all that time had given a tone and a colour to the policy 
 of this country who had met the giants of other times in debate 
 who had measured rapiers with Canning, and divided the 
 public admiration with Sir Robert Peel had mysteriously 
 disappeared, and did not dare to face this motion ; while as to 
 the noble lord now at the head of the Cabinet, he had addressed 
 the House that night in a tone and with accents which showed 
 that if the honour and interests of this country were much longer 
 entrusted to him, the first would be tarnished and the last would! 
 be betrayed.' 
 
 This wholesale condemnation of Lord Palmerston was of course 
 ill-deserved, and it seems almost difficult to believe in these 
 comparatively serene days that such strongly vituperative 
 language, with its scathing taunts and sarcasms, could have 
 been prevalent in Parliamentary warfare less than a generation 
 ago. It appears all the more extraordinary, seeing that Mr. 
 Disraeli spoke these bitter words concerning Lord Palmerston 
 upon a motion that was already moribund. With regard to Lord 
 John Russell, there probably never was a statesman more univer- 
 sally condemned than his lordship was at this juncture ; and the 
 condemnation was by no means wholly undeserved. As eminent 
 for his past services as any of his distinguished colleagues, he 
 appeared completely to have lost his intellectual balance over 
 the Eastern Question, and to have abdicated his claims to 
 diplomatic distinction and practical statesmanship acquired in 
 the past. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, addressing the House also upon Sir E . B. 
 Lytton's motion, complained that Lord John Russell had in a 
 recent speech condemned the last of the Russian proposals thsn
 
 190 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 before the House, though that proposal seemed to him to be sub- 
 stantially the very same measure which the noble lord had himself 
 supported at Vienna. Touching the charge made against the 
 Government by Mr. Disraeli, that the Cabinet was at one time 
 disposed to accept the noble lord's proposals, he thought they 
 were not amenable to it, for it appeared from the papers that, on 
 the very day when Lord John's proposals were received in 
 London, Lord Clarendon expressed to Count Colleredo his con- 
 demnation of the plan. So far from blaming the Government 
 for hesitating about this offer of peace, he (Mr. Gladstone) 
 blamed them for not giving the propositions that consideration 
 which their gravity demanded, and for abruptly closing the hope 
 of an honourable peace. 
 
 Mr. Roebuck next brought forward a sweeping motion, founded 
 on the report of the Sebastopol Committee. It was in effect a 
 vote of censure upon every member of the Aberdeen Cabinet, as 
 being responsible for the sufferings of the army during the winter 
 campaign in the Crimea. The hon. member called upon the 
 House to pass sentence. * It is said,' urged Mr. Roebuck, * that 
 we have got rid of all the elements of the Administration that 
 were mischievous. That I am very far from believing. It is 
 also said, " Are not Aberdeen, and Newcastle, and Herbert, and 
 Gladstone out ? And what more can you expect or do you want ? 
 Do you want to see everybody punished?" I say yes, every one 
 who has been proved guilty.' The general feeling of the House, 
 however, was that this was an extreme proposition, and the 
 previous question, an amendment moved by General Peel, was 
 carried by a majority of 107 in a not very full House. 
 
 The war debates, nevertheless, continued at intervals till the 
 close of the session. Mr. Gladstone once more strongly deprecated 
 the continuance of the war. in a speech which he made on the 
 3rd of August. He defended the Austrian proposals, and threw 
 upon Ministers the whole blame for continuing the war after 
 their rejection. He asked what definite object there now was 
 for prolonging the struggle. We had cast aside a basis of agree- 
 ment to which all the plenipotentiaries at Vienna had agreed, 
 and were engaged solely in making war for paltry differences. 
 He censured Lord Clarendon for not showing in his despatches 
 any real desire for peace, and expressed his fears of a wider 
 breach with Austria. Touching upon the position of the 
 various Powers implicated in the strife, he drew a classical com- 
 parison, describing Turkey as an ally such as Anchises was to 
 ^Eneas on his flight from Troy. We were gradually drifting 
 away from friendly concert with Austria ; Sardinia was dragging 
 heavily through the conflict in mere dependence upon England ;
 
 THE CKIMUAN WAE. 191 
 
 and he did not believe that France was likely to add 
 ^100,000,000 sterling to her debt for a mere difference between 
 limitation and counterpoise. Mr. Gladstone defied the Western 
 Powers to control the future destinies of Russia, save for a 
 moment; and he 'placed the undivided responsibility of the 
 continuance of the war on the head of the Ministry.' He 
 remained content in the belief that, in endeavouring to recall 
 the Government from the course of policy they were then 
 pursuing, he was discharging his duty as a patriot and a loyal 
 subject of his Queen. 
 
 Such were the chief points of a very powerful and comprehen- 
 sive speech ; but the debate in which it was the most note- 
 worthy episode fell through without a division. The speech was 
 no doubt intended for the country as well as for the House, 
 being Mr. Gladstone's last opportunity for defending himself 
 upon the various questions involved before the approaching 
 lengthy recess. A passage of arms still on the question of the 
 war arose between Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston on 
 the 7th of August, and on the 14th Parliament was prorogued. 
 Ministers enjoyed their whitebait dinner as usual, but there were 
 many changes at the board compared with its constituent 
 elements a twelvemonth before. These changes were happily 
 hit off at the time im a parody upon four lines of one of Sir 
 Walter Scott's poems : 
 
 ' Where's Herbert kind, and Aberdeen, 
 Where's fluent Gladstone to be seen, 
 Where's Graham now, that dangerous foe, 
 And where's the Bedford Plenipo ? ' 
 
 The war events of the period are soon told. In May, 1855, 
 the expedition to Kertch and the Sea of Azov destroyed many of 
 the Russian vessels and several towns. The French, in con- 
 junction now with Sardinia, won a splendid victory on the banks 
 of the Tchernaya, August 16th. In June, Lord Raglan died of 
 cholera, and was succeeded in command of the English troops by 
 General Simpson, who, however, soon gave place to Sir William 
 Codrington. Sebastopol still held out, and until this fortress was 
 taken there was no hope of a termination of the war. At length 
 the French already in possession of the Mamelon took the 
 Malakoff tower by a brilliant attack, on the 8th of September. 
 The British made a simultaneous attack, and seized upon the 
 Redan, but they were driven from their position by the terrible 
 fire of the Russians, who swept the fort from every side. On the 
 9th Prince Gortschakoff piloted the Russian garrison across the 
 harbour to the northern part of the city, having sunk the ships 
 before the retreat. This new position the Russians held
 
 192 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 but a short time. The Allies immediately blew up the. 
 batteries and dockyards, and the fortress which the Emperor 
 Nicholas had deemed impregnable was utterly destroyed. In 
 the north, Admiral Dundas successfully bombarded Sveaborg, a 
 strongly-fortified Russian town on the north of the Gulf of 
 Finland. The bombardment lasted three days, August 9 11. 
 General Williams, who held Kars, made a most heroic defence of 
 the place, but for want of reinforcements was at length obliged 
 to succumb. The power of Russia having been broken, alike on 
 the Baltic and the Black Sea, the Emperor gave up the struggle, 
 and negotiations for peace were entered upon. A treaty was 
 subsequently concluded at Paris in March, 1856. 
 
 Mr. Roebuck's Sebastopol Committee presented its report on 
 the 1 6th of June. This report, after describing the condition of 
 the army, and reviewing the evidence given before the committee, 
 ended with the following general conclusions : * Your committee 
 report that the sufferings of the army resulted mainly from the 
 circumstances under which the expedition to the Crimea was 
 undertaken and executed. The Administration which ordered 
 that expedition had no adequate information as to the amount 
 of forces in the Crimea. They were not acquainted with the 
 strength of the forces to be attacked, or with the resources of the 
 country to be invaded. They hoped and expected the expedition 
 to be immediately successful, and as they did not foresee the pro- 
 bability of a protracted struggle, they made no provision for a 
 winter campaign. The patience and fortitude of the army demand 
 the admiration and gratitude of the nation on whose behalf they 
 have fought, bled, and suffered. Their heroic valour and equally 
 heroic patience under sufferings and privations have given them 
 claims on the country which will doubtless be gratefully acknow- 
 ledged. Your committee will now close their report with a hope 
 that every British army may in future display the valour which 
 this noble army has displayed, and that none may hereafter be 
 exposed to such sufferings as have been recorded in these pages.' 
 The Duke of Newcastle, upon whom was laid the chief blame for 
 the disasters to the army in the Crimea, was not the ablest 
 administrator who could have been selected to grapple with the 
 difficulties of the war ; but, as a recent historian has observed, 
 the fault at this critical period lay rather with the system and 
 the circumstances than with the man, though it is quite possible 
 that a Minister of greater administrative ability might have 
 succeeded better. This is the view very largely taken now by all 
 unbiassed critics, and it is borne out by a careful examination 
 of contemporary evidence and documents bearing upon the 
 Crimean War.
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 193 
 
 We have dwelt somewhat at length upon this important 
 episode in English history because it is one to a right under- 
 standing of which Mr. Gladstone himself attaches considerable 
 importance, and it is one, moreover, in connection with which 
 his own conduct has been much canvassed. It now only 
 remains briefly to note the points of Mr. Gladstone's defence 
 of the course he pursued during the war. First he says 
 that it was the fate of himself and his friends to join the 
 Cabinet of Lord Palmerston at a critical juncture, and to quit it 
 within a fortnight or three weeks. The cause of the secession 
 was that the Premier having set out with the determination to 
 resist the appointment of the Sebastopol Committee, like his 
 predecessor, Lord Aberdeen, at length came to the conclusion 
 that resistance would be ineffectual, and determined to succumb. 
 The Peelities had no option but to resign, though in reality 
 ' they were driven from their offices.' Yet, as Mr. Gladstone's 
 critics may urge with some force, he might have known, from 
 the temper of the nation and the House, that the appointment 
 of a committee could not be avoided, and it was a pity, 
 therefore, that he took office at all under Lord Palmerston ; but, 
 having accepted office, might he not have yielded to the appoint- 
 ment of the committee, seeing that everything inimical to the 
 Ministry was expressly disclaimed. But Mr. Gladstone opposed 
 the committee on the grounds we have seen stated, and he remained 
 stedfast to his friends. He was again blamed for recommending 
 a cessation of the war, when it appeared to him that the original 
 demands made of Russia had been exceeded. The upshot is that 
 ' the question which broke up one Cabinet, and formidably rent 
 another, which agitated England and sorely stained her military 
 reputation in the eyes of Europe, remained then, and remains 
 now, untried by any final court of appeal.' There were conflicting 
 judgments as to where, and upon whom, responsibility should 
 be fixed ; and if it were found impossible then rightly to appor- 
 tion the blame for the Crimean disasters, it is still more 
 impossible now. The wisest and best course to adopt, therefore, 
 is to drop the curtain upon this humiliating scene in English 
 history. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has well shown the difficulties which beset the 
 Peelites after the death of their great leader. It took no less 
 than thirteen years to effect their final incorporation with the 
 Liberal party. For eleven of these thirteen years of disembodied 
 existence they were independent members. 'They were like 
 roving icebergs, on which men could not land with safety ; but 
 with which ships might come into perilous collision. Their weight 
 was too great not to count, but it counted first this way and 
 
 o
 
 194 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 then that.' These small but powerful independent bodies are 
 always a great puzzle to the two chief political parties in the 
 State. Their very conscientiousness, as it were, acts as a bar to 
 their public usefulness. The Peelites began to cease exercising 
 a strong influence upon the Court and the House, as a political 
 party, with the fall of Lord Aberdeen ; and it was a happy thing 
 for each individual member of the body, as well as most con- 
 ducive to the welfare of the country, when he became identified 
 fully and finally with Liberal opinions. 
 
 Commenting upon the comparisons which have been drawn 
 between the Eastern drama of 1853-6 and that of 1875-8, Mr. 
 Gladstone impugns their accuracy. He thus states his own view 
 of the two periods : 
 
 ' There was in each case an offender against the law and peace of Europe ; Turkey, 
 by her distinct and obstinate breach of covenant, taking on the later occasion the 
 place which Russia had held in the earlier controversy. There were in each case 
 prolonged attempts to put down the offence by means of European concert. ID 
 1853-4 these proceeded without a check, until the eve of the war. In 1875-7 the com- 
 bination was sadly intermittent ; but in the singular and unprcedented conference 
 at Constantinople, it was, at least on the part of the assembled representatives, 
 perfectly unequivocal. In 1854 the refusal of Prussia to support words by acts 
 completely altered the situation ; and in 1876-7 the assurance conveyed to Turkey 
 from England that only moral suasion was intended, -had the same effect. The 
 difference was that, in 1854-5, two great Powers, with the partial support of a 
 third, prosecuted by military means the work they had undertaken ; in 1877 it 
 was left to Russia alone to act as the hand and sword of Europe, with the natural 
 consequence of weighting the' scale with the question what compensation she 
 might claim, or would claim, for her efforts and sacrifices.' 
 
 Those who differ most from Mr. Gladstone upon the Eastern 
 Question will probably admit that he has here indicated some 
 essential points of difference between the two periods Another 
 Liberal statesman who held office during the time of the Crimean 
 war, the Duke of Argyll, has also insisted upon the wide di ver- 
 gences which marked the two epochs. In a work recently 
 published, he remarks that upon the Eastern Question, as it 
 occupied public attention in 1854, there was comparatively little 
 difference of opinion. Eussia was so clearly in the wrong that 
 little or nothing could be said in her defence. 'When the 
 imperious character of the Emperor Nicholas led him to reject 
 every reasonable compromise, and when the Cabinets of London 
 and of Paris came to the conclusion that they could yield no 
 farther, the country was not only practically unanimous, but 
 was even hotly enthusiastic in support of a war which had 
 become inevitable.' * But the Duke maintains that everything 
 was different in 1876. 'The Eastern Question was raised by 
 native insurrections in the provinces of Turkey, excited and 
 
 . 
 
 * The Eastern Question : From the Treaty of Paris, 1856, to the Treaty of Berlin, 
 J878, and to the Second Afyhan War. By the Duke of Argyll.
 
 THE CEIMEAN WATS. 195 
 
 justified by the gross misgovernment of the Porte. The whole 
 Eastern Question, therefore, as it was then raised, resolved itself 
 into this how the abuses and vices of Turkish administration 
 were to be dealt with by the Powers which had supported Turkey 
 in the Crimean War. and by those other Powers, embracing all 
 the principal governments of Europe, which had ultimately 
 signed the Treaties of 1856.' Both statesmen held in 1853 that 
 the policy of supporting Turkey in her quarrel with Russia was 
 perfectly consistent with a conviction, or at least a fear, that 
 Turkey was in danger of sinking under internal and irremediable 
 causes of decay. The aggressive spirit, the violence, and the 
 ambition of Russia left English statesmen no option but to sup- 
 port the weaker Power against her enemy. 
 
 Nothing is easier than to criticise a policy after it has been 
 shown to have failed, or after it has achieved its end ; nothing is 
 so difficult as to resolve upon a policy at the moment when prompt 
 and vigorous measures are required. In passing judgments, 
 therefore, upon statesmen of whatever party, or section of a party, 
 it is especially incumbent upon us to remember the difficulties 
 by which they have been surrounded. Moreover, that which 
 may seem a wise policy to-day may have appeared exactly 
 the opposite to the wisest minds of a bygone generation. The 
 science of politics is a varying one ; the elements upon which 
 action is founded are never the same in two periods, and it is 
 obviously unjust in the clearer light of a later time ruthlessly to 
 condemn without the strictest investigation the action ot 
 statesmen in the past. It is the tendency of political criticism 
 of the day, on both sides, to brand with opprobrious epithets 
 those who are diametrically opposed to the views of the writers. 
 It is especially necessary in politics that men make large 
 allowances for the exigencies of time and circumstances. Our 
 political idols are not the flawless angels we deem them, nor are 
 their rivals the monsters of imperfection and apostasy they are 
 sometimes depicted. The changes in the standpoint of a leader 
 of political opinion, be he Liberal or Conservative, are nearly 
 always, we will hope, brought about by ' the slow and resistless 
 forces of conviction' rarely by unworthy and time-serving 
 motives. Looking back upon this episode of the Crimean War 
 in this spirit, it may not be difficult to perceive that that which 
 is apparently ambiguous in Mr. Gladstone's conduct is capable 
 of an explanation honourable to himself as a man and as a 
 statesman, and is the result of that high devotion to duty which 
 has stamped his character as uniformly upright and conscientious 
 in the eyes of the world. 
 
 02
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY 1856-58. 
 
 Negotiations for Peace Conclusion of a Treaty The Treaty criticised in both 
 Houses Sydney Smith on Foreign Interference Mr. Gladstone's Speech The 
 Objects of the War Arbitration for International Differences Treaty Engage- 
 ments The Belgian Press Lord Palmerston's Reply Lord John Russell's Reso- 
 lutions on National Education Mr. Gladstone's Objections thereto A curious 
 Division List A new Loan The Cost of the War The Budget England and 
 the United States Enlistment of Recruits for the British Army Mr. Gladstone 
 severely criticises the Policy of the Government Ministerial Victory Govern- 
 ment and the Session of 1857 Debate on the Address Budget introduced by 
 Sir G. C. Lewis Mr. Disraeli's Amendment Mr. Gladstone's Criticisms of the 
 Budget Defeat of Mr. Disraeli's Amendment The Chancellor of the Exchequer's 
 Financial Policy discussed The Palmerston Government and its Chinese Policy 
 Mr. Cobden's Motion Remarks by Mr. Gladstone Defeat of the Government 
 Lord Palmerston's Appeal to the Country The Bank of England and the 
 Monetary Panic The Conspiracy to Murder Bill Excitement in the Country 
 Mr. Milner Gibson's Resolutions Powerful Speech by Mr. Gladstone Ministerial 
 Defeat Resignation of the Government A Derby Ministry Church Rates 
 Measures for the future Government of India Three India Bills Mr. Gladstone 
 on the Danubian Principalities and the Eastern Question Mr. Disraeli's Budget 
 for 1858 Mr. Gladstone and the Ionian Islands Appointment as Lord High 
 Commissioner Extraordinary Incorporation of the Islands with Greece. 
 
 AT the opening of the session of 185(i, negotiations for peace 
 were already in progress, but the prospect of a cessation of 
 hostilities was not regarded universally in England in a 
 favourable light. There were not wanting those who desired 
 the War to proceed for the purpose of recovering the national 
 prestige, which had been partially lost by the disasters in the 
 Crimea, and by the surrender of Kars to the Russians. But on 
 the 31st of March, while the House of Commons was engaged in 
 Committee of Supply, Lord Palmerston interposed to announce 
 that a Treaty of Peace had been concluded at Paris. His 
 lordship said that by the stipulations of the treaty the integrity 
 and the independence of the Turkish Empire would be secured. 
 The treaty was honourable to all the contracting Powers who 
 were a party to it ; and while it had put an end on the one 
 hand to a war which every friend to humanity must naturally 
 wish to see concluded, on the other hand it would lay the 
 foundation of a peace which the noble lord trusted, so far as 
 relating to the circumstances out of which the war began, would
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOKEIGN POLICY. 197 
 
 be lasting- and enduring. The British negotiators, Lord Clarendon 
 and Lord Cow ley, had not only maintained the honour, dignity, 
 and interests of the country they represented ; but by their 
 conciliatory conduct had secured for themselves and their 
 country the respect, esteem, and goodwill of those with whom 
 they had had to do. 
 
 The terms of the treaty were subjected to considerable 
 criticism in both Houses. In the Commons, Mr. Herbert, the 
 seconder of the address to her Majesty upon the conclusion of a 
 peace, admitted that there was a want of enthusiasm in the 
 country on the subject of the treaty, but he attributed 
 this not to any dissatisfaction with its terms, but to a 
 variety of causes, the chief of which was a general convic- 
 tion that if the war had been continued, the British army 
 would have added largely to the laurels it had won. Animated 
 speeches were delivered by Mr. Sidney Herbert and Mr. Milner 
 Gibson. The latter quoted an extract from a characteristic 
 letter of Sydney Smith to Lady Grey, on the subject of foreign 
 interference. This letter might with advantage have been 
 quoted in the House of Commons on many occasions since the 
 time at which it was written. ' For God's sake do not drag me 
 into another war,' implored the great Whig humourist. * I am 
 worn down and worn out with crusading and defending Europe 
 and protecting mankind ; I must think a little of myself. I am 
 sorry for the Spaniards I am sorry for the Greeks I deplore 
 the fate of the Jews; the people of the Sandwich Islands are 
 groaning under the most detestable tyranny; Bagdad is 
 oppressed ; 1 do not like the present state of the Delta ; Thibet is 
 not comfortable. Am I to fight for all these people ? No war, 
 dear Lady Grey ! I beseech you secure Lord Grey's sword and 
 pistols, as the housekeeper did Don Quixote's armour. If there 
 is another war, life will not be worth having. . . . May the 
 vengeance of Heaven overtake all the legitimates of Verona ! but, 
 in the present state of rent and taxes, they must be left to the 
 vengeance of Heaven. I allow fighting in such a cause to be a 
 luxury ; but the business of a prudent, sensible man is to guard 
 against luxury.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's speech in this debate was an important one, 
 not only from the nature of its arguments, but as the final 
 deliverance, upon this great question of the Crimean war, of one 
 upon whom rightly or wrongly considerable blame had been 
 laid at the commencement of the struggle with Russia. He had 
 been charged, together with Sir James Graham and other 
 colleagues of his in the Aberdeen Cabinet, with underrating the 
 dangers and responsibilities of the war. It was alleged, again
 
 198 "WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 and again, that their half measures had precipitated the contest 
 and afterwards increased its magnitude. Mr. Gladstone began 
 by remarking that the question before the House was not a very 
 broad one, inasmuch as the amendment to the address only 
 proposed to substitute the modified word 'satisfaction' for 'joy' 
 at the conclusion of the peace. He regarded the treaty as an 
 honourable one, because the objects of the war had been attained. 
 Referring to the statement that we had become bound, with the 
 other Christian Powers of Europe, not only for the maintenance 
 and integrity of the Turkish Empire against foreign aggression, 
 but also to the maintenance of Turkey as a Mahomedan State, 
 Mr. Gladstone added, ' If I thought, sir, that this treaty of peace 
 was an instrument which bound this country and our posterity, as 
 well as our Allies, to the maintenance of a set of institutions in 
 Turkey which you are endeavouring to reform if you can, but 
 with respect to which endeavour few can be sanguine, I should 
 not be content to fall back upon the amendment of my noble 
 friend (Lord C. Hamilton), expressing that I regarded the peace 
 with satisfaction ; but, on the contrary, I should look out for the 
 most emphatic word in which to express my sense of condemnation 
 of a peace which bound us to maintain the law and institutions of 
 Turkey as a Mahomedan State.' With regard to the objects for 
 which the war had been undertaken, he denied that they had 
 sought to secure the settlement of any question respecting the 
 internal condition of Turkey. ' The juxtaposition of a people 
 professing the Mahomedan religion with a rising Christian 
 population having adverse and conflicting influences, presents 
 difficulties which are not to be overcome by certain diplomatists 
 at certain hours, and in a certain place. It will be the work and 
 care of many generations if even then they were successful 
 to bring that state of things to a happy and prosperous conclu- 
 sion. But there was another danger the danger of the encroach- 
 ment upon, and the absorption of Turkey by Eussia, which would 
 bring upon Europe evils not less formidable than those which 
 already existed. Such a danger to the peace, liberties, and 
 privileges of all Europe we were called upon absolutely to resist 
 by all the means in our power.' But Mr. Gladstone went on to 
 regret that a more substantive existence had not been secured to 
 the Principalities, though he owned that this was not the fault 
 of England and France. The neutralisation of the Black Sea 
 he objected to, as meaning nothing more in time of war than 
 a series of pitfalls. Eecognised rules should also have been 
 > established to regulate interference on behalf of the Christians. 
 The proposal to submit international differences to arbitra- 
 tion he regarded as a great triumph, though there was a danger
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOEEIGN POLICY. 199 
 
 that if encouragement should be given to the trumping-up of 
 untenable claims and bad cases as a matter of diplomatic 
 contention between nations, they would end by making more 
 quarrels than they could possibly avert. Pie held that no 
 country ought to resort to arbitration until it had reduced its 
 claims to what it considered the minimum, and brought 
 them to that state in which they were fit to be supported 
 by force. If they laid down that rule, then a resort to arbitra- 
 tion was indeed a powerful engine on behalf of civilisation 
 and humanity. Under such circumstances, this proposal to 
 establish a system of arbitration (which he rejoiced to say was an 
 English one) might lead to a diminution of what undoubtedly 
 had been a great scourge to Europe of late years namely, the 
 enormous cost of its military establishments. He was glad to 
 find that the moment at length was come when they had every 
 reason to hope the greatest military powers in Europe Kussia 
 and France were about to set a bold example in the way of 
 reduction of their military establishments. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone then dwelt with much fulness upon the bearings 
 of the twenty-second protocol of the conference at Paris. He 
 had been pleased with what had passed, especially as affecting 
 Naples, yet it was an innovation to entertain such subjects 
 in the history of conferences of pacification. He wished to 
 know what was the position of the Powers not represented 
 at the Conference ; and also what was the exact force or value 
 that belonged to the records inscribed upon the protocols. 'Are 
 they treaty engagements ? Certainly they are not. Do they 
 approximate to the character of engagements ? If they do, how 
 near do they come to it ? If they do not, how far are they from 
 it ? If they do not partake at all of the nature of engagements, 
 what are they ? They are authoritative documents. Those who 
 like them may claim them as allies and powerful auxiliaries. 
 Those who do not like them may endeavour to depreciate them. 
 Infinite discussions may arise upon their character.' Confusion 
 in international rights and engagements would result from these 
 semi-authoritative records. The most important question 
 was that relating to the state of the press in Belgium. 
 Lord Clarendon had fairly intimated that the scheme which 
 had been suggested could find no support or sympathy in 
 England; but some unfortunate mishap must have occurred, 
 seeing that the protocol recited that all the plenipotentiaries 
 had not hesitated loudly to condemn the excess in which the 
 Belgian newspapers indulged with impunity, by recognising the 
 necessity of remedying the real inconveniences attending the 
 uncontrolled licence which was so greatly abused in Belgium.
 
 200 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Standing as he did in the first and principal fortress of 
 European freedom, Mr. Gladstone held that these matters 
 imperatively called for explanation. The representatives of 
 Prussia and Austria, Baron Mantenffel and Count Buol, had said 
 that the repression of the press must be considered as a European 
 necessity; Count Walewski, on the part of France (and he 
 hoped he expressed his own views only and not the deliberate 
 intentions of his Sovereign or the {jovernment), had affirmed that 
 legislation was required in the subject of the Belgian press, 
 and that compulsion must be resorted to if necessary; while 
 Count Orloff, on the part of Russia, said he had no instructions, 
 ;md passed by every one of the topics without comment. 
 Difficulties had arisen in connection with some States, but 
 there had been a general readiness to deal with the Belgian 
 press. Mr. Gladstone earnestly hoped that these declarations 
 affecting Belgium were not indications of policy, but that they 
 had issued lightly from the mouths of those distinguished 
 persons, and that having been uttered they would be regretted 
 and forgotten ; they could not be recalled. In the meantime, 
 he demanded, were these charges against Belgium just? If 
 impunity for excesses existed in that country, the evil was not 
 to be attributed to the want of a law, but to the neglect of 
 putting the law in motion. Trial by jury for offences of the 
 press was one of the articles of the Belgian Constitution, and 
 those articles could not be changed at the mere will of either the 
 Government or of the two Houses of the Legislature. * I think 
 it right, ' concluded Mr. Gladstone, ' to point out, as clearly as it 
 is possible for an independent member of Parliament to do so, 
 that this appeal to a people, gallant and high-spirited as 
 the Belgians are an appeal which appears to be contem- 
 plated under the compulsion of foreign, and some of them 
 remote, Powers, and having for its object the limitation by the 
 Belgians of their own dearest rights and most cherished liberties 
 is not a policy which tends to clear the political horizon, but 
 rather one which will darken and disturb it, and cast gloom and 
 despondency over a prospect otherwise brilliant and joyous.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston concluded the debate, contending that the 
 objects of the war had been fully accomplished, and in two short 
 years. With regard to the Belgian press, he assured the House 
 that the British Government would be no party to any interfer- 
 ence with an independent nation with the view of dictating the 
 steps she should take to gag the press. He believed that the 
 war had settled division in every part of Europe north, south, 
 east, or west he saw nothing but hope and consolation and he 
 trusted, in conclusion, that the youngest man who sat in that
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOEEIGN POLICY. 201 
 
 House might not live to see the time when it would be necessary 
 for the responsible servants of the Crown to call upon the people 
 of the country to support their Sovereign in the prosecution of 
 any new war. The amendment having been withdrawn, an address 
 to her Majesty was agreed to, and the curtain thus fell upon the 
 closing scene ot one of the greatest and most sanguinary dramas 
 of our national history. 
 
 Early in this session Lord John Kussell brought forward in the 
 House ot Commons a series of resolutions on the subject of 
 National Education. These resolutions provided (inter alia) 
 that eighty sub-inspectors should be added to the existing 
 number of inspectors ; that the sub-inspectors should report on 
 the available means for the education of the poor in each school 
 district ; that in order to extend such means the power of the 
 commissioners of charitable trusts should be enlarged, and that 
 the funds then useless or injurious to the public should be 
 applied to the education of the middle and poorer classes of the 
 community ; that where such means were not available, the 
 ratepayers should have the power of taxing themselves for the 
 maintenance of schools ; that employers of children between 
 nine and fifteen years of age should be required to furnish 
 certificates half-yearly of the attendance of such children at 
 school, and to pay for such instruction. After some discussion, 
 however, the formal motion on the first resolution was with- 
 drawn, and on the 10th of April the House resolved itself 
 into a committee of the whole House, ' to consider the present 
 state of public education in England and Wales.' Lord John 
 Russell now moved his first resolution, referring to the speech 
 he had made upon introducing the whole. The policy of the 
 Government was severely criticised during the debate, and Mr. 
 Gladstone, in alluding to this change of front, said that no doubt 
 Lord John Russell anticipated defeat, and was anxious to extri- 
 cate the remnants of his army from a dangerous and desperate 
 position. The noble lord intended, no doubt, to save the principle 
 of local influences as opposed to central control, and to save the 
 principle of religious as opposed to secular instruction ; but the 
 House were convinced that in these vital respects he would be 
 entirely disappointed. It had happily been found practicable in 
 England to associate together in the most perfect harmony these 
 two principles the principle of voluntary exertion, through 
 which they might get heart, and love, and moral influences 
 infused into their school instruction, and the principle of mate- 
 rial aid from the State, by which the skeleton and framework of 
 their education were provided. But if he (the speaker) were 
 driven to abandon the voluntary principle, or place exclusive
 
 202 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 reliance upon it, he should not hesitate to say at once, ' Give me 
 the real education, the affection of the heart, the moral influences 
 operative upon character, the human love, that are obtained 
 through the medium of the voluntary principle, carried out 
 by men whose main motive is one of Christian philanthropy, 
 rather than throw me upon a system which, whatever the inten- 
 tions of its first mover may be, must sooner or later degenerate 
 into hard irreligion.' Mr. Gladstone then proceeded to discuss 
 the resolutions, which, whether unconstitutional or not, were, he 
 held, of such dangerous tendency that if they were not unconsti- 
 tutional it was because they involved consequences still more fatal. 
 They tended to create a central controlling power, involving 
 secular instruction and endless religious quarrels. 
 
 A division was taken upon the question, 'That the chair- 
 man do now leave the chair,' which was carried by 260 votes to 
 158. This majority of 102 being virtually against the resolution 
 of Lord John Eussell, it was not now proceeded with. The 
 division list revealed curious elements. In the majority were 
 ibund Mr. Gladstone, Mr. (now Earl) Cairns, Mr. Card well, Lord 
 Robert Cecil (now Marquis of Salisbury), Mr, Disraeli, Mr. Milner 
 Gibson, Sir James Graham, Mr. Sydney Herbert, Mr. Lowe, Lord 
 John Manners, Mr. Roundell Palmer (Lord Selbourae), and Mr. 
 Walpole. In the minority were Sir Alexander Cockburn, Sir 
 George Grey, Mr. Horsman, Lord Palmerston, Mr. Villiers, and 
 Sir Charles Wood ; while the tellers were Lord J. Russell and 
 Sir J. Pakington. 
 
 In committee of Ways and Means, on the 22nd of February, 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer had proposed resolutions author- 
 ising a loan of 5,000,000, and the funding of 3,000,000 of 
 Exchequer Bills. The war had rendered a large pecuniary 
 provision necessary. Sir G. C. Lewis did not at this time bring 
 forward his annual budget, but made a statement respecting the 
 revenue. It had been so disturbed by speculative fluctuations 
 in the sugar trade, exportation of spirits under drawback to 
 supply the wine deficiency abroad, and other causes, that the 
 whole deficiency was now reckoned at 1,600,000. The actual 
 expenditure had exceeded the estimate by 1,960,000, chiefly 
 under military heads, and they were at that moment in a financial 
 position nearly 4,000,000 less favourable than he had estimated. 
 In reply to the Chancellor's statements upon the real cost of the 
 war and the amount of debt incurred, Mr. Gladstone said that the 
 debt created within twenty-four months was probably 36,000,000. 
 Many items of further charge would fall in, and altogether 
 the net cost of the war would probably be hardly represented by 
 an addition of 50 per cent, to the 43,000,000 estimated by the
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOEEIGN POLICY. 203 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer as the precise sum which the war 
 had cost us. The resolutions were agreed to. It was not until 
 the 19th of May that Sir G. C. Lewis introduced his budget. 
 Its main features were as follows : The total expenditure for 
 1855-6 (including the loan of 1,000,000 to Sardinia) was 
 89,428,355; and the income 65,704,491. During the past 
 two years of war the total expenditure had been 151,121,307, 
 and for the previous two years of peace it was 102,032,596. In 
 consequence of the preparations which had been necessary, the 
 extra war expenditure would ran into the present year ; and he 
 calculated the probable expenditure at 82,113,000, and the 
 income from all sources at 71,740,000. The Government did 
 not propose to levy new taxes, but would partially meet the 
 deficiency by a loan of 5,000,000, a considerable sum in 
 addition having been previously arranged for. 
 
 Keferring to some observations which had been made by 
 Mr. Disraeli on the subject of Sardinia, Mr. Gladstone said 
 he thought the right honourable gentleman justified in his 
 allusions. If Sardinia should entertain schemes of aggression, 
 we could scarcely wonder at it. She laboured under great diffi- 
 culties, but she must practise self-denial and exhibit a right 
 example to Italy, and in the moral force flowing from that 
 she would find her reward. Mr. Gladstone then proceeded to 
 criticise the budget, denying the assertion that the parsimony 
 of the House of Commons had been the cause of our disasters 
 in the late war. Prussia and Sardinia were examples proving 
 that an efficient army need not be an expensive one. He 
 considered that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was making 
 very narrow provision to meet the expenditure. It was 
 sailing very close to the wind to allow for a surplus of only 
 160,000 upon a certain expenditure of 77,000,000. Mr. 
 Gladstone again manifested his strong views upon the necessity 
 for meeting national crises as they arose, by observing that 
 4 they should not set the pestilent example of abolishing taxes, 
 and borrowing money in their stead.' Here was a disposition 
 to stimulate increased expenditure, while every effort was 
 directed to stinting the means of meeting that expenditure. 
 The Chancellor's budget resolutions were ultimately agreed to. 
 
 The relations between the Governments of England and the 
 United States, which had been strained considerably in 
 1855, were still further strained in the following year. The 
 Central American Convention of 1850 had given the first shock 
 to a harmonious understanding, but the question which 
 caused the greatest uneasiness was that of the enlistment 
 of recruits in the United States for the British army. On
 
 204 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 several occasions during the session of 1856 questions were 
 raised upon this matter, but it was not until the 30th of June 
 that the general subject of our relations with America was 
 fully and formally discussed. On the order for going into com- 
 mittee of supply on that day, Mr. G. H. Moore moved as an 
 amendment the following resolution : ' That the conduct of Her 
 Majesty's Government, in the differences that have arisen between 
 them and the Government of the United States, on the question 
 of enlistment, has not entitled them to the approbation of this 
 House.' Mr. Moore not only affirmed that the neutrality law of 
 the United States had been grossly and deliberately violated by 
 persons acting with the approbation of her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment; but also that her Majesty's Government had contem- 
 plated and sanctioned the violation of the law. The hon. 
 member accused Mr. Cramp ton, the British Ambassador (who 
 had only performed the duties indicated to him by Lord 
 Clarendon), of subverting international law by secretly enlisting 
 the subjects of the United States. Lord Clarendon deprecated 
 all violation of the law, but the whole question turned upon the 
 interpretation of it, and an eminent American lawyer had given 
 an opinion directly contrary to that of the noble earl. 
 
 During the debate, which was a very protracted one, Mr. Glad- 
 stone delivered a long and able speech. ' It appears to me,' he 
 said, * that the two cardinal aims that we ought to keep in 
 view in the discussion of this question are peace and a 
 thoroughly cordial understanding with America for one, the 
 honour and fame of England for the other. I am bound to say 
 that in regard to neither of these points am I satisfied with the 
 existing state of things, or with the conduct of her Majesty's 
 Government. A cordial understanding with America has not been 
 preserved ; and the honour of this country has been compromised.' 
 Mr. Gladstone acknowledged that he had great difficulty in 
 coming to a decision what vote to give upon that important 
 question ; at the same time, he could not meet the resolution 
 proposed by Mr. Moore with a direct negative. Unless the 
 House was prepared to displace the Government, it ought not to 
 weaken their hands. Votes of censure on the Government 
 should only be proposed by those who were able to give effect to 
 the principle contained in those votes. Coming to the actual 
 matter at issue, he asked whether wrong had not been done ? ' In 
 the first place, he charged the Government with practising 
 concealment; in the second place, he maintained that the 
 American Government were deluded and misled. The law was 
 knowingly broken by the agents of the British Government. 
 There was not one hair's-breadth of distinction between the
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOKEIGN POLICY. 205 
 
 position of Mr. Crampton and the position of the Government. 
 What the American Government complained of was the 
 employment of an agency within the United States, not only to 
 give information, but to tempt, to induce by the offer of 
 valuable considerations, the subjects of the United States to go 
 beyond the United States for the purpose of enlisting. Mr. 
 Crampton did not communicate this to the American Government. 
 He had not only been guilty of concealment, however, but he 
 had broken the solemn promise that he would confine himself 
 to communicate to the persons who addressed themselves to 
 him the terms on which they would be received into the 
 British service.' Mr. Gladstone then went on to prove the 
 injustice of the charge against the American Government, of 
 having at first confined its complaints to the proceedings of 
 unauthorised persons, and subsequently extended those com- 
 plaints to the British Minister and his subordinates. ' Aiming 
 as I do at a plain and intelligible statement, I must say the 
 American Government was deceived by the proceedings of the 
 British Government. I say we intentionally broke the law of the 
 Union.' After examining the cases of several recruiting agents, 
 the speaker maintained that Mr. Crampton had been made a 
 scapegoat. He and three consuls had been punished, yet, although 
 the British Government acquiesced in and indorsed llic acts of its 
 agents, it accepted with satisfaction its own acquittal. Mr. 
 Gladstone thus concluded : ' When I look back to the period 
 when party combinations were strong in the House when Sir 
 Robert Peel was on those (the Opposition) benches, and Lord 
 John Russell -on these, I think though many mistakes and 
 errors were committed on both sides that, on the whole, the 
 Government of the country was honourably and efficiently carried 
 on. I believe that the day for this country will be a happy day 
 when party combinations shall be restored on such a footing. 
 But this question, instead of being a party question, is a most 
 remarkable illustration of the disorganised state of parties, and 
 of .the consequent impotency of the House of Commons to 
 express a practical opinion with respect to the foreign policy of 
 the country. Under these circumstances, the only resource left 
 to me is the undisguised expression of the opinions which I 
 strongly and conscientiously (perhaps erroneously) feel after the 
 study of these papers. I have had the privilege of expressing 
 these opinions freely and strongly a privilege which I would not 
 have waived on any account when I consider the bearing of the 
 case with respect to the American alliance, which I so highly 
 prize ; or with respect to" that which I still more highly prize 
 and more dearly love the honour and fair fame of my country.'
 
 206 WILLIAM 'EWAUT GLADSTONE. 
 
 Although no stronger indictment than Mr. Gladstone's was 
 framed against the Ministry, from fear of causing serious 
 embarrassment in the conduct of the affairs of the country, he 
 voted against the resolution, which was negatived by 274 to 80. 
 
 The year 1857 was one of unusual political activity and 
 excitement. Animated debates took place upon the foreign 
 policy of the Government, with what result we shall presently 
 see. In the House of Commons, during the debate on the 
 Address, the course of the Ministry was subjected to severe 
 criticism by Mr. Disraeli, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 having made a statement with respect to his financial measures, 
 without replying to the strictures of the right hon. gentleman, 
 Mr. Gladstone rose to take up the thread of the debate. He 
 expressed his surprise that the Chancellor of the Exchequer should 
 not have replied to the allegations of Mr. Disraeli, on the sub- 
 ject of the foreign policy of the Government, as these charges 
 were definite enough, and, if correct, bore materially upon the 
 advice given to the Crown by its Ministers. There was no pro- 
 mise in the Koyal Speech of information on the question which 
 arose respecting the Treaty of Paris, the settlement of the Cen- 
 tral American dispute, and the Persian war. He should have 
 been glad if the unhappy events in China had been noticed in a 
 different manner, and with regard to Persia, he desired to know 
 upon whose authority that war had been waged, whether the 
 expedition and its policy had been approved by the Court or 
 Directors of the East India Company, or whether that body was 
 only the nominal authority. He likewise asked at whose charge 
 the war was to be carried on. He held that if this country was 
 to bear part of the charge, Parliament ought to have been called 
 together earlier. Dealing with domestic questions, Mr. Glad- 
 stone protested against the paragraph relating to the Bank 
 of England being understood to import any foregone conclu- 
 sion as to the precise terms of the renewal of the Act of 
 1844, considering it to be completely open to Parliament to 
 determine if that Act were not capable of improvement. With 
 regard to the agitation against the income-tax, he earnestly 
 desired to bring the minds of the people of this country to a 
 consideration of the question as to what was a just and reason- 
 able scale of expenditure. If the 9d. tax were given up without 
 an equivalent reduction of the estimates, there must either be 
 new taxation or a loan. He was opposed to either ; he felt it to 
 be his bounden duty first to lay hold of the expenditure and to 
 battle with the estimates. He knew nothing of an alleged 
 compact between parties in the House of Commons in 1853. 
 1 The pledge of the Government was given in 1853,' said Mr.
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY. 207 
 
 Gladstone, * and we received value for it. It referred mainly to 
 something that was to take place in 1860. Four years of 
 the seven have passed away. It is to my mind reasonable and 
 just that the right hon. gentleman on behalf of his friends, and 
 that every man on his own behalf and on behalf of his consti- 
 tuents, should acknowledge the duty of the House of Commons 
 to say now, in 1857, whether the pledges of 1853 aie or are 
 not to be fulfilled.' The speaker deprecated the inquiries about 
 a uniform and a varying rate. It was a question between the 
 air and the clouds had never become practical. There were, 
 however, practical matters before them. ' As far as my duty is 
 concerned,' he continued, it will be my effort and labour to 
 secure a fulfilment of the pledges given in 1853. I understood 
 those pledges as the right hon. gentleman understands them. I 
 have not forgotten them. I never can forget to the latest day 
 of my life, and I shall always remember with gratitude, the 
 conduct of the House of Commons at the period when these 
 measures were adopted, and the generosity of the sentiments 
 which they evinced. I must endeavour to answer that conduct, 
 at least so far as depends on me ; and I shall endeavour to answer 
 that conduct by striving to bring the expenditure of the country 
 and its fiscal arrangements into such a shape as will allow the 
 extinction of the income-tax in I860.' 
 
 The Address was eventually agreed to. The budget, however, 
 was looked forward to with great interest, and on the 13th of 
 February it was introduced by Sir G. C. Lewis. It proposed to 
 fix the income-tax, for the next three years, at 7d., as originally 
 done by Sir Eobert Peel. The Exchequer would in consequence 
 receive twenty-one instead of twenty millions. The total 
 revenue was estimated at 66,365,000, leaving a surplus over 
 expenditure of 891,000. The total amount of taxes remitted 
 was 11,971,000. By the Chancellor's calculations the entire 
 debt of 40,000,000, arising out of the Crimean XVar, would 
 be extinguished in twenty years. Mr. Gladstone asked for 
 time in which to consider this comprehensive scheme. On the 
 20th Mr, Disraeli inaugurated a two nights' debate, by moving, 
 'That it would be expedient, before sanctioning the financial 
 arrangements for the ensuing year, to adjust the estimated 
 income and expenditure in a manner which shall appear best 
 calculated to secure the country against the risk of a deficiency in 
 the years 1858-9 and 1859-60, and to provide for such a balance 
 of revenue and charge respectively in the year 1860 as may place 
 it in the power of Parliament at that period, without embarrass- 
 ment to the finances, altogether to remit the income-tax.' Mr. 
 Disraeli disclaimed all idea of proposing any measure hostile to
 
 208 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 public credit, or a vote of want of confidence in the Government. 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that there was no pro- 
 bability of any deficiency or of an impediment to the remission 
 of the income-tax in 1860. He considered Mr. Disraeli's resolu- 
 tion uncalled for, and it would lead to no practical result. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone now delivered his general criticisms upon 'the 
 budget. No man, he affirmed, was more deeply interested in 
 the scheme than himself, for it concerned a plan in every part 
 contradictory to that which he had proposed, and which had 
 been adopted by the present House of Commons. Successive 
 Administrations had aimed at the consolidation and simplifica- 
 tion of the financial laws, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 had condemned the labours of Parliament for the last fifteen 
 years. The income-tax, though grievous and inquisitorial, had 
 been introduced to purchase blessings to be wrought out for the 
 mass of the people through its instrumentality. But with 
 what beneficial changes was it proposed now to associate this 
 t ax ? There was an idea that this year there would be a remis- 
 sion of taxation to the extent of 11,970.000; but omitting 
 war taxes to the amount ot 4,470,000 with the cessation of 
 which the Government could not be credited the remission of 
 the income-tax in 1857-58 would be only 4,600,000. Against 
 this sum was to be set 1,400,000, to be laid upon tea and 
 sugar; so that the real amount of taxes remitted in 1857-58 
 would be only a little over 3,000,000 ; nor was he satisfied that 
 the supposed surplus of 891,000 would be bonafide applicable 
 Mr. Gladstone again insisted upon the obligation of Parliament 
 to adhere to the stipulation entered into with the country 
 respecting the income-tax ; and then proceeded to indicate what 
 he considered to be serious flaws in the budget. Its first grave 
 and main defect was that it was based upon an excessive expendi- 
 ture, and at the proper time he should move that the estimates 
 of expenditure be revised and further reduced. Six millions had 
 been added to the expenditure of the country in four years, quite 
 apart from the war a fact which suggested most serious reflec- 
 tions. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in saying that he could 
 not estimate the expenditure of a future year, though he could 
 estimate the revenue, had trifled with the House, and treated 
 them like children. 'Yet he had taken the expenditure of 
 1853-54 as that of 1858-59, which,' for reasons stated by Mr. 
 Gladstone, ' he treated as a pure delusion, calculating that the 
 expenditure of the latter year would exceed that of 1857-58, and 
 that the real wants of the public service were likely to increase. 
 The prospect for next year, taking the income and expenditure 
 of the present, appeared to him to be that there would be a
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY. 209 
 
 revenue, after deductions, of 61,065,000, to meet an expenditure 
 of 66,724,000, leaving a deficiency of more than 5,600,000, 
 which in 1860 would have augmented to 8,600,000. The right 
 hon. gentleman next censured the Chancellor of the Exchequer's 
 views upon indirect taxation, and said that the amount of taxes 
 remitted from 1842 to 1854 amounted to 21,985,000 or, 
 deducting taxes imposed, to 14,485,000, which added to the 
 comforts or deducted from the privations of the country ; and 
 the increase in the revenue had covered the whole amount of the 
 remissions. i In Sir Kobert Peel's time,' said Mr. Gladstone, 
 you were called upon to remit 1,400,000 of indirect taxes, 
 now you are called on to impose indirect taxes to that amount ; 
 then you were called on to fill up a deficiency at your own 
 cost, now you are called on to create a deficiency at the cost of 
 others ; you were then called upon to take a burden on your- 
 selves to relieve the great mass of your fellow countrymen, now 
 you are called upon to take a burden off the shoulders of the 
 wealthier classes in order that you may impose indirect taxes 
 upon the tea and sugar which are consumed by every labouring 
 family in the country. I can only say that, for my own 
 part, I entertain on this subject a most decided opinion, 
 and nothing shall induce me to refrain from giving every 
 constitutional opposition in my power to such a proposition. 
 Before the Speaker leaves the chair, if health and strength be 
 spared me, I shall invite the House to declare that, whatever 
 taxes we remove, we will not impose more duties upon the tea 
 and sugar of the working man. When we are in committee 
 there will be no other opportunities of renewing this protest. 
 These things, if they are to be done, shall at least not be done in 
 a corner. The light of day shall be let in upon them, and their 
 meaning and consequences shall be well understood.' The 
 speaker complained strongly of the enormous deficiency created 
 by the proposal of the Government, and expressed his belief that 
 by a wise economy it was practicable to relieve taxation, to 
 reduce expenditure, and to maintain a surplus revenue. ' No 
 consideration upon earth, ' he said, in conclusion, ' would induce 
 me by voice or by vote to be a party to a financial plan with 
 regard to which I feel that it undermines the policy which has 
 guided the course of every great and patriotic Minister in this 
 country, and which is intimately associated, not only with the 
 credit and the honour, but even with the safety of the country.' 
 
 When the House divided on Mr. Disraeli's resolution, the num- 
 bers were Ayes, 206 ; Noes, 286. It was therefore lost by a 
 majority of eight}'. 
 
 On the 6th of March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer intro- 
 
 P
 
 210 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 duced an amended scale for the tea duty ; but at the same 
 time recapitulated and defended the principles of his financial 
 policy. He moved a resolution to the effect that the duty 
 on tea should be, after the 5th of April, 1857, to the 5th 
 of April, 1858, Is. 5d. per Ib. Mr. Gladstone, fulfilling 
 his pledge to oppose the scheme, moved as an amendment 
 that the duty be, after the 5th of April, 1857, Is. 3d. per Ib., 
 and after the 5th of April, 1858, Is. per Ib. He still held that 
 the spirit of the proposals of Sir G. C. Lewis was adverse to 
 the principles on which the operations of the last fifteen years 
 had been conducted. The main object of all those operations, 
 had been quite apart from questions of prohibition and pro- 
 tection to afford an extended, a judicious, and a permanent 
 relief to the consumers of those great commodities imported 
 from abroad which were essentially connected with the comforts 
 of the great mass of the population. He regretted thai the 
 plans of her Majesty's Government during the present yen/, for 
 the first time, made an attack on that long established prin- 
 ciple. The Chancellor of the Exchequer's scheme would go 
 to the country with a deficiency of Ways and Means, unless 
 the expenditure were reduced. Sir G. C. Lewis had speculated 
 upon a surplus revenue of 800,000 ; but the alteration of two- 
 pence in the pound in the proposed tea duties would reduce 
 the nominal surplus by about 500,000. Yet he had not pro- 
 vided for the expenses of the wars with China and Persia after 
 the 5th of April, and these, swollen by other items, would 
 leave no surplus income whatever. He condemned the continu- 
 ance of the war duties in time of peace, and also the manner in 
 which the tea trade had been dealt with in connection with these 
 war duties. If he were an advocate for an extended and organic 
 reform in the Parliamentary representation of the people, he could 
 not desire a better case than the one with which the Government 
 furnished him by their financial policy. They were undoing the 
 beneficial work of former Parliaments, and adding to the burdens 
 which were leviable by law upon the tea and sugar of the people. 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reply, said that Mr. 
 Gladstone had represented the budget unfairly as one of 
 increased taxation, and that if he had been called upon to prepare 
 a scheme upon the principles recommended by the right hon. 
 gentleman, he should be utterly at a loss how to set about it. 
 In the end Mr. Gladstone's amendment was negatived by 187 
 to 125. A few days later, Mi. Gladstone again referred to the 
 increased public expenditure. In the discussion on the second 
 reading of the Income Tax Bill, he expressed his conviction that 
 there was a very material connection between the foreign policy
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLIC7. 211 
 
 of her Majesty's Government and the excessive taxation and 
 high expenditure of the country. He believed it still prac- 
 ticable to bring the income-tax to a close, but if they really 
 did so, it must be by adopting new rules of proceeding. The 
 moment at which it might be practicable to bring the tax to 
 a termination was rapidly passing away, and unless they bestirred 
 themselves, in the course of two or three years it would be much 
 too late, and a sheer waste of time to entertain that question, 
 seeing that the relation between the demands of the public service 
 and every provision for meeting them, independently of the 
 income-tax, would leave no room for maintaining the public 
 credit and satisfying the wants of the country, except through 
 the means which that tax provided. 
 
 On the bringing up of the report of the committee of supply 
 (Navy Estimates), Mr. Gladstone for the third time drew atten- 
 tion to this subject, and moved a resolution, to the effect that in 
 order to secure to the country that relief from taxation which it 
 justly expected, it was necessary, in the judgment of the House, 
 to revise and further reduce the expenditure of the State. He 
 based his motion upon two grounds first, that there did not 
 appear to be an adequate provision for the exigencies of the year ; 
 and, secondly, that the expenditure of the country had not of late 
 been kept under due control, but had increased to a point which 
 had become embarrassing, and which threatened to become even 
 alarming. Comparing in detail the present estimates with those 
 of preceding years, he found that the military estimates had in 
 five years gone up from ^16,012,000 to 20,517,000. The civil 
 charges required closely watching, and the Executive Govern- 
 ment ought to be among the first and most effectual checks for 
 restraining the spirit of laxity in regard to the administration 
 of the public money. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, while 
 admitting that there was much in Mr. Gladstone's speech to 
 deserve consideration, observed that he anticipated no deficiency 
 in the ensuing year. The estimates, though large, were not 
 extravagant, and the Government had done all in their power to 
 reduce them. Mr. Gladstone did not divide the House upon 
 his amendment, and the Ministerial proposals passed. 
 
 When the Divorce Bill was warmly contested in the House of 
 Commons, Mr. Gladstone made an earnest and impassioned 
 speech against the measure, eloquently contending for the 
 equality of woman with man in all the rights pertaining to 
 marriage. He dealt with the question on theological, legal, and 
 social grounds. After a prolonged contest, nevertheless, the 
 bill eventually became law. 
 
 The Palmerston Government suffered a severe check during 
 
 P2
 
 212 . WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 this session by a hostile vote in connection with its Chinese 
 policy. It seems that a lorcha called the Arroiv, showing 
 British colours, had been seized by the Chinese. The question 
 arose as to the right of the vessel to the protection of the British 
 flag. It was alleged by the opponents of the Government 
 that a vessel built in China, captured by pirates, and 
 recaptured by Chinese, and afterwards manned, owned, and 
 bought by Chinese, could have no claim upon us. Moreover, Sir 
 John Bowring had stated that the licence to carry the English 
 flag had expired some time before. Lord Derby, who moved a 
 resolution in the House of Lords condemning the Government, 
 affirmed that the quarrel had arisen entirely from Sir John 
 Bowring's absorbing desire to bring about his own official reception 
 in Canton. The Upper House supported the Ministry by a majority 
 of 36, but in the House of Commons the debate closed with an 
 opposite result. Mr. Cobden introduced the subject by m>v>"ng 
 the following resolution : ' That this House has heard "\th 
 concern of the conflicts which have occurred between the British 
 and Chinese authorities in the Canton Kiver ; and, without 
 expressing an opinion as to the extent to which the Government 
 of China may have afforded this country cause of complaint 
 respecting the non-fulfilment of the Treaty of 1842, this House 
 considers that the papers which have been laid upon the table fail 
 to establish satisfactory grounds for the violent measures resorted 
 to at Canton in the late affair of the Arrow ; and that a select 
 committee be appointed to inquire into the state of our com- 
 mercial relations with China.' - In closing an able speech in 
 support of his resolution, Mr. Cobden maintained that Sir John 
 Bowring had not only violated the principles of international 
 law, but had acted contrary to his instructions, and even to express 
 directions from his Government, and he was afraid lest this petty 
 squabble should lead to complications with other nations. The 
 debate extended over four nights, and included speeches by Lord 
 J. Russell, Mr. Lowe, Sir J. Graham, Sir J. Pakington, Sir F. 
 Thesiger, the Attorney General, Mr. Roundell Palmer, Mr. Glad- 
 stone, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Disraeli. As an exhibition of 
 debating power, the discussion attained a very high level of 
 Parliamentary oratory. 
 
 In commencing his speech, Mr. Gladstone protested against 
 making Sir John Bowring a stalking-horse to divert the attention 
 of the House from the real matters that were in issue. 
 Though Sir John Bowring's conduct was involved in the dis- 
 cussions, they were not trying him judicially. It was their 
 duty to be fair, just, and equitable towards him, but their 
 prime and paramount duty was to consider the interests of
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY. 213 
 
 humanity and the honour of Engand. He regretted that, from 
 motives which he did not doubt were nothing more than an excess 
 of zeal for the public service, Sir John Bowring had been led into 
 proceedings in themselves unwarrantable. Yet his policy was not 
 unknown to her Majesty's Government, nor by them disapproved. 
 Mr. Gladstone, with great warmth, defended Sir James Graham 
 from the attack made upon him by Sir George Grey in relation 
 to the appointment of Sir John Bowring. Coming to the general 
 question, he denied that we had festering wrongs against the 
 Chinese ; and he reminded the House that no answer had been 
 given to the objection that, if a wrong had been committed by 
 the Chinese in the case of the Arrow, the proper remedy was by 
 reprisals. Keplying to the doctrine of the Attorney-General, 
 that the term ' British Subjects ' in the treaty meant any Chinese 
 resident at Hong Kong, Mr. Gladstone asked, When we talked of 
 treaty obligations by the Chinese, what were our treaty obliga- 
 tions towards them ? Hong Kong was given to us to be a port in 
 which British ships might careen and refit. He demanded 
 whether our contraband trade in opium was not a breach of treaty 
 obligations. Had our Government struggled to put it down, as 
 bound by treaty ? Had they not encouraged it by organising a 
 fleet of lorchas under the British flag ? They who put the British 
 flag to the uses to which it had been put stained that flag. The 
 right hon. gentleman then dwelt upon the calamities which the 
 war had inflicted upon the Cantonese, and observed that the reso- 
 lution of Parliament invited the wisdom of members to put an 
 end to them. He demanded the reasons why we were at war 
 with the Chinese. Were we afraid of the moral effects upon the 
 Chinese if the acts of the Government were disavowed? He 
 implored the House to consider the moral impressions which must 
 be produced, and never could be avoided. Mr. Gladstone con- 
 cluded as follows : 
 
 ' Every member of the House of Commons is proudly conscious that he belongs 
 to an assembly which in its collective capacity is the paramount power of the State. 
 But if it is the paramount power of the State it can never separate from that para- 
 mount power a similar and paramount responsibility. The vote of the House of 
 Lords will not acquit us ; the sentence of the Government will not acquit us. It is 
 with us to determine whether this wrong shall remain unchecked and unconnected. 
 And at a time when sentiments are so much divided, every man, I trust, will give 
 his vote with the recollection and the consciousness that it may depend upon his 
 single vote whether the miseries, the crimes, the atrocities that I fear are now pro- 
 ceeding in China are to be discountenanced or not. We have now come to the 
 crisis of the case. England is not yet committed. With you, then, with us, with 
 every one of us, it rests to show that this House, which is the first, the most 
 ancient, and the noblest temple of freedom in the world, is also the temple of that 
 everlasting justice without which freedom itself would only be a name or only a 
 curse to mankind. And I cherish the trust and belief that when you, Sir, rise to 
 declare in your place to-night the numbers of the division from the chair which you 
 adorn, the words which you speak will go forth from the walls of the House of
 
 114 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Commons not only as a message of mercy and peace, but also as a message of British 
 justice and British wisdom, to the farthest corners of the world.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston made an effective reply, in which he reflected 
 strongly upon the combination of parties confederated together 
 upon this question against the Government. He also reminded 
 the House that it had in its keeping not only the interests, the 
 property, and the lives of many of our fellow-countrymen, but 
 the honour, the reputation, and the character of the country. 
 Mr. Disraeli before Mr. Cobden rose to close the debate in a 
 brief speech accepted the construction put upon the motion 
 that it was a vote of censure on the Government. Referring to 
 the alarm over a suggested combination manifested by Lord 
 Palmerston, the right hon. gentleman said that the noble lord 
 was the veiy archetype of political combination without principle. 
 If Lord Palmerston complained that he was the victim of a 
 conspiracy, let him appeal to the country. 
 
 Upon a division being taken on the latter part of Mr. Cobden's 
 resolution, the numbers were For the resolution, 263 ; against, 
 247 majority against the Government, 16. The resignation of 
 the Ministry was expected by the Opposition, though the Govern- 
 ment was confessedly strong in the country. Counting upon this 
 support, Lord Palmerston stated in the House of Commons that 
 although, after such a defeat, resignation was the usual and 
 proper course to pursue, he did not believe the rule applied to 
 the present case. Eecent divisions had not shown a want of 
 confidence in the Government, and he accordingly felt justified 
 in dissolving. 
 
 The Prime Minister had not misinterpreted the feelings of the 
 nation in adopting this course. The Government gained a 
 considerable accession of strength upon their appeal to the 
 country ; and amongst the prominent Liberals who were 
 defeated at the elections were Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. 
 Gibson, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Layard. The Peelites also suffered 
 considerably, although Mr. Gladstone was fortunate in being 
 returned again for Oxford University, unopposed, in conjunction 
 with Sir William Heathcote. Parliament met for a short sitting 
 in December, when a very important financial question came 
 before it. A monetary panic had been created by the stoppage 
 of several banks in the United States, and the directors of the 
 Bank of England appealed, in consequence, to the Ministers of 
 the Crown for authority to increase their issue of notes, and so 
 i to suspend the operation of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. The 
 Government at once agreed to this, and brought into Parliament 
 i Bill of Indemnity. Mr. Gladstone, while not opposing the bill, 
 said that the Act of 1844 affected the question of issue only,
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOEEIGN POLICY. 215 
 
 leaving that of banking untouched, and he thought the present 
 was a fit time for ascertaining the views of Parliament upon the 
 subject. ' Instead of directing the committee to go round again 
 the circle of inquiry into the currency and the law of issue, it 
 would be better employed in investigating the commercial causes 
 of the late panic, and how far they were connected with the state 
 of banking. The effect of referring a heap of subjects to an over- 
 burdened committee would be to postpone legislation, and 
 obstruct inquiry into the causes of the recent panic and the 
 present embarrassment.' In the discussion on the third reading 
 of the bill, Mr. Gladstone reiterated these arguments, affirming 
 that great evils arose from the confusion which prevailed 
 between the functions of currency and banking. An amendment 
 by Mr. Disraeli was negatived by a large majority, and the bill 
 passed. 
 
 On the re-assembling of Parliament in February, Lord 
 Palmerston introduced his ill-fated Conspiracy to Murder Bill, 
 a measure which involved the downfall of the Government. The 
 futile attempt made by Orsini to assassinate the Emperor of the 
 French had evoked in this country a good deal of sympathy for 
 the latter. The French Imperialists, however, indulged in 
 virulent attacks upon the English people, who were charged 
 with allowing foreign refugees to concoct and mature in this 
 country plots to be carried into execution elsewhere. It was 
 suggested that we should change our laws to meet such cases 
 as the one that had just occurred ; but this suggestion excited 
 the utmost indignation in the countiy. Lord Palmerston, 
 nevertheless, acknowledging that the Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs at Paris had urged upon the English Government 
 the necessity of taking some steps in the matter, introduced 
 a bill to amend the law of conspiracy with intent to murder. 
 It was proposed to make conspiracy to murder a felony 
 punishable with penal servitude for five years, and to make 
 the law uniform throughout the United Kingdom. The Govern- 
 ment carried the first reading of the bill by an immense 
 majority ; but before the second reading came on a feeling had 
 spread throughout the country that the Ministry were simply 
 obeying the behests of the French Emperor in pushing forward 
 this measure. Accordingly, Mr. Milner Gibson moved certain 
 amendments to the effect ' That this House hears with much 
 concern that it is alleged the recent attempts upon the life of 
 the Emperor of the French have been devised in England, and 
 expresses its detestation of such guilty enterprises : that this House 
 is ready at all times to assist in remedying any defects in the 
 criminal law which, after due investigation, are proved to exist :
 
 216 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 and that this House cannot but regret that her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, previously to inviting the House to amend the law of con- 
 spiracy at the present time, have not felt it to be their duty to 
 reply to the important despatch received from the French 
 Government, dated Paris, January 20, 1858, which has been laid 
 before Parliament.' In his speech in moving these resolutions, 
 Mr. Gibson quoted the following passage from the Times : 
 
 * When Lord Palmerston has made up his mind to court the good 
 will of a foreign Power, no sacrifice of principle or of interest is 
 too great for him. From first to last his character has been the 
 want of a firm and lofty adherence to the known interests of 
 England ; and it is precisely from a want of such guiding 
 laws of conduct that our foreign policy has degenerated into 
 a tissue of caprices, machinations, petty contentions, and ever- 
 lasting disputes.' Sir Robert Peel said that a bill had been 
 submitted to Parliament at the dictation of a foreign Govern- 
 ment. M. de Morny had affirmed that England was a lair of 
 savage beasts and a laboratory of assassins. Sir Robert excited 
 great laughter by quoting an expression used towards Louis 
 Napoleon by one of his flatterers, who thus apostrophised him in 
 the course of an address he was presenting : * Sire, you are 
 too fond of liberty ! ' 
 
 The one speech, however, during this debate which most 
 deeply impressed the House was that delivered by Mr. Glad- 
 stone. Attaching to the French alliance a peculiar and special 
 value, he was, he said, anxious to maintain that alliance. Since 
 1856, unfortunately, there had been quarrels between the two 
 Governments which had weakened the position of England. But 
 after some oth^r observations he demanded whether the 
 French despatch had been answered, and whether it did not 
 require an answer. Lord Palmerston had stated that he answered 
 it verbally, but of all explanations that was the most unsatisfac- 
 tory. It was contrary to the spirit of the Constitution to thrust 
 verbal answers upon the House, and called for notice. The 
 speaker next entered into an examination of the terms of Count 
 Walewski's despatch, in order to prove that they were unfounded 
 and injurious to England. He was emphatically of opinion that 
 it was the absolute and primary duty of the Government to 
 have answered these charges, and to have explained to the 
 French Government the state of our law. Not only had not 
 this been done, but they were asked to pass the present bill as an 
 answer to Count Walewski's despatch. Mr. Gladstone thus 
 concluded his powerful speech : 
 
 ' If there is any feeling in this House for the honour of England, don't let us b 
 led away by some vague statement about the necessity of reforming the criminal
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY. 217 
 
 law. Let us insist upon the necessity of vindicating that law. As far as justice 
 requires, let us have the existing law vindicated, and then let us proceed to amend 
 it if it be found necessary. But do not let us allow it to lie under a cloud of accusa- 
 tions of which we are convinced that it is totally innocent. These times are grave 
 for liberty. We live in the nineteenth century ; we talk of progress; we believe 
 that we are advancing, but can any man of observation who has watched the 
 events of the last few years in Europe have failed to perceive that there is a move- 
 ment indeed, but a downward and backward movement ? There are a few spots 
 in which institutions that claim our sympathy still exist and nourish. They are 
 secondary places nay, they are almost the holes and corners of Europe so far as 
 mere material greatness is concerned, although their moral greatness will, I trust, 
 ensure them long prosperity and happiness. But in these times more than ever 
 does responsibility centre upon the institutions of England; and if it does centre) 
 upon England, upon her principles, upon her laws, and upon her governors, then I 
 say that a measure passed by this House of Commons the chief hope of freedom 
 which attempts to establish a moral complicity between us and those who seek 
 safety in repressive measures, will be a blow and a discouragement to that sacred 
 cause in every country in the world.' 
 
 After speeches from the Attorney-General and others, Mr. 
 Disraeli drew attention to the fact that the real question now 
 before the House was not diplomatic or political, but one 
 between the House and the servants of the Crown. Lord 
 Palmerston then rose to reply. He complained that Mr. Milner 
 Gibson and Mr. Gladstone had departed from the subject 
 under consideration, and had entered into a long and elaborate 
 attack upon his former conduct as Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs. When Mr. Gibson stood forth as the 
 champion of the honour of England and the vindicator 
 of the rights of the country against foreign nations, it was 
 the first time in his life that he (Lord Palmerston) had seen 
 him in that character. The policy which he had invariably 
 advocated bad been one of submission of crouching to every 
 foreign Power with which we had any differences to discuss. 
 The right hon. gentleman belonged to a small party who said, 
 * What care we if this country should be conquered by a foreign 
 force ? If we were conquered by a foreign Power, they would 
 allow us to work our mills.' Lord Palmerston was interrupted 
 by strong exclamations of dissent from this attack upon Mr. 
 Gibson, and addressing himself to the general question, he 
 implored the House not to rush headlong into a course which 
 would have an entirely contrary effect to the policy advocated 
 by Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 The Government, however, were defeated, the numbers being 
 For the Ministerial bill, 215 ; against, 234 majority, 19. A 
 scene of great excitement ensued on the numbers being 
 announced, the cheering of the majority being long and 
 vehement. When the division list was published on the 
 following day, it was discovered that the majority was 
 composed of 146 Conservatives, 84 Liberals, and 4 Peelites, 
 viz., Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and
 
 218 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 Sir James Graham. Lord Palmerston, being unable farther 
 to contend against the adverse circumstances by which his 
 Ministry was surrounded, and having lost the confidence of 
 so large a body of the Liberal party, placed his resignation in 
 the hands of her Majesty. Yet though the Palmerston Govern- 
 ment had thus fallen, there was little hope of a strong Conserva- 
 tive Government being formed, or one which could hope to 
 retain the support of those by whose aid the late Ministry had 
 been defeated. The Earl of Derby was sent for, and agreed to 
 form a Ministry. In this Ministry Mr. Disraeli again became 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 In the same session, during the debate on the Church Rates 
 Abolition Bill, Mr. Gladstone said that if Church rates were to 
 be abolished it should be done in a manner to mitigate as much 
 as possible the pressure of the change. The whole tone of his 
 speech was very different from that of an uncompromising 
 defender of these rates, and he concluded his observations as 
 follows : * If it were not that I am actuated by the desire of 
 dealing in a spirit of fairness towards this measure, and did 
 desire to secure its rejection, I should say leave the bill as it 
 stands, and let hon. gentlemen opposite deal as they can with 
 the difficulties in which they would be involved in passing it.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was opposed to the legislation of the Govern- 
 ment in connection with the East India Company. The Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer introduced a series of resolutions, having 
 for their object the abolition of the governing powers of the 
 Company, their transference to the Crown and the home Govern- 
 ment, and the better regulation and government of India 
 generally. Mr, Gladstone said that after the decision of the 
 House in February in favour of terminating the existing form 
 of government in India, he could not concur that resolutions 
 were the best form of proceeding. There was considerable feel- 
 ing in the country against the proposed scheme, and, looking at 
 the state of public affairs, he protested against affirming the 
 motion before the House. In neither plan could he see the 
 elements of a good scheme ; * and there was great difficulty in 
 attempting to govern by one people another people separated not 
 only by distance, but by blood and institutions. The Court of 
 Directors had been practically a body protective of the people of 
 India, and there ought not to be a less provision for that object. 
 He looked in vain, however,' he said, i in either plan for any pro- 
 tective power that could be compared with the Court of Directors. 
 There should be a protection afforded to the people of India 
 against the ignoiance, error, or indiscretion of the people and 
 Parliament of England. There had grown up a system fraught
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOEEIGN POLICY. 219 
 
 with danger to the Parliament and to the liberties of the people 
 of England, as well as to India, by the undue and unconstitu- 
 tional exercise of power by the Executive here, through the 
 treasury and army of India, by which wars were commenced 
 without the knowledge or consent of Parliament, and an accumu- 
 lation of debt was cast upon India.' There was no limitation 
 of this power, or worse than none, in either plan, and therefore 
 he remonstrated against the Chancellor of the Exchequer's 
 motion. Some progress was made with the resolutions, but the 
 Indian legislation of the Government was destined to be arrested 
 by important political events. 
 
 The state of parties this session was a most anomalous one. 
 The Derby Government existed very largely upon sufferance, but 
 that sufferance was not to be prolonged for any length of time. 
 Mr. Gladstone, however (who had declined the post of Secretary 
 for the Colonies, offered him by Lord Derby), gave on more than 
 one important occasion very valuable support to the Ministry. 
 The Governor-General of India, on the 3rd of March, issued a 
 proclamation to the chiefs and people of Oude, promising 
 indulgence to those who came forward promptly and gave to the 
 Chief O&mmissioner their support in the restoration of peace and 
 order. Lord Ellenborough, President of the Board of Control, 
 forwarded a despatch to the Governor-General in which he 
 strongly condemned his proclamation. In consequence of these 
 events, Mr. Cardwell in the Commons, and Lord Shaftesbury in 
 the Lords, brought forward motions censuring the Government. 
 The latter was defeated, but the resolution in the Lower House 
 met with a singular fate. New papers having been laid before 
 the House which set in a fresh light the Ministerial policy, Mr. 
 Cardwell was earnestly pressed by many of his own friends to 
 withdraw his resolution. Mr. Gladstone swelled the general voice, 
 and said that, while he hoped the House would concur in the 
 eourse of withdrawal now proposed to be taken by Mr. Cardwell, 
 he trusted that her Majesty's Government would not refuse to 
 declare that, in the general conduct of affairs in India under 
 circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, Lord Canning had 
 deserved and would receive approbation. This ' fiasco,' as it was 
 described, gave Mr. Disraeli an excellent opportunity, of which 
 he was not slow to avail himself, to banter the opponents of the 
 Government. This he did at Slough, in a speech full of wit and 
 powerful sarcasm, which afterwards became the subject of exciting 
 debates in both Houses. 
 
 The India Bill, No. 2, having been withdrawn by Mr. 
 Disraeli, Mr. Gladstone endeavoured to prevent a revival 
 of legislation upon this subject in the session of 1858 by
 
 920 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 moving, on the 7th of June, the following resolution : * That, 
 regard being had to the position of affairs in India, it is 
 expedient to constitute the Court of Directors of the East India 
 Company by an Act of the present session to be a Council for 
 administering the government of India in the name of her 
 Majesty, under the superintendence of such responsible Minister, 
 until the end of the session of Parliament.' He justified his 
 proposal on the ground that it was not practicable during that 
 session to perfect a scheme of government for India that would 
 be worthy of Parliament and of the people. The problem was 
 one of the most formidable ever presented to any nation or any 
 legislature in the history of the world, and the evils of delay 
 were insignificant in comparison with those of crude and hasty 
 legislation. 
 
 Lord Stanley opposed the amendment, and after a long discus- 
 sion it was negatived by 285 to 110. After having carried five of 
 their resolutions, the Government abandoned this mode of 
 procedure, and introduced the India Bill, No. 3. The House had 
 agreed to the proposition of a Council for India, but the manner 
 of its constitution gave rise to many amendments. Mr. Bright 
 delivered an important speech, in which he developed his own 
 ideas upon the best form of government for India. If he were 
 a Minister, he said, and could get the House to agree with him, 
 he would have five Presidencies in India, perfectly equal, 
 administered from Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Agra, and Lahore. 
 Among these governments there would be a generous rivalry for 
 good, instead of utter stagnation; evil ambition would be 
 checked, and there would be no governor so great that he could 
 not be controlled. At a later stage of the bill an important 
 amendment, moved by Mr. Gladstone, was carried, providing that 
 * except for repelling actual invasion, or under other sudden and 
 urgent necessity, her Majesty's forces maintained out of the 
 revenue of India shall not be employed in any military opera- 
 tion beyond the external frontier of her Majesty's Indian 
 possessions without the consent of Parliament to the purposes 
 thereof.' On the 8th of July the India Bill passed through its 
 final stage in the House of Commons. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone delivered during this session a speech, in connec- 
 tion with the Danubian Principalities, which bears a somewhat 
 significant relation to his later views upon the Eastern Question, 
 and is therefore worthy of some attention. He brought forward 
 a motion to the effect, that an address be presented to her 
 Majesty, to submit to her Majesty that that House, bearing in 
 mind the obligations imposed by the Treaty of Paris, so far as 
 they affected the Danubian Principalities, had observed with
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY. 221 
 
 satisfaction the general tenor and spirit of the Declaration 
 recorded by her Majesty's Chief Plenipotentiary at the Con- 
 ferences of 1856, concerning the future organisation of those 
 territories ; and humbly to convey to her Majesty the earnest 
 hope of the House that in the further prosecution of that impor- 
 tant subject just weight might be given to those wishes of the 
 people of Wallachia and of Moldavia which, through their 
 representatives, elected in conformity with the said treaty, they 
 had recently expressed. Mr. Gladstone disclaimed all idea of 
 dictating a policy to the Executive Government, but he was 
 extremely anxious to recognise communications made to the 
 House in the most formal manner by the Executive Government, 
 in a matter deeply affecting the happiness of millions of our 
 fellow-creatures. In adducing reasons for the support of his 
 motion, he placed first the wish and ardent desire of almost the 
 entire population of the Principalities for this union, which had 
 been sanctioned by the Suzerain Power in 1834 in a public 
 and authoritative document. There were but three Powers 
 represented at Paris to whose opinion upon this question any 
 great moral weight was attached, viz., France, England, and Sar- 
 dinia, whose judgment was sure to carry with it the mass of 
 European opinion; and a solemn pledge was given by their 
 Plenipotentiaries, afterwards embodied in the Treaty of Paris, 
 that the question should be referred to the judgment of the 
 people of the Principalities. The result of the appeals by the 
 Divans, ad hoc, to the people of Moldavia and Wallachia, had 
 been almost unanimous in favour of the union. All the inhabi- 
 tants felt that if they hoped to be free, and wished to keep the 
 soil of their country unpolluted by the heel "of the stranger, it 
 could only be by the union of the Principalities. After having 
 consulted the people through their representatives, and asking 
 them what was their prayer, it was absurd to refer the whole 
 question to the disposal of five or six commissioners. He 
 admitted that the provinces asked something more than union, 
 viz., that when they were united they should, in order to avoid 
 local jealousies, have a prince or chief, taken from a foreign 
 family. England had given no pledge on this matter, and the 
 great Powers of Europe reserved their decision upon it. But the 
 one great object was union, and Mr, Gladstone said he should 
 assume that the desirability of this was admitted, as bringing 
 about the well-being of the provinces. He also observed that the 
 feeling in the Principalities was favourable to Turkey, and the 
 reason why it was favourable was not that the people were in- 
 clined to the creed or traditions of Turkey, but that the relation 
 between these countries and Turkey was one founded upon a
 
 222 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 liberal basis, and that there had been thus far no sensible collision 
 of interests between them. Let the union not take place, and the 
 Principalities would be a constant source of anxiety to European 
 policy ; if it were consummated, a living barrier would be inter- 
 posed betwen Russia and Turkey. Nor could the union have 
 the slightest injurious effect on the Ottoman Empire, which had 
 never possessed the sovereignty of the Principalities. * It would 
 have been better,' said the right hon. gentleman in concluding, 
 * to have said nothing about the Principalities, to have given no 
 promises, to have announced no policy, if, after stimulating the 
 feeling for the union up to the highest pitch, and holding it out 
 by public authority at Paris as the one thing which, above all 
 other things, was necessary for the welfare and prosperity of 
 those countries, we are now to reverse that policy. I must really 
 say that if it were our desire to embroil the East, to sow the 
 seeds and create the elements of permanent difficulty and dis- 
 union, to aggravate every danger which threatens Turkey, to 
 pave the way for Russia ' and to prepare willing auxiliaries for 
 Russia in her projects southwards, we could not attain those 
 objects by any scheme better laid down than that of abandoning 
 our pledges and promises and giving in to the Austrian policy.' 
 
 That there was a generous and statesmanlike breadth in 
 this view was not denied, but it was objected by the Govern- 
 ment that the effect of the motion would be to dismember 
 the Turkish Empire. The union of the provinces under a 
 foreign prince would make them practically independent of 
 the Porte, and this was in direct contravention of the Treaty 
 of Paris. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he could 
 not conceive a step that would be more embarrassing to the 
 Government at that moment than the adoption of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's motion. This was negatived by 292 votes to 114. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli's budget scheme for 1858 excited but a languid 
 interest in his most formidable opponent, though its author in 
 framing it was beset with unusual difficulties. There was an 
 increased public expenditure, while the commercial embarrass- 
 ments of the preceding six months had lessened the revenue. 
 Under these and other depressing financial circumstances, Mr. 
 Disraeli's statement was looked forward to with no little 
 trepidation by his own supporters. The principal features of the 
 budget were an operation upon the Exchequer bonds, the 
 equalisation of the spirit duties, and the introduction of a tax 
 on bankers' cheques. From the equalisation of the spirit duties 
 it was hoped to obtain an additional 500,000, and by the 
 stamp on bankers' cheques a sum of 300,000. There was a 
 deficit of 3,990,000 ; and the Chancellor proposed to postpone
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOEEIGN POLICY. 223 
 
 the engagement to pay off 2,000,000 of Exchequer bonds, and 
 1,500,000 of the war sinking fund. By these means, and 
 with the additional sums from the spirit duties and the tax on 
 bankers' cheques, the deficit would be entirely met,' and there 
 would be a surplus revenue. Mr. Disraeli added that he 
 hoped it would still be possible to carry into effect in the 
 year anticipated the ' wise arrangements ' of Mr. Gladstone for 
 the extinction of the income-tax. 
 
 In the debate on the first resolution put from the chair, Mr. 
 Gladstone expressed his satisfaction that the feeling of the 
 committee was favourable to the spirit of the proposals of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. He thanked the latter for the 
 course he had taken with respect to the equalisation of the spirit 
 duties. It would be unreasonable to make large demands upon 
 the Government in the way of many beneficial changes in the 
 commercial system which were yet necessary ; it was but fair 
 also that the Government should have the leisure of a recess, 
 in order to enable it to deal satisfactorily with the reduction of 
 expenditure. Yet he did trust there was a prospect of keeping 
 down the scale of the national expenditure to such dimensions 
 as would give a practical character to their expectations, and 
 enable them to cherish the reasonable hope of being able to 
 confer upon the country, at an early date, an actual and 
 positive realisation of its wishes. The budget, which was 
 approved by the country generally, was safe from any serious 
 attack after the conciliatory speech of Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 In the autumn of 1858 Mr. Gladstone accepted from the Earl 
 of Derby the appointment of Lord High Commissioner Extra- 
 ordinary to the Ionian Islands, and in that capacity went out to 
 Corfu. The Ionian Islands comprise Cephalonia, Cerigo, Corfu, 
 Ithaca, Paxo, Santa Maura, and Zante, with their dependencies. 
 They were erected, in the year 1800, into the Kepublic of the 
 Seven United Islands. In 1815 they were placed under the 
 protection of England. Difficulties having arisen in connection 
 with their government, Mr. Gladstone was despatched on a 
 commission of inquiry. The inhabitants were desirous of 
 severing the connection with England, and of adding themselves 
 to the kingdom of Greece. The lonians regarded the appoint- 
 ment of Mr. Gladstone as a virtual intimation that the British 
 Government intended to abandon the protectorate. A despatch 
 of the Colonial Secretary somewhat supported this view. The 
 already strained relations which existed between ourselves 
 and the authorities of the islands reached the utmost pitch 
 of tension at this juncture by the surreptitious publication in the 
 Daily News of two important despatches. These despatches,
 
 224 WILLIAM EVVART GLADSTONE. 
 
 written by the Lord High commissioner, Sir John Young, were, 
 in substance, a recommendation to abandon all the islands to 
 their own will with the exception of Corfu, which the Commis- 
 sioner advocated should be retained as a military fortress. On the 
 27th of January, 1859, the Legislative Assembly of the Ionian 
 Islands, sitting at Corfu, proposed the annexaton of their Republic 
 to Greece. A petition to that effect was presented a few days 
 afterwards to Mr. Gladstone. The right hon. gentleman saw 
 that the firm determination of the Ionian people was incorpora- 
 tion with Greece, and he despatched to the Queen a vote of the 
 Ionian Parliament, affirming that 'the single and unanimous 
 will of the Ionian people has been and is for their union with 
 the kingdom of Greece.' The subsequent history of the affair is 
 soon told. General Sir H. Storks having been appointed Lord 
 High Commissioner of the islands, Mr. Gladstone embarked at 
 Corfu for England on the 19th of February. The Legislative 
 Assembly at Corfu did not allow the question of cession to sleep, 
 however, and after some years of agitation the Ionian Islands 
 were formally handed over to Greece in June, 1864, whereupon 
 the Governor and the British troops immediately retired. 
 
 Though it may be contended that England has failed in her 
 duty to Greece of recent years, the Greeks have not forgotten 
 our many previous expressions of goodwill the cession of the 
 Ionian Islands being amongst them. This cession may be taken 
 as the starting-point of a new movement in Greek national life ; 
 and there have been many indications since that Greece desires 
 to attain, and is fitting herself for, a higher position amongst the 
 Powers of modern Europe than she has hitherto enjoyed. In the 
 opinion of many, the time must again come when England will 
 extend to Greece, with her illustrious race and her unexampled 
 history, the hand of cordial and lasting friendship.
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 HOMERIC STUDIES. 
 
 11)0 Study of Homer Mr. Gladstone's chief Literary Recreation His Maynum 
 Opus Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age Scope of the Work General View 
 of the Homeric Controversy Mr. Freeman's Criticism on Mr. Gladstone's Work 
 The Poems of Homer and the Sacred Writings Homer's Place in Education His 
 Historic Aims The probable Date of the Great Greek Poet The Homeric Text 
 Ethnology of the Greek Races Relation of the Homeric Poems to the Holy Scrip- 
 tures Mr. Gladstone's Third Volume The Politics and the Poetry of Homer 
 Specimen of Mr. Gladstone's Criticism Shakespeare and Homer Other Works by 
 Mr. Gladstone in relation to Homer Juventus Mundi Its Objects and Scope 
 Homeric Synchronism The Time and Place of Homer Historical Arguments 
 Birthplace of the Homeric Poems The Infancy of Greece A Final Word on Mr. 
 Gladstone's Studies. 
 
 To thread the labyrinthine mazes of Homer, and solve the pro- 
 blems associated with his name, has been the chief intellectual 
 recreation, the close and earnest study, of Mr. Gladstone's life, 
 in its literary aspect. ' The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle ' 
 possesses for him an irresistible and a perennial charm. Nor can 
 this occasion surprise, for all who have given themselves up 
 to the consideration and attempted solution of the Homeric 
 poems have found the fascination of the occupation gather ill 
 intensity. It is not alone from the poetic point of view that 
 the first great epic of the world attracts students of all ages and 
 of all countries ; Homer presents, in additon, and beyond every 
 other writer, a vast field for ethnological, geographical, and 
 historical speculation and research. The ancient world stands 
 revealed iu the Homeric poems. Besides the many learned 
 tomes which have been written from these special points of view, 
 almost numberless are the volumes based upon the equally 
 debatable questions of the Homeric text and Homeric unity. 
 He who would master this great and intricate, this most difficult 
 subject, must devote the whole of his life to the task ; and even 
 then, when an enforced end is put to his labours, he will probably 
 discover (to borrow a simile from Sir Isaac Newton) that, with 
 regard to Homer and Homeric literature, he stands only upon 
 the shore of knowledge, with the boundless ocean lying before 
 him still unexplored. 
 
 Q
 
 228 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Conspicuous, then, amongst Englishmen who in the present 
 century have devoted themselves to the study of Homer, stands 
 Mr. Gladstone. He is deeply versed in Homeric lore. There 
 are doubtlessly more erudite scholars upon exclusively Greek 
 questions, but Homer has been to him as a companion. Those 
 who differ from his theories have recognised the enthusiasm with 
 which he has pursued his studies, and the power and grace of the 
 rhetoric with which he has clothed the results of these studies. 
 There has been ascribed to him a l radical deficiency in the faculty 
 of imagination which makes him throughout rather collect 
 truths by induction than conceive and realise them: rather 
 arrive, by more or less subtle reasoning, at more or less plausible 
 conclusions, than embody great perceptions with that power of 
 divination which constitutes the genius of a Niebuhr or a 
 Gibbon.' But in the study of Homer the investigator is of 
 necessity thrown back upon the inductive method to a very large 
 extent, and it should be no reproach to Mr. Gladstone in this 
 connection. Probabilities truly magnificent probabilities 
 are the chief grounds upon which students have to proceed ; 
 and the connecting of these probabilities into a harmonious whole 
 may be a safer and more reasonable process than the construction 
 of a theory from the perceptions and divinations of a powerful 
 imagination. 
 
 However, it is our main purpose now simply to indicate the 
 scope of that work which Mr. Gladstone conceived and executed 
 in years of opposition when the claims of the State upon him 
 were not so exacting and which may justly be described as his 
 magnum opus. The results of his wide and laborious research 
 were embodied in three large volumes, entitled Studies on 
 Homer.* The purely technical parts of this work are very 
 elaborate in detail, but these are not the portions which most 
 closely touch the general reader, who is unable to enter into the 
 controversy upon the text of Homer, the Catalogue, and the 
 hundred other ramifications of the subject which are of pro- 
 found interest to the student. But there are many passages 
 in the work possessing a general value for the breadth of 
 their speculation, the lessons and conclusions they endeavour 
 to enforce, the comparisons instituted between ancient and. 
 modern genius, and for the admirable spirit and eloquence with 
 which they are written. In the Prolegomena Mr. Gladstone 
 explains his objects, takes a general view of the Homeric 
 controversy, shows the place of Homer in classical education, 
 
 * Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. By the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 
 D.C.L., M.P. for the University of Oxford. Oxford: at the University Presc 
 (1858).
 
 HOMERIC STUDIES. 227 
 
 develops the historic aims of Homer, discusses the probable 
 trustworthiness of the text, and attempts to fix the place and 
 authority of the poet in historical inquiry. The writer's objects 
 are high and laudable, if the second branch of effort in his 
 inquiry be difficult of complete attainment and exposition. 
 These objects are described as two-fold : first, to promote and 
 extend the fruitful study of the immortal poems of Homer ; and, 
 secondly, to vindicate for them their just degree both of absolute 
 and, more especially, of relative critical value. Even in this 
 eminently practical age we may admit the force of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's plea on behalf of classical studies. If the majority of 
 men have little time to devote, either in youth or maturer age, 
 to Greek or Koman literature, there must still be a considerable 
 residue to whom studies in this direction are not only attractive 
 but feasible. But the study of Homer was long neglected, even 
 in the universities. As Mr. Gladstone says, at Oxford in his 
 own day the poems of Homer were read chiefly by way of excep- 
 tion, and in obedience to the impulses of individual tastes. 
 They were not a substantive or recognised part of the main 
 studies of the place, and the case was rare indeed if they were 
 used as the subject-matter of the ordinary tutorial lectures. 
 Happily, since 1850 there has been witnessed a favourable change 
 in this respect. 
 
 An eminent living critic, after describing these three volumes 
 as a great but very unequal work, yet one which would be a 
 worthy fruit of a life spent in learned retirement, pays the 
 following warm tribute to Mr. Gladstone's Homeric researches : 
 ' As the work of one of our first orators and statesmen, they are 
 altogether wonderful. Not, indeed, that Mr. Gladstone's two 
 characters of scholar and statesman have done aught but help 
 and strengthen one another. His long experience of the world 
 has taught him the better to appreciate Homer's wonderful 
 knowledge of human nature ; the practical aspect of his poems, 
 the deep moral and political lessons which they teach, become a 
 far more true and living thing to the man of busy life, than 
 they can ever be to the mere- solitary student. And, perhaps, 
 his familiarity with the purest and most ennobling source of 
 inspiration may have had some effect in adorning Mr. Gladstone's 
 political oratory with more than one of its noblest features. . . . 
 What strikes one more than anything else throughout Mr. 
 Gladstone's volumes is the intense earnestness, the loftiness of 
 moral purpose, which breathes in every page. He has not taken 
 up Homer as a plaything, nor even as a mere literary enjoyment. 
 To him the study of the Prince of Poets is clearly a means 
 by which himself and other men may be made wiser and 
 
 Q2
 
 223 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 better.' * Mr. Freeman's criticism, however, is by no means one 
 of wholesale panegyric. He considers that Mr. Gladstone fails 
 in scientific ethnology, while scientific mythology he does not 
 even attempt. But after making all deductions, the able and 
 competent critic from whom we have just quoted describes 
 ' these noble volumes ' as * worthy alike of their author and of 
 their subject, the freshest and most genial tribute to ancient" 
 literature which has been paid even by an age rich in such 
 offerings. Mr. Gladstone will not rate our admiration the less 
 because we have plainly stated our wide dissent from some 
 important parts of his book.' He has ' done such justice to 
 Homer and his age as Homer has never received out ot his own 
 land. He has vindicated the true position of the greatest of 
 poets ; he has cleared his tale and its actors from the misrepre- 
 sentations of ages.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone truly points out that the Greek mind, which 
 became one of the main factors of the civilised life of Chris- 
 tendom, cannot be fully comprehended without the study of 
 Homer, and it is nowhere so vividly or so sincerely exhibited as 
 in his works. Although the poet introduces us to a new and 
 distinct standard of humanity, yet many of his ideas ' almost 
 carry us back to the early morning of our race, the hours of its 
 greater simplicity and purity, and more free intercourse with 
 God.' The Homeric world is alike removed from Paradise and 
 the vices of a later heathenism ; yet if we seek that genuine 
 knowledge of man which is founded upon experience, ' how is 
 it possible to over-value this primitive representation of the 
 human race in a form complete, distinct, and separate, with its 
 own religion, ethics, policy, history, arts, manners, fresh and 
 true to the standard of its nature, like the form of an infant 
 from the hand of the Creator, yet mature, full, and finished, in 
 its own sense, after its own laws, like some master-piece of the 
 sculptor's art? ' Comparing the poems of Homer with the sacred 
 writings of the Old Testament, Mr. Gladstone observes that they 
 can never be put into competition with the latter as touching 
 the great fundamental, invaluable code of truth and hope. But 
 he has an excellent passage pointing out how the one may be 
 regarded as supplementary to the other. Examining the history 
 of the race, as regards the Greeks, it is Homer that furnishes the 
 point of origin from which all distances are to be measured. 
 * The Mosaic books, and the other historical books of the Old 
 Testament, are not intended to present, and do not present, a 
 picture of human society or of our nature drawn at large. 
 
 Historical Essays. By Edward A. Freeman, M.A., D.C.L. (Second Series.)
 
 HOMEEIC STUDIES. 229 
 
 Their aim is to exhibit it in one master relation, and to do this 
 with effect they do it to a great extent exclusively. The Homeric 
 materials for exhibiting that relation are different in kind as 
 well as in degree ; but as they paint, and paint to the very life, 
 the whole range of our nature, and the entire circle of human 
 action and experience, at an epoch much more nearly analogous 
 to the patriarchal time than to any later age, the poems of 
 Homer may be viewed, in the philosophy of human nature, as 
 the complement of the earliest portion of the Sacred records.' 
 
 But while the poems of Homer possess this extrinsic value a? 
 a faithful and vivid picture of life and manners, they have also 
 an intrinsic greatness which has given their writer the first 
 place in that marvellous trinity of genius Homer, Dante, and 
 Shakespeare. Mr. Gladstone shows how the transcendency of 
 his poetical distinctions has overshadowed his many other claims 
 and uses. The passage in which this thought is elaborated is an 
 effective piece of literary criticism. 
 
 With regard to the place due to Homer in education, while 
 admitting the greater value of the tragedians as practical helps 
 and models in Greek composition, Mr. Gladstone maintains that, 
 after all allowances, they cannot, in respect of purely poetic 
 titles, make good a claim to that. preference over Homer which 
 they have extensively enjoyed. Estimating the tragedians from 
 another point of view with reference to what they tell and not 
 the manner of telling it the argument for assigning to Homer 
 a still greater share of the attention of our youth becomes 
 stronger. Excepting the works of Aristotle and Plato, the writer 
 remarks that he knows of no author offering a field of labour and 
 inquiry either so wide or so diversified as that which Homer 
 offers. In public schools he is read chiefly for his diction and 
 poetry, even by the most advanced ; and if he is to be read for 
 his skill in the higher and more delicate parts of the poetic 
 calling, as well as for his humanity and his never-ending lessons 
 upon manners, arts, and society, he must be read at the 
 universities. * He is second to none of the poets of Greece, as 
 the poet of boys ; but he is far advanced before them all even 
 before ^Eschylus and Aristophanes as the poet of men.' 
 
 Such is the high educational aspect in which Mr. Gladstone 
 views Homer, using the word educational now in its highest and 
 fullest sense. Upon the historic aims of Homer a topic 
 perhaps still more interesting he writes at even greater length. 
 Accompanying that breadth and elevation which betoken the 
 highest genius, we have in Homer an even more rare fulness 
 and consistency of the various instruments and organs 
 which make up the apparatus of the human beijig. Nothing is
 
 230 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 more extraordinary in his poems than their general accuracy 
 and perfection of minute detail. 'Where other poets sketch, 
 Homer draws ; and where they draw he carves. He alone, 
 of all the now famous epic writers, moves (in the Iliad 
 especially) subject to the stricter laws of time and place; 
 he alone, while producing an unsurpassed work of the imagina- 
 tion, is also the greatest chronicler that ever lived, and 
 presents to us, from his own single hand, a representation 
 of life, manners, history, of morals, theology, and politics, 
 so vivid and comprehensive, that it may be hard to say whether 
 any of the more refined ages of Greece or Rome, with their 
 clouds of authors and their multiplied forms of historical record, 
 are either more faithfully or more completely conveyed to us.' 
 Mr. Gladstone endorses Wachsmuth's observation that even the 
 dissolution of Homer's individuality does not get rid of his 
 authority. The presumption against Homer as an historical 
 authority does not spring from the fact that he mixes marvels 
 with common events (else Herodotus and others would be 
 destroyed along with him), but from the fact that his compositions 
 are poetical, and men have ceased to connect the poetical form 
 of composition with history. But this does not impugn his 
 authority. The question that arises is, ' In what proportions has 
 he mixed history with imaginative embellishments ? ' This 
 question Mr. Gladstone discusses, and amongst other matters in 
 favour of Homer's historical authority he cites the great 
 multitude of his genealogies, their extraordinary consistency one 
 with another, and with the other historical indications of the 
 poems ; their extension to a very large number, especially in the 
 Catalogue, of secondary persons ; that remarkable production, the 
 Catalogue itself, taken as a whole : the accuracy with which the 
 names of races are handled and bestowed, the particularity of the 
 demands made upon the various characters for their family 
 history, and the numerous legends or narratives of prior occur- 
 rences with which the poems are thickly studded. This is a 
 fairly strong list of something more than probabilities, putting 
 out of sight numberless minor indications of the true historic 
 spirit. Mr. Gladstone holds it to be a fair inference from the 
 Odyssey that the Trojan war was sung to the men and the 
 children of the men who waged it. Some of the signs of 
 historical accuracy are preserved even at considerable cost of 
 poetical beauty. There are, moreover, a multitude of minor 
 shadings running through the poems which, from their very 
 ' nature, we are compelled to suppose real. Yet there is, after 
 all, no point more important for the decision of this question 
 of historical authority than the general tone of Homer himself,
 
 HOMERIC STUDIES. 231 
 
 and this point Mr. Gladstone expounds and enlarges upon, 
 comparing Homer with other writers who have never been able 
 perfectly to simulate the ancient life which they profess to depict. 
 He reminds us that Strabo confuted Eratosthenes, who had 
 treated the great sire of poets as a fabulist. Having contended 
 keenly for the historic aim and character of Homer, Mr. 
 Gladstone observes finally upon this branch of his subject, ' It 
 does not appear to me reasonable to presume that Homer 
 idealised his narration with anything like the licence which was 
 permitted to the Carlovingian romance ; yet even that romance 
 did not fail to retain, in many of the most essential particulars, 
 a true historic character; and it conveys to us, partly by fact 
 and partly through a vast parable, the inward life of a period 
 pregnant with forces that were to operate powerfully upon our own 
 characters and conditions. ' Homer must be read in a higher 
 sense than that which divests poetry of its relation to reality. 
 
 As to the probable date of Homer, Mr. Gladstone places 
 it within a generation or two of the Trojan war, assigning 
 as his principal reasons for so doing the poet's visible 
 identity with the age, the altering but not yet vanished 
 age of which he sings, and the broad interval in tone and feeling 
 between himself and the very nearest of all that follows him. 
 On the question of the probable trustworthiness of the text of 
 Homer, he formulates the two following propositions, as fitting 
 canons of Homeric study: ' 1. That we should adopt the text 
 itself as the basis of all Homeric inquiry, and not any pre- 
 conceived theory nor any arbitrary standard of criticism, refer- 
 able to particular periods, schools, or persons. 2. That as we 
 proceed in any work of construction by evidence drawn from the 
 text, we should avoid the temptation to solve difficulties found 
 to lie in our way by denouncing particular portions of it as 
 corrupt and interpolated : should never set it aside, except upon 
 the closest examination of the particular passage questioned r 
 should use sparingly the liberty even of arraying presumptions 
 against it, and should always let the reader understand both 
 when and why it is questioned.' Mr. Gladstone's mode of 
 procedure in thus accepting the Homeric text as genuine 
 has many advantages, and is infinitely preferable to other 
 methods which have been shown to have failed. But it is 
 also not without its dangers and difficulties, as his critics have 
 demonstrated, for 'arguments as to the theology, history, 
 manners, geography of the Homeric age, founded on the assump- 
 tion that the received Homeric text is all equally genuine, are 
 essentially unreal.' Convenience is not a safe reason to assign 
 for accepting the genuineness of the text.
 
 232 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 The task which Mr. Gladstone undertakes with regard to the 
 text of Homer is the extremely difficult one of endeavouring to 
 * divaricate true from false ' and of marking, at least as probable, 
 what he ' conceives to be un-Homeric, interpolated, or altered,' 
 and he has confessedly thrown much light upon these questions 
 by his laborious investigations. After the failure of so many 
 constructive and destructive hypotheses, he asks, * Who will ever 
 again venture to publish an abridged or remodelled Iliad ? ' We 
 do not propose to follow the author through his examination of 
 the fortunes of the Homeric text, nor to reproduce his arguments 
 showing that the presumptions of the case are favourable, and 
 not adverse, to the general soundness of the text. The final point 
 discussed in the Prolegomena is the place and authority of 
 Homer in historical inquiry. Clearing the question of all incum- 
 brances, and admitting the cases where the authority of the bard 
 must be clearly and distinctly set aside, Mr. Gladstone yet 
 submits the following thesis : ' That, in regard to the religion, 
 history, ethnology, polity, and life at large of the Greeks of the 
 heroic times, the authority of the Homeric poems, standing 
 far above that of the whole mass of the later literary tradi- 
 tions in any of their forms, ought never to be treated as 
 homogeneous with them, but should usually, in the first in- 
 stance, be handled by itself, and the testimony of later writers 
 should, in general, be handled in subordination to it, and should 
 be tried by it, as by a touchstone, on all the subjects which it 
 embraces. Homer is not only older by some generations than 
 Hesiod, and by many centuries than JEschylus and the other 
 great Greek writers, but enjoys a superiority in another impor- 
 tant respect, viz., that no age since his own has produced a more 
 acute, accurate, and comprehensive observer. Judging from 
 internal evidence, he alone stood within the precincts of the 
 heroic time, and was imbued from head to foot with its spirit and 
 its associations.' 
 
 The second division of the first volume of this work is devoted 
 to the ethnology of the Greek races, and is a practical application 
 of the principles laid down in the preliminary essay. After 
 stating the scope of the inquiry, the author treats of the 
 Pelasgians and cognate races ; of the Phoenicians and the 
 outer geography of the Odyssey ; of the Catalogue and the 
 Hellenes of Homer ; of the respective contributions of the Pelas- 
 gian and Hellenic factors to the compound of the Greek nation ; 
 of the three greater Homeric appellatives ; of various Homeric 
 titles, and of the connection of the Hellenes and Achaeans 
 with the East. The second volume possesses more general 
 interest, being devoted to a consideration of the religion of the
 
 HOMERIC STUDIES. ' 233 
 
 Homeric age. Mr. Gladstone discusses the mixed character of 
 the supernatural system or Theo-mythology of Homer, and 
 this is followed by an elaborate section on the traditive element 
 of the Homeric Theo-mythology, and likewise one on its 
 inventive element. The fourth section deals with the composi- 
 tion of the Olympian Court, and the classification of the whole 
 supernatural order in Homer; in the fifth the Olympian 
 community is considered in its members themselves ; while the 
 sixth discusses their influence on human society and conduct. 
 Section seven is on the traces of an origin abroad for the 
 Olympian religion ; and this is succeeded by sections on the 
 morals of the Homeric age, woman in the heroic age, and the 
 office of the Homeric poems in relation to that of the early 
 books of Holy Scripture. 
 
 The last section possesses special interest, and it is one, 
 therefore, to which we will refer more fully. Mr. Gladstone 
 observes that both the Books of Scripture and the Homeric 
 poems open up to us a scene of which we have no other 
 literary knowledge. They are by far the oldest of known 
 compositions, and while perfectly distinct and independent of 
 each other, they are in no point contradictory, while in many 
 they are highly confirmatory of each other's genuineness and 
 antiquity. Yet as historical representations, and regarded from 
 the human aspect, they are very different. ' The Holy Scriptures 
 are like a thin stream, beginning from the very fountain-head of 
 our race, and gradually, but continuously, finding their way 
 through an extended solitude into times otherwise known, and 
 into the general current of the fortunes of mankind. The 
 Homeric poems are like a broad lake outstretched in the distance, 
 which provides us with a mirror of one particular age and 
 people, alike full and marvellous, but which is entirely disso- 
 ciated by a period of many generations from any other records, 
 except such as are of the most partial and fragmentary kind. 
 In respect of the influence which they have respectively exercised 
 upon mankind, it might appear almost profane to compare 
 them. In this point of view, the Scriptures stand so far apart 
 from every other production, on account of their great offices in 
 relation to the coming of the Kedeemer and to the spiritual 
 training of mankind, that there can be nothing either like or 
 second to them.' 
 
 Yet, granted this, the Homeric poems still bear a relation to 
 the Scriptures which no other work in the world can claim. 
 Speaking of their influence, mediate and immediate for they 
 not only moulded the mind and nationality of Greece, but 
 through Greece exercised an immeasurable influence upon the
 
 231 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 world Mr. Gladstone quotes the saying of M. Kenan : * Lea 
 vraies origines de V esprit humain sontla; tous les nobles de 
 Vintelligence y retrouvent la patrie de leurs peres.' Passing 
 over the great purpose of the Scriptures as regards the relations 
 between God and man, there remains a relative parallelism 
 between the oldest of these Holy Scriptures and the works of 
 Homer. But not only because they are the oldest known 
 compositions does the author establish relations between these 
 writings, but because each confirms the testimony of the other by 
 numerous coincidences of manners. 4 That Divine Word which 
 tells us that the Kedeemer came in the fulness of time iodirectly 
 points to the great transactions which filled the space of ages 
 since the Fall, when time was not yet full ; and the greatest of 
 all those great transactions, surely, were the parts played by 
 Greece and Eome, as the representative of humility at large in 
 its most vigorous developments. They,, too, as well as the dis- 
 cipline of the Jewish people, doubtless belonged to the Divine 
 plan.' Thus the early Scriptures and the Homeric poems com- 
 bine to make up for us a sufficiently complete form of the 
 primitive records of our race. Mr. Gladstone admirably and 
 eloquently insists, however, that it is a mistake to bring some 
 portions of the Sacred Writings before the tribunal of the mere 
 literary critic. 
 
 Eome has given the most extraordinary example on record, 
 says the author, of political organisation, while Greece has had 
 for its share the development of the individual ; but the seeds of 
 both these perfect growths, and all that they involved, would 
 appear to be contained in the Homeric poems. It is further 
 observed that of the personal and inward relations of man with 
 God, of the kingdom of grace in the world, Homer can tell us 
 nothing ; but of the kingdom of Providence much, and of the 
 opening powers and capabilities of human nature, apart from 
 Divine revelation, everything. Mr. Gladstone closes this 
 section of his work with a comparison of the times preceding 
 the Advent with those which have followed it. Christianity, 
 marshalling the intellectual and material forces of the world in 
 her own cause, has for the past fifteen hundred years marched at 
 the head of human civilisation. Its learning, art, and genius 
 have been those of the world, as have almost, though not 
 absolutely, its greatness, glory, grandeur, and majesty. 'He 
 who hereafter, in even the remotest age, with the colourless 
 impartiality or mere intelligence, may seek to know what durable 
 results mankind has for the last fifteen hundred years achieved, 
 what capital of the mind it has accumulated and transmitted, 
 will find his investigations perforce concentrated upon and
 
 HOMEEIC STUDIES. 235 
 
 almost confined to that part, that minor part, of mankind which 
 has been Christian.' In this view Mr. Gladstone will secure an 
 infinitely wider suffrage than Gibbon. Before the Advent, how- 
 ever, the treasure of Divine revelation was committed into 
 the hands of a race who were almost forbidden to impart it, and 
 who were certainly not the leaders of the world. But the con- 
 struction and promulgation of laws and institutions, arts and 
 sciences, with the chief models of greatness in genius or in char- 
 acter, were committed to others ; and to Homer was assigned the 
 first and most remarkable stage of this development. 
 
 The third volume is divided into four sections : 1. Agore ; 
 Polities of the Homeric Age. 2. Ilios; Trojans and Greeks 
 compared. 3. Thalassa ; the outer Geography. 4. Aoidos ; 
 some points of the Poetry of Homer. The first and last 
 of these sections are the most attractive, both as regards 
 the subjects discussed and the very able critical handling 
 which the author gives them. Dealing with the strong 
 development of political ideas in Greece, Mr. Gladstone 
 combats the opinion expressed by Mr. Grote that in Homer the 
 sentimental attributes of the Greek mind appear in dispropor- 
 tionate relief, as compared with its more vigorous and masculine 
 capacities the powers of acting, organising, judging, and 
 ! peculating. If the sentimental attribute is to be contra- 
 distinguished from the powers of acting, organising, and judging, 
 then Mr. Gladstone knows of nothing less sentimental in the 
 after history of Greece than the characters of Achilles and 
 Ulysses, than the relations of the Greek chiefs to one another 
 and to their people, than the strength and simplicity which laid 
 the foundation-stones of the Greek national character and insti- 
 tutions, and made them the counterparts of the structures now 
 ascribed to the Pelasgians so durable and massive, though 
 simple, as to be the marvel of all time. The author proceeds to 
 illustrate the vitality and depth of the influences derived from 
 these sources, which have given to Greece such an enviable 
 immortality : 
 
 ' Even when the sun of her glory had set there was yet left behind an immortal 
 spark of the ancient vitality, which, enduring through all vicissitudes, kindled into 
 a, blaze after two thousand years ; and we of this day have seen a Greek nation, 
 founded anew by its own energies, become a centre of desire and hope, at least to 
 Eastern Christendom. The English are not ashamed to own their political fore- 
 fathers in the forests of the northward European Continent ; and the later 
 statesmen, with the lawgivers of Greece, were in their day glad, and with reason 
 glad, to trace the bold outline and solid rudiments of their own and their country's 
 greatness in the poems of Homer Nothing in those poems offers itself to me at 
 least as more remarkable than the deep carving of the political characters, and, 
 what is still more, the intense political spirit which pervades them. I will venture 
 one step further, and say that of all the countries of the civilised world there is no 
 one of which the inhabitants ought to find that spirit so intelligible and accessible
 
 836 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 as the English: because it is a spirit that still largely lives and breather, m our own 
 institutions. There we find the great cardinal ideas which lie at the very founda- 
 tion of all enlightened government ; and there we find, too, the men formed under 
 the influence of such ideas ; as one among ourselves, who has drunk into their 
 spirit, tells us 
 
 " Sagacious, men of Iron, watchful, firni, 
 Agaimt surprise and sudden panic proof." 
 
 And again 
 
 " The sombre aspect of majestic care, 
 Of solitary thought, unshared reiolve." 
 
 It was surely a healthful sign of the working of freedom that in that early age, 
 despite the prevalence of piracy, even that idea of political justice and public 
 right, which is the germ of the law of nations, was not unknown to the Greeks.' 
 
 The fourth division of this concluding volume is sub-divided 
 into several sections, concerned respectively with the plot of the 
 Iliad; the sense of beauty in Homer, human, animal, and 
 inanimate ; Homer's perception and use of number ; Homer's 
 perceptions and use of colour ; Homer and some of his succes- 
 sors in epic poetry, particularly Virgil and Tasso ; some 
 principal Homeric characters in Troy Hector, Helen, Paris ; and 
 the declension of the great Homeric characters in the later tradi- 
 tion. The section in which comparisons are instituted between 
 Homer and Milton, Dante, Virgil, and Tasso, is distinguished for 
 its broad and profound criticism, though some of the judgments 
 expressed will probably be found to clash with those formed by 
 readers who have their individual favourites amongst the epic 
 poets. It is not possible for any critic, in weighing the merits 
 of the world's greatest poets, to secure the perfect assent of 
 his readers to all his conclusions. But Mr. Gladstone strikes 
 out from his subject many illuminating rays. For a specimen of 
 his larger criticism, as opposed to the more minute, take the 
 following passage : 
 
 ' To one only among the countless millions of human beings has it been given to 
 draw characters, by the strength of his own individual hand, in lines of such force 
 and vigour that they have become, from this day to our own, the common inheri- 
 tance of civilised man. Ever since his time, besides finding his way into the 
 usually impenetrable East, he has provided literary capital and available stock-in- 
 trade for reciters and hearers, for authors and readers, of all times and of all 
 places within the limits of the western world 
 
 *Adjice Mtfoniden, a quo, ceufonteperenni, 
 atutn J^eriis ora rigantvr aquis." 
 
 Like the sun, which furnishes with its light the close courts and alleys of London 
 while himself unseen by their inhabitants, Homer has supplied with the illumina- 
 tion of his ideas millions of minds that were never brought into direct contact 
 with his works, and even millions more that have hardly been aware of nis 
 existence. As the full flow of his genius has opened itself out into ten thousand 
 irrigating channels by successive sub-division, there can be no cause for wonder if 
 some of them have not preserved the pellucid clearness of the stream. Like blood 
 from the great artery of the heart of man, as it returns through innumerable veins, 
 
 * Merope, by Matthew Arnold.
 
 HOMEE1C STUDIES. 237 
 
 it is gradually darkened in its flow. The very universality of the tradition has 
 multiplied the causes of corruption. That which, as to documents, is a guarantee, 
 because their errors correct one another, as to ideas is a new source of danger, 
 because everything depends upon constant reference to the finer touches of an 
 original, which has escaped from view. And this universality is his alone. An 
 Englishman may pardonably think that his great rival in the portraiture of 
 character is Shakespeare ; a Briton may even go further and challenge, on behalf 
 of Sir Walter Scott, a place in this princely choir second to no other person but 
 these. Yet the fame of Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Othello, or Falstaff, and much 
 more that of Varney, or Ravenswood, or Caleb Balderstone, or Meg Merrilies, has 
 not 5 et come, and may never come, to be a world-wide fame. On the other hand, 
 that distinction has long been inalienably secured to every character of the first 
 class who appears in the Homeric poems. He has conferred upon them^a deathless 
 inheritance.' 
 
 Concerning the leading point in this criticism, it must be 
 admitted that with every year that passes Shakespeare's fame 
 gradually approaches that of Homer in its universality. Leaving 
 out of view Homer's chief heroes, the character of Hamlet is 
 even now one of the most familiar of poetic creations so 
 familiar that it is known throughout the civilised world. Yet not 
 three centuries have elapsed since he sprang into being from the 
 imagination of his creator ; and it is neither an impossible nor 
 an unreasonable conjecture to assume that when the age of 
 Shakespeare shall be that of the present age of Homer, the great 
 characters of his dramas will claim the immortality and universal 
 fame which now belongs alone to the deathless personages of the 
 Homeric poems. 
 
 It was objected when these volumes originally appeared that 
 all their main arguments were constituted upon the basis of 
 strict textual accuracy, a theory which cannot be maintained, 
 and that the inconclusive, not to say illusory, character of the 
 premises re-acts on the conclusion. * Where we admire most,' said 
 one writer, ' we are least persuaded : reasonings intended to drive 
 home convictions to our minds seem to reach them with no 
 momentum, and waste their power in the air ; while, on the other 
 hand, we are constantly struck with the refined ingenuity of 
 incidental portions and with the deep sense of poetical beauty, 
 and Homeric beauty in particular, which they manifest.' On 
 questions, of topography, the Ulyssean wanderings, &c., Mr. 
 Gladstone's conclusions have also been called in question ; 
 nor in a field so vast can we wonder at these wide divergences 
 of opinion. But one great admission has been made and this 
 will be readily endorsed by all readers respecting such Homeric 
 commentaries as Mr. Gladstone's : they afford lessons of value in 
 the exalted idea which they tend to form of the ethical acquire- 
 ments of man in what is termed a rude state. It has also been 
 well remarked that these volumes are an indirect but complete 
 refutation of the fallacy which has spread so much of late years 
 that the advance of man, generation by generation, is to be
 
 238 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 measured solely by his progress in intellectual acquirements. 
 The intellect may reach the highest point of advancement, and 
 yet a rapid decline of morality supervene, unless there is some 
 greater preservative of virtue and morals than intellectual 
 culture. 
 
 But we must now leave this work, which in its elaborate 
 detail is a colossal monument of the author's patience and 
 Homeric knowledge. Seldom is it that so great an undertaking 
 is successfully executed by one engaged in the business and 
 turmoil of political life. But we perceive in the author's 
 enthusiasm and deep love of his subject the incentives which 
 alone rendered such a work possible under these circumstances. 
 In the concluding words of the last volume, Mr. Gladstone 
 himself touches upon the pleasing and engrossing nature of his 
 task. He observes that to pass from the study of Homer to the 
 ordinary business of the world is to step out of a palace of enchant- 
 ments into the cold grey light of a polar day. ' But the spells, ' he 
 adds, * in which this sorcerer deals, have no affinity with that 
 drug from Egypt which drowns the spirit in effeminate indiffer- 
 ence: rather they are like the fyapiiaitov ecrffXbv, the remedial spe- 
 cific, which, freshening the understanding by contact with the 
 truth and strength of nature, should both improve its vigilance 
 against deceit and danger and increase its vigour and resolu- 
 tion for the discharge of duty.' 
 
 This chief work upon Homer Mr. Gladstone has followed up 
 by kindred writings at various periods. In 1877, he contributed 
 a paper on ' The Dominions of Odysseus ' to Macmillan's Maga- 
 zine, and also wrote the Preface to .Dr. Schliemann's Mycencc. 
 Thirty years ago or more he contributed to the Quarterly Review 
 an article upon Lachmann's Iliad, a paper regarded with great 
 interest at the time of its appearance by all students of 
 Homer. Nor has he confined himself altogether to Homeric cri- 
 ticism, for there appeared some years ago a small quarto volume 
 of translations from the first book of the Iliad, and of some separ- 
 ate passages, executed by Mr. Gladstone and Lord Lyttelton. 
 Two works, however, by Mr. Gladstone, in relation to Greece and 
 Homer, still remain for notice, and these are worthy of more thai? 
 a mere mention. Juventus Mundi: Gods and Men of the 
 Heroic Age in Greece, was published in 1869 ; and Homeric 
 Synchronism appeared in 1876.* 
 
 * See also articles by Mr. Gladstone upon subjects connected with Homer in the 
 Contemporary Review and the Nineteenth Century. The volume on Homer, in Mac- 
 millan's Series of Literature Primers, edited by the Rev. J. R. Green, was also written 
 by Mr. Gladstone. It gives, in a succinct form, the author's views upon Homer 
 the man, the Homeric question, and the many ramifications of the general subject 
 expounded at greater length in the Homeric Studies. In delivering his valedictory
 
 HOMERIC STUDIES.- 230 
 
 Juventus 'Mundi was mainly the product of the two recesses 
 of 1867 and 1868, and in it the author states that he has 
 endeavoured to embody the greater part of the results at which 
 he arrived in the Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. 
 The reader will therefore find the later work valuable as putting 
 him in possession of the main lines of Mr. Gladstone's argu- 
 ments and opinions upon the Homeric problems. Some modifica- 
 tions of previous views had been arrived at in the course of the 
 intervening period of ten years. With regard to the ethnology 
 of Homer, a further prosecution of the subject, as relating to the 
 Phosnicians, brought out much more fully and clearly what Mr. 
 Gladstone had before only hinted at, and he now awarded to 
 them a highly influential function in forming the Greek nation. 
 This modification consequently acted in an important manner 
 upon any estimate of Pelasgians and Hellenes respectively. 
 The author had now felt warranted in giving a larger space 
 to deduction, and a smaller one to minute particulars of 
 inquiry in a work which aimed at offering some practical assist- 
 ance to Homeric study in our schools and universities, ' and 
 even at conveying a partial knowledge of this subject to persons 
 who are not habitual students.' But while anxious to commend 
 to readers generally conclusions from the Homeric poems which 
 appeared of great interest with reference to the general history 
 of human culture, and of the Providential government of the 
 world, he was much more anxious to encourage and facilitate 
 the access of educated persons to the actual contents of the text. 
 Mr. Gladstone pointed out that the doubts cast upon the origin 
 of the poems have assisted in fostering a vague instinctive 
 indisposition to laborious examination ; s the very splendour of 
 the poetry dazzles the eye as with whole sheets of light, and may 
 often seem almost to give to analysis the character of vulgarity 
 or impertinence.' He did not shrink from his main object, 
 however, namely, to provoke the close textual study of the 
 poet as opposed to the second-hand method of seeking for 
 information anywhere save in Homer himself. 
 
 A knowledge of the text of Homer is not, as Mr. Gladstone 
 insists, by any means a commonplace accomplishment, seeing 
 that this text involves an aggregate of 27,000 lines, as full of 
 infinitely varied matter as an egg is full of meat. And readers 
 
 address as Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh, on the 3rd of November 
 1865, Mr. Gladstone took for his subject, ' The place of ancient Greece in the Provi- 
 dential order of the World ; ' and visiting Eton College in June, 1879, he gave a 
 lecture on the great Greek poet, in the library of the College. Mr. Gladstone endea- 
 voured to prove that the Iliad and the Odyssey were really the work of one poet, 
 Homer that they were constructed at the time of the Trojan war, and were not the 
 composite works of several persons compiled at a much later period of the Greek 
 history.
 
 240 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 require to be very careful in accepting unverified statements of 
 what is, or is not, in Homer. Touching the difficulty of the 
 unsettled and transitionary state of the rules and practice 
 with respect to Greek names, and to the Latin forms of them, 
 Mr. Gladstone follows many high authorities in adopting 
 generally the Greek names of the deities and mythological 
 personages instead of the Latin ones. 
 
 The introductory chapter of this work is a more succinct 
 statement than appeared in the author's previous treatise of the 
 historic character of Homer's poetry ; the second deals with the 
 three great appellatives, Danaoi, Argeioi, and Achaioi ; the third 
 is concerned with the Pelasgoi ; the fourth is entitled ' Hellas ' . 
 the 5th is upon the Phoenicians and the Egyptians ; the sixth on 
 the title ' Anax Andron' ; the seventh on the Olympian system ; 
 the eighth on the divinities of Olympos ; the ninth gives a 
 further sketch, and presents the moral aspects, of the Olympian 
 system ; the tenth discusses the ethics of the Heroic Age ; the 
 eleventh its polity ; the twelfth the resemblances and differences 
 between the Greeks and the Trojans ; the thirteenth the geo- 
 graphy of Homer ; the fourteenth his plots, characters, and 
 similes ; while the fifteenth and concluding chapter treats of mis- 
 cellaneous aspects in Homer his idea of beauty ; his physics, 
 metals, and measure of value ; his use of number, and his sense 
 of colour. 
 
 Homeric Synchronism is an inquiry into the time and place 
 of Homer. The author speaks with more certitude upon these 
 important questions than he had done hitherto, believing that the 
 time had at length come for serious efforts to connect the poems 
 of Homer, by means of the internal evidence which they supply, 
 with events and personages which are now known from other 
 sources to belong to periods, already approximately defined, of the 
 primeval history of the human race. Mr. Gladstone is fully 
 impressed with the -magnitude of the task before him, and admits 
 that a rational reaction against the irrational excesses and 
 vagaries of scepticism may readily degenerate into the rival folly 
 of credulity. Opposing wrong does not always carry with it the 
 assurance of being right. While conservative as regards the poet, 
 Mr. Gladstone observes that he is radical and dissenter to the 
 uttermost as respects several of the opinions too freely accepted 
 from a lazy and incomplete tradition. He agrees with Lucian 
 in his criticism of some preceding critics, that they would have 
 been saved from much erroneous and much gratuitous specula- 
 tion had they been more careful to observe the primary laws of 
 poetic insight, and to acknowledge that seal and stamp with 
 which it is the prerogative of supreme genius to authenticate its
 
 HOMEEIC STUDIES. 241 
 
 handiwork. His own method had been to distinguish carefully 
 between certainty and probability, between knowledge and con- 
 jecture ; and he had been especially careful to found all inquiries 
 and conclusions upon a close and painstaking examination of the 
 Homeric text, and to conduct his researches according to the 
 established laws of evidence as opposed to the lawlessness of ipse 
 dixi and of arbitrary assertion. It is not only an important 
 investigation, but one of supreme interest, that of attempting to 
 fix the place of Homer in history, and also in the Egyptian 
 chronology. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had contended for, or admitted, in previous works, 
 the following six points : That the poems of Homer are in the 
 highest sense historical ; that there was a solid nucleus of fact in 
 his account of the Trojan war ; that there did not yet exist ade- 
 quate data for assigning to him, or to the Troi'ca, a place in the 
 established chronology ; that his own chronology was to be found 
 in his genealogies, which were usually careful and consistent ; that 
 there was no extravagance in supposing he might have lived 
 within half a century after the war, though he was certainly not 
 an eye-witness of it ; and that there was very strong reason to 
 believe that he flourished before the Dorian conquest of the Pelo- 
 ponnesos, On another occasion he also pointed out that the time 
 might be at hand when, with the aid of further investigations, it 
 would be possible to define with greater precision those periods 
 of the Egyptian chronology to which the Homeric poems and 
 their subject appeared to be related. Data of considerable impor- 
 tance had been gradually gathering and enlarging, so that the 
 missing links now recovered might frame at least the disjecta 
 membra of a chain of evidence. Assyrian as well as Egyptian 
 research now supplied valuable material in aid of the general 
 design. 
 
 In this new work the author carried his affirmative propositions 
 much further, and offered presumptive evidence which bore 
 students greatly on the road no proof, of a distinct relation of 
 time between the Homeric poems and other incidents of human 
 history, which are extraneous to them, but are already in the 
 main reduced into chronological order and succession; namely, 
 portions of the series of Egyptian dynasties. With this relation 
 established, a further relation indirectly followed to the chro- 
 nology of the Hebrew records. Mr. Gladstone has, perhaps 
 naturally, by many critics been regarded as too sanguine iti thus 
 endeavouring to build up an unbroken body of actual history 
 from materials which can never be completely harmonised. But 
 the manner in which he has pursued his inquiries, and the results 
 he arrives at, betoken more than ingenuity ; they establish a fair 
 
 B
 
 242 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 theory of presumption and credibility. More they could not do, 
 owing to the extraordinary exigencies of the case. 
 
 This treatise upon Homeric Synchronism is divided into two 
 parts. The first treats of matters connected generally with the 
 place and date of Homer in history, and the topics dealt with in 
 this relation are the Plain and Site of Troy ; the Hissarlik 
 Remains, discovered by Dr. Schliemann ; the European habitat 
 of Homer, and his priority to the Dorian Conquest ; and the 
 Authorship of the Hymn to the Delian Apollo. In the second 
 part the author endeavours ' to drive at least a single pile into 
 the solid ground of history, as a kind of first fruits from modem 
 Egyptology ; as a beginning towards marking out, and fencing 
 in, the historical limits both of Homer's subject and of his career. 
 My warrant for introducing the topics treated in Part I. is to be 
 found in this that, if Homer were an Asiatic Greek, of the period 
 most commonly supposed, at some time after the Dorian Con- 
 quest, it is idle to talk of placing him in any particular relation 
 to the Egyptian chronology, and a waste of labour to trace out in 
 detail his possession of Egyptian knowledge and traditions ; for, 
 to Asiatic Greece, Egypt was but the name of one among 
 foreign lands, and its wide-reaching Empire was neither any 
 longer felt in action, nor witnessed of by patent and accessible 
 records, nor retained in the living memory of man.' Having 
 thus prepared his ground, Mr. Gladstone contends in the second 
 part of his work that there are detailed matters as of fact in the 
 poems, which fit themselves on to other matters of fact, either 
 originally made known, or brought into greatly clearer light, by 
 the Egyptian monuments ; also, that we have a large number of 
 scattered indications of Homer's Eastern, and especially his 
 Egyptian, knowledge, in his cosmological ideas and representa- 
 tions, as well as in a variety of incidental notices. By the aid 
 of these contentions and arguments the author leads up to the 
 one grand, general conclusion that there are probable grounds 
 of an historical character for believing that the main action 01 
 the Riad took place, and that Homer lived between certain 
 chronological limits, which may now be approximately pointed 
 out to the satisfaction of reasonable minds. 
 
 Having thus indicated the general aims of this work, it is not 
 our purpose to trace its arguments in detail, nor the steps by 
 which Mr. Gladstone shows that the Homeric poems could not 
 have had their birthplace in Asia, nor have been composed after 
 the Dorian invasion : but before leaving the subject, we will quote 
 the following passage on the extraordinary interest which 
 attaches to the warlike incidents of the infancy of Greece : 
 ' We have examples in modern times, and even in the most
 
 HOMEEIC STUDIES. 243 
 
 recent experience, of great States which owe all their greatness to 
 successful war. The spectacle offered to a calm review by this 
 process is a mixed, sometimes a painful one. So, too, it seems, 
 that the early life of the most wonderful people whom the world 
 has ever seen was largely spent in the use of the strong hand 
 against the foreigner. That people was nursed, and its hardy 
 character was formed, in the continuing stress of danger and 
 difficulty. But the voyage of Argo, the march of the Seven 
 against Cadmeian Thebes, the triumphant attack of the Epigonoi, 
 the enormous and prolonged effort of the war of Troy, the 
 Achaian and so-called Danaan attempts against Egypt, were not 
 wars or expeditions of simple conquest. They were not waged 
 in order to impose the yoke upon the necks of others. And yet, 
 though varied in time, in magnitude, in local destination, they 
 seem, with some likelihood at least, to present to us a common 
 character. They speak with one voice of one great theme ; a 
 steady dedication of nascent force, upon the whole noble in its 
 aim, as well as determined and masculine in its execution. For 
 the end it had in view, during a course of effort sustained through 
 so many generations, was the worthy, the paramount end of 
 establishing, on a firm and lasting basis, the national life, cohe- 
 sion, and independence.' 
 
 We now part from these Homeric studies, into which Mr. 
 Gladstone has thrown so much perception, learning, and research. 
 The Siege of Troy and the Wanderings of Ulysses possess an 
 undying charm, whether their chief incidents be wholly fictitious 
 partially fictitious, or veritable history; and no nobler stud] 
 could well engage the leisure of a man of culture. It is worthy 
 of note, in conclusion, that after all his just and lofty encomiums 
 upon the Homeric records. Mr. Gladstone deduces from them the 
 great abiding lesson, that they do but ' show us the total inability 
 of our race, even when at its maximum of power, to solve for 
 ourselves the problem of our destiny ; to extract for ourselves the 
 sting from care, from sorrow, and, above all, from death ; or even 
 to retain without waste the knowledge of God, where we have 
 become separate from the source which imparts it.' 
 
 The author has brought to his investigations of the Homeric 
 text an almost unexampled patience, an intrepid judgment, and 
 a keenly analytical faculty ; but, above all, there glows through- 
 out his pages that spirit which is the outcome of the Christian 
 religion a religion higher and deeper than that of the great 
 Greek poet, a religion which has transfigured all the relations of 
 this mortal life, and which forms a great and indissoluble link 
 uniting humanity with God.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE SESSION OF 1859. THE BUDGET OF 1860 AND 
 THE FEENCH TREATY. 
 
 I'ub'.ic Affairs in 1859 The Reform Question Introduction of the Government Bill 
 Its Rejection moved by Lord John Russell Speech of Mr. Gladstone Defeat 
 of tlie Government Appeal to the Country The New Parliament Resignation 
 of tlie Derby Ministry A Palmerston Administration Mr. Gladstone again 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer Opposed on appealing for Re-election at Oxford 
 Returned by a large majority The Budget of 1859 Debate on the Peace Confer- 
 ence Roman Catholic Relief Act Amendment Bill Animated Scene in the House 
 Negotiation of the French Treaty The Budget of 1860 Details of the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer's Proposals Relief of Trade and Commerce The 
 Commercial Treaty and Free Trade A new Bond of Union with France Tribute 
 to Mr. Cobden Customs Reform Scheme Proposed Abolition of the Paper Duty 
 Character of the Financial Statement of 1860 Attacks upon it by the Opposi- 
 tion Repeal of the Paper Duty strongly opposed Views of Protectionist Paper- 
 makers The Lords and the Paper Duty Important Deputation to Lord Derby 
 The Bill rejected Feeling in the Country A Constitutional Question The 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer carries his Proposals for the Reduction of the Duty 
 on Foreign Paper. Mr. Gladstone on Lord John Russell's Reform Bill The 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh University. 
 
 A REVOLUTION of the political wheel wholly unexpected in some 
 quarters, but predicted in others once more brought Mr. 
 Gladstone into office in the year 1859. At the commencement 
 of this session, and indeed for some time previously, 
 two important questions agitated the public mind, almost 
 to the exclusion of all others. These were, first, the state 
 of our foreign relations, especially as affecting France, 
 Austria, and Italy ; and, secondly, the subject of Parliamentary 
 Reform. Unable to struggle against the unmistakable expres- 
 sion of the popular will, the Derby Government had pledged 
 itself to bring in a Reform Bill ; but long before this measure 
 was even framed, or Parliament had assembled, the feeling in 
 the country had been greatly stirred by Mr. Bright and others 
 in favour of a large extension of the franchise. The member for 
 Birmingham had expressed himself with more than his wonted 
 fervour upon this question, and the supporters of the Government 
 indulged the belief that he had damaged the cause he intended 
 to advance by the ' violence ' of his advocacy. In several great 
 public meetings, Mr. Bright had condemned and denounced in 
 vigorous rhetoric the existing- state of the representation, and
 
 THE BUDGET OF 1860. 215 
 
 demanded a wide extension of the suffrage. For a time, the 
 turbulent demonstrations which took place in various parts of 
 the country acted as a check upon many moderate men, who had 
 hitherto advocated a fair measure of Parliamentary reform, and 
 there was a partial reaction amongst certain classes against the 
 movement. 
 
 But the time had come when some concessions must be made, 
 and it was admitted, alike on Conservative as on Liberal benches, 
 that upon the nature of the Ministerial proposals in this 
 direction depended the very stability of the Government 
 itself. After interpellations from the Opposition, and remon- 
 strances against delay, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 fixed the 28th of February for the first reading of the 
 Government Reform Bill. Amid a scene of great expectation 
 and excitement, Mr. Disraeli, on the day named, proceeded to 
 unfold the details of the scheme. It was not intended, he said, 
 to alter the limits of the franchise, but to introduce into the 
 borough a new kind of franchise, founded upon personal property, 
 and to give votes to persons receiving 10 yearly from the funds, 
 or 20 in pensions, as well as to graduates in the universities, 
 ministers of religion, members of the legal and medical profession, 
 and various other classes. The bill also recognised the principle 
 of the identity of suffrage between the counties and the towns, 
 of which the effect would be to add about 200,000 persons to the 
 county constituency. Mr. Disraeli said the change which it 
 would be his duty to recommend would not rest upon the 
 principle of population, nor upon that of property joined with 
 population. He finally described the Government measure as 
 'wise, prudent, adequate to the occasion, conservative, and 
 framed by men who reverence the past, are proud of the present, 
 and confident of the future.' 
 
 The bill was allowed to pass its first reading, but it speedily 
 became evident that it was not regarded with satisfaction by 
 the country, and also that it would meet with strenuous 
 opposition in the House. The Liberals, joined by a portion 
 of the Conservatives, objected strongly to the clause by which 
 it was proposed to take away from freeholders in borouglu 
 the franchise by which they were now qualified to vote in 
 counties. The Ministry was also weakened by the secession or 
 two of its prominent members, Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley, 
 who as Conservatives could not support the measure. On the 
 order for the second reading of the bill on the 20th of March, 
 Lord John Eussell moved the following amendment : ' That 
 this House is of opinion that it is neither just nor politic to 
 interfere in the manner proposed by this bill with the freehold
 
 246 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 franchise as hitherto exercised in counties in England and 
 Wales ; and that no re-adjustment of the franchise will satisfy 
 this House or the country which does not provide for a greater 
 extension of the suffrage in cities and boroughs than is 
 contemplated in the present measure.' The mover of this 
 resolution delivered an able speech in its support, concluding 
 with the expression, 'With regard to this great question of 
 Reform, I may say that I defended it when I was young, and I 
 will not desert it now that I am old.' 
 
 There were members who, like Mr. Horsman, thought the bill 
 could be modelled in committee, so as to meet the wishes oi 
 the country, but others, again as, for example, Mr. Sidney 
 Herbert while disclaiming all question of party feeling, 
 supported the amendment. Mr. Bright maintained that the 
 measure excluded the working classes, told them they were 
 dangerous, and that these were privileges they ought not to 
 share. Mr. Gladstone, who gave a modified support to 
 the Government on this occasion, began by remarking upon 
 the singular coincidence of opinion on all sides with regard 
 to this great question of Parliamentary Reform. As there was 
 no controversy traceable to differences between political parties, 
 he regretted that the House was now in hostile conflict, with 
 a division before them, which would estrange those by whose 
 united efforts alone a satisfactory settlement could be couie 
 to. He objected to the form of the resolution, but confessed 
 that if they could have had a strong Government he should 
 have been induced to vote for it. He saw, however, that 
 after carrying the resolution the Opposition would pursue separate 
 courses. The House should do what it could in respect of the 
 bill, and the Government had a claim upon members. Sketch- 
 ing the failures of previous Governments, amidst the laughter 
 and cheers of the House, Mr. Gladstone remarked, 'In 1851 my 
 noble friend, then the First Minister of the Crown, approached 
 the question of Reform, and commenced with a promise of what 
 was to be done twelve months afterwards. In 1852, he brought 
 in a bill, and it disappeared, together with the Ministry. In 
 1853 we hac 1 the Ministry of Lord Aberdeen, which commenced 
 with a promise of Reform in twelve months' time. Well, 1854 
 arrived ; with it arrived the bill, but with it also arrived the war, 
 and in the war was a reason, and I believe a good reason, for 
 abandoning the bill. Then came the Government of my noble 
 friend the member for Tiverton, which was not less unfortunate 
 \n the circumstances that prevented the redemption of those 
 pledges which had been given to the people from the mouth 
 of the Sovereign on the Throne. In 1855 my noble friend
 
 THE BUDGET OF I860. 247 
 
 escaped all responsibility for a Keform Bill on account of 
 the war, in 1856 he escaped all responsibility for Reform on 
 account of the peace ; in 1857 he escaped that inconvenient 
 responsibility by the dissolution of Parliament; and in 1858 he 
 escaped again by the dissolution of his Government. ' Pointing 
 the moral of these failures, the speaker affirmed that they 
 strengthened the misgivings of the people as to the reluctance of 
 the House to deal with this question, made it more hazardous 
 to interpose obstacles, and required the progress of tha 
 Government bill to completion. Examining the measure itself, 
 he announced that he could not be a party to the disfranchise- 
 inent of the county freeholders in boroughs ; he could not be a 
 party to the uniformity of the franchise; he could not be a 
 party to a Eeform Bill which did not lower the suffrage in 
 boroughs. Unless they could have a lowering of the suffrage, it 
 would be better not to waste time upon the subject. Ke 
 approved that portion of the bill relating to the redistribution of 
 seats, but put in a strong plea on behalf of the small boroughs. 
 
 These boroughs were the nursery ground of men who were 
 destined to lead the House and be an ornament to their 
 country; and he maintained that the extension and the dura- 
 bility of our liberty were to be attributed, under Providence, to 
 distinguished statesmen introduced to the House at an early age. 
 These were reasons for going into committee. If they passed the 
 amendment, it could have no other effect than that of retarding 
 a settlement of the question: it was not the question of the 
 Grovernment, but of Reform. He urged the House not to let slip 
 its golden opportunity. For himself, he should be governed by no 
 other consideration than the simple one what course would 
 most tend to settle the question ? When he voted to negative the 
 resolution of Lord John Russell, he should give his vote neither 
 to the Grovernment nor to party. 
 
 No forecast of the division could be indulged in, for it was 
 admitted to be a very open question indeed ; but the utmost 
 excitement prevailed when it became known that the Grovern- 
 ment had been defeated by a substantial majority in an exceed- 
 ingly full House. The numbers were For the second reading, 
 291 ; against, 330 majority against the Grovernment, 39. Lord 
 Derby thereupon decided on appealing to the country, a step 
 which, as Mr. Bright said, while causing much inconvenience, was 
 a constitutional and perhaps necessary one. Parliament was 
 prorogued by Commission on the 19th of April, and the new 
 writs were immediately issued. Mr. Gladstone was again returned 
 for Oxford University. The new Parliament, which found the 
 Government in a considerable minority, met on the 31st of
 
 218 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 May. A debate immediately arose in the House of Commons 
 upon the conduct of the Ministry, an amendment to the Address 
 being moved by the Marquis of Hartington. The debate was a 
 highly animated and protracted one. Upon its conclusion, the 
 division gave the following result For the amendment, 323 ; 
 against it, 310 majority against the Government, 13. The 
 House having now twice pronounced against the Ministry, the 
 latter had no option but to resign. Lord Palmerston was 
 sent for, and he succeeded in forming an Administration. In this 
 Ministry Mr. Gladstone accepted the post of Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, which he now filled for the second time. 
 
 Although in giving his vote against Lord John Russell's resolu- 
 tion Mr. Gladstone expressly stated that he did it with the view of 
 procuring a settlement of the great Reform question, and not 
 with a view of generally supporting Lord Derby's Government, 
 he speedily discovered that he had alienated from himself a con- 
 siderable body of his constituents. Consequently, on applying 
 for re-election he was strongly opposed, the Conservative can- 
 didate being the Marquis of Chandos. The Rev. H. L. Mansel, 
 B.D., Waynflete Professor, was the chairman of the Marquis's 
 committee. In a manifesto addressed to the electors, and signed 
 by Mr. Mansel, appeared this passage : * By his acceptance oi 
 office, Mr. Gladstone must now be considered as giving his 
 definite adhesion- to the Liberal party, as at present re-con- 
 structed, and as approving of the policy of those who overthrew 
 Lord Derby's Government on the late division. By his vote on 
 that division, Mr. Gladstone expressed his confidence in the 
 administration of Lord Derby. By accepting office, he now 
 expresses his confidence in the Administration of Lord Derby's 
 opponent and successor.' To this representation, the Rev. R. 
 Gresley, chairman of Mr. Gladstone's committee, replied, in a 
 letter addressed to Mr. Mansel. He denied that Mr. Gladstone 
 had been guilty of an act of tergiversation by accepting office in 
 the new Ministry, and added that he simply gave a silent vote 
 against turning out the Government of Lord Derby on a motion 
 of want of confidence at that time and under those circum- 
 stances. There was no ground for the charge of inconsistency. 
 The nomination took place on the 27th of June. The Dean of 
 Christ Church proposed Mr. Gladstone in a Latin speech, of 
 which the following is a translation : * Members of the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford, I stand before you to offer to your suffrages the 
 Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, D.C.L., of Christ Church, 
 as your representative in Parliament. There is no need that I 
 should be copious in eulogising him to you, although I could do 
 o with ease. For who among you but knows how convincing
 
 THE BUDGET OF 18GO. 219 
 
 is his argument, how great his experience as a statesman, how 
 universal his information, how pure his life, how deep his religious 
 feeling ? In a word, who can so worthily as he represent our 
 University in the legislative assembly of the country ? But I 
 would further remind you that it is not any ordinary man who 
 can bear this dignity, not any one taken at random who is fit 
 to be honoured with your votes, but one whose talents, elo- 
 quence, weight, learning all may see, and may not only see but 
 respect, one, in short, with regard to whom, if elected, there shall 
 be but one opinion ; that the University most worthily enjoys 
 and most worthily exercises the right of election. For him, 
 therefore, so often returned by you, I again solicit your votes, 
 and in my opinion no adequate cause either has been or can be 
 alleged for breaking through the standing custom of the 
 University : once elected, always elected.' The Rev. Dr. Wynter, 
 President of St. John's College, proposed the Marquis of 
 Chandos. Both candidates had their warm and apparently equal 
 bodies of supporters at the nonination. The polling, however, 
 which continued for five days, closed with a large majority for 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the numbers being For Mr. 
 Gladstone, 1,050 ; Lord Chandos, 859. 
 
 The new Chancellor had but scant breathing space in which to 
 prepare his financial statement, which was produced in the 
 House of Commons on the 18th of July. The budget, never- 
 theless, was a very important one in some respects, and 
 was awaited with eagerness by the House. Mr. Gladstone, 
 after recapitulating the estimates of income made by his 
 predecessor in the previous year, which had been exceeded 
 by the results, stated that the estimated revenue of the 
 current year would be 64,340,000, and the estimated expen- 
 diture of the year 69,207,000. There would thus be a 
 gross deficiency in the current year of 4,867,000. This being 
 the time when it became the Committee to make adequate 
 and effective provision for the wants of the year, it was 
 likewise a time when its attention should be rigidly con- 
 fined to those wants, the charges being of an exceptional 
 character, especially those for the army and navy. The 
 Committee, therefore, were not to busy themselves with compre- 
 hensive plans of finance upon the present occasion ; next year it 
 would be necessary to enter upon larger views of our financial 
 system, for next year the income-tax would lapse, as well as 
 certain war duties upon tea and sugar ; on the other hand, the 
 Long Annuities would fall in. How were they to raise the 
 necessary funds to meet the present deficiency by borrowing or 
 by taxes? The sum required was a large one, but it ought
 
 250 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 never to drive the British Parliament to the expedient of aug- 
 menting the National Debt, which nothing but dire necessity 
 should induce it to do. It appeared to him that a loan ought 
 not to be reported to ; that there never was a period when the 
 people of England were more satisfied with the justice and 
 necessity of the demands upon the public purse, or more 
 able or willing to meet those demands. Then, if they were 
 driven to taxes in order to meet the expenditure of the 
 next year, should the taxation be direct or indirect? It 
 was not desirable to augment the malt duty, nor would 
 it be wise to increase the spirit duties. It would be impolitic 
 to increase the duties of customs or excise. There conse- 
 quently remained the income-tax. That tax had been ori- 
 ginally introduced for two objects : first, to make reforms in 
 our fiscal system ; secondly, to meet sudden public exigencies ; 
 and when it was for the dignity, honour, and safety of the 
 country that efforts should be made to augment the national 
 defences, the income-tax was, above all others, a regular and legi- 
 timate resource. The gross deficiency to be met was 4,867,000. 
 By a re-arrangement of the credit allowed to maltsters they could 
 procure almost immediately a sum of 780,000. The deficiency 
 would thus be reduced to a little over 4,000,000, and this it was> 
 proposed to raise by an augmentation of the income-tax. It now 
 stood at the rate of 5d. in the pound, and an additional 4d. would 
 yield something over 4,000,000. He proposed that this addi- 
 tional sum should be levied on incomes amounting to upwards of 
 150, but that incomes under that sum should pay only l^d. 
 extra ; and he also proposed that the augmented tax should be 
 leviable upon the first half-yearly payment after the resolution 
 should have been adopted by the House. This addition to the 
 tax, added to the sum derived from the maltsters, would produce 
 5,120,000. Deducting the whole deficiency of the year, there 
 would thus remain a surplus of 253,000. Mr. Gladstone con- 
 cluded with this appeal: 'Instead of ascribing to the great 
 English people a childish impatience to meet necessary demands 
 with which they were never chargeable, I, on the contrary, 
 shall rely on their unyielding, inexhaustible energy and generous 
 patriotism, and shall be confident that they will never shrink from 
 01 refuse any burden required in order to sustain the honour or 
 provide for the security of the country.' 
 
 On the order for going into committee of Ways and Means, 
 some days afterwards, Mr. Disraeli criticised his rival's budget, 
 and reviewed the financial policy of the late Government. He 
 strongly protested against the continuance of the current 
 enormous expenditure, which rendered it necessary to fritter
 
 THE BUDGET OF I860. 251 
 
 away the treasure of the income-tax. The nation, he main- 
 tained, could not go on raising 70,000,000 annually ; and he 
 demanded that France and England ' should mutually prove, 
 with no hypocrisy, but by the unanswerable evidence of reduced 
 armaments, that they really desired peace.' Such an agree- 
 ment would render practicable the cessation of the income-tax 
 in 1860. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, replying to Mr. Disraeli's objection to the 
 proposed mode of levying the income-tax, said the House of 
 Commons was as much entitled to tax six months' profits as those 
 of twelve months. The effect of the modification would be to 
 throw half the additional tax on the year 1860-61, making it 
 part of the Ways and Means not of the current year, but of 
 the next. Coming to more general matters, the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer observed that Mr. Disraeli had endeavoured 
 to impress upon the present Government the necessity of 
 preserving the alliance between England and France which 
 had become almost the law of our foreign policy and he 
 said, 'Require the diminution of armaments.' He (Mr. Glad- 
 stone) expressed his opinion that the moment the state 
 of Europe allowed, it would be the duty of the English 
 Government to use every effort in that sense. But why 
 should Mr. Disraeli, he asked, denounce all congresses ? Three 
 months before Lord Malmesbury was despatching telegrams for 
 the purpose of bringing about a congress. For himself, he was 
 not prepared to subscribe to all Mr. Disraeli's opinions as to the 
 peace ; he would rather reserve his judgment than pledge himself, 
 in the present state of Europe, by giving a distinct approval of 
 its terms. The budget resolutions were eventually agreed to. 
 
 Shortly before the close of the session an important debate 
 arose upon the Peace Conference, with special reference to the 
 affairs of Italy. Lord Elcho proposed an address to her Majesty, 
 stating that, in the opinion of the House, it would be consistent 
 neither with the honour nor the dignity of this country to take 
 part in any conference for the purpose of settling the details of 
 a peace the preliminaries of which had been arranged between 
 the Emperor of the French and the Emperor of Austria. Mr 
 Kinglake moved upon this the ' previous question.' 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer at once rose and said that, 
 so far as he and his colleagues were concerned, they were prepared 
 to meet the motion with a direct negative ; but if the House 
 was of opinion that it was inconvenient to entertain the motion 
 fit all, they were ready to concur in that which Mr. Kinglake 
 had made without any concert with them. Lord Elcho's 
 motion spoke of taking part in a conference for the purpose
 
 252 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 of settling the details of the peace arranged between the two 
 Emperors. He was not aware of any such intention. The 
 details of the peace would be settled by the belligerents themselves, 
 and what remained would be, not the details of the peace, 
 but great questions of European policy, vitally affecting the 
 happiness of Italy. The principal point made by Lord Elcho 
 was the contrast between the neutrality of the late and that of 
 the present Government. He (Mr. Gladstone) gave credit to 
 the late Government, represented by Lord Malmesbury, for 
 their intention, and for a restless but a sound and manly assi- 
 duity to maintain peace, and there had been no departure 
 from the neutrality on the part of the present Government. 
 The object of the noble lord's motion was to prevent the 
 Government from taking part in the conference, lest they should 
 be hostile to Austria. To disclaim such a motive, he said, 
 was needless, and would be disparaging. There was no 
 foundation for such a supposition. It was the desire of the 
 Government to see Austria strong, flourishing, and happy ; but 
 it did not follow that they might not have their own feeling and 
 conviction that she might, by another policy, better discharge 
 her duties and consult her own separate and individual interests. 
 To understand the present position of Austria it was necessary 
 to go back for the last forty-five years. During that interval, 
 wherever liberty raised its head in Italy it was crushed by 
 the iron hand of Austria, and abuses were re-established 
 in all their rigour. The position of Sardinia, with her im- 
 improved institutions, became of necessity a standing danger 
 to Austria. It was necessary that the British Govern- 
 ment should consider what, in the present state of circum- 
 stances, was best for Italy, for Austria, and for Europe. Might 
 not Austria be stronger out of Italy than in it? This was an 
 opinion which might be held by honest men, and he was himself 
 strongly of that opinion. But the true policy of this country, 
 according to Lord Elcho, was the policy of non-intervention. 
 What, then, he asked (here Mr Gladstone triumphantly held 
 aloft the blue-book), is the policy adopted and enforced in these 
 papers ? The questions the noble lord had referred to had not 
 been proposed before going into the conference. The mover of 
 the resolution had argued that we had confidence in the Emperor 
 of the French or we had not, and in either case we should not 
 enter the conference. He (Mr. Gladstone) agreed that if we had 
 not confidence, and were essentially at variance with France, it 
 would be a question of prudence how far we should enter into the 
 conference ; but he could not understand the other branch of the 
 dilemma, which would come to this : that whatever might be the
 
 THE BUDGET OF 1860. 253 
 
 liberal sentiments of the Emperor of the French, we would refuse 
 to assist him, but leave him to struggle with his difficulties. 
 This was a recommendation which he concluded by earnestly 
 entreating the House to discountenance. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer was followed (amongst other 
 speakers) by Mr. Horsman, Mr. S. Herbert, Lord John Eussell, 
 Mr. Disraeli, and Lord Palmerston. It was generally agreed, how- 
 ever, that Mr. Gladstone's speech had effectually disposed of the 
 motion ; and Lord Elcho, expressing himself satisfied with the 
 discussion, withdrew it. 
 
 Perhaps the most exciting debate of the whole session arose 
 over the Roman Catholic Relief Act Amendment Bill. By 
 this measure, which was supported by the Government, it was 
 proposed that a Roman Catholic should be eligible for the 
 office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. To English members like 
 Mr. Newdegate, and Irish members of the Orange type of Mr. 
 WTiiteside, the bill appeared a suicidal one. Pass it, and the 
 Constitution was gone. Mr. Newdegate, in particular, it is to 
 be feared, must have spent many sleepless nights while this 
 attempted base betrayal of the Protestant liberties of England 
 was going forward. The hon. member moved the rejection of 
 the measure, which he described as being an invasion of the 
 Protestant Constitution, and as practically abrogating the 
 settlement of 1829. Mr. Whiteside was equally strong in his 
 denunciation of the bill, and, in an unfortunate moment for 
 himself, brought Mr. Gladstone's name into his speech in such a 
 manner as to rouse the ire of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 The physical atmosphere of the House was very sultry (it was 
 now the middle of July), but the mental speedily transcended it. 
 An eye-witness, describing the scene, remarked that he was not 
 surprised at the loudness of Mr. Newdegate's groans and the 
 double-dyed Orange hue of Mr. Whiteside's stupendous oration, 
 especially seeing how nearly within the grasp of the latter had 
 been the Irish Chancellorship ; but what was surprising was the 
 tone and manner of Mr. Gladstone. While the Irish Secretary, 
 Mr. Cardwell, was balancing the two parties in Ireland in his 
 elaborate sentences, Mr. Gladstone stood at the bar in an attitude 
 very near akin to contempt for the business which the Govern- 
 ment official was manipulating so unskilfully ; but after Mr. 
 Whiteside had spoken, and his own time came, Mr. Gladstone 
 ' started up with his face full of fire and his manner flushed with 
 vigour, and delivered a masterly, keen, crushing speech of ten 
 minutes no more which was at once dignified, humorous, 
 argumentative, and piled up with grand phraseology, concen- 
 trating every faculty of an orator and all the scorn of an offended
 
 254 WJLUAA1 EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 member of Parliament. It was one of those bursts of earnest 
 speechmaking which are now so rare in the House of Commons, 
 and which are worth waiting through a long, hot summer night 
 to listen to. It even roused Mr. Walpole into a diluted imita- 
 tion of a style which had so successfully carried the House along 
 with it ; it brought out sarcasm and irony bitter enough from 
 Mr. Disraeli ; elicited something of the insolent tone of 1857 
 from Lord Palmer st on ; animated the torpor of Sir George C. 
 Lewis ; and actually flashed inspiration into the lymphatic and 
 apathetic idiosyncrasy of Sir William Somerville ; while it put 
 the House into one of those fevers of excitement which, when 
 they begin about one o'clock in the morning, are so difficult to 
 allay. Certainly one has not for a long time witnessed so decided 
 a case of that electrification of the House and its prolonged 
 effects with which at times it is affected in the strangest and 
 strongest manner.' The measure thus violently opposed has 
 since become law, as, indeed, have many other measures which 
 led men who failed to move with the spirit of the times to look 
 for the setting of the sun of England's greatness. Yet that noble 
 but impalpable inheritance, the English Constitution, still 
 remains to us as great, as glorious, as durable at this day as in 
 any generation of our past history. 
 
 The year 1860 will be for ever memorable as a new point of 
 departure in British commerce and manufactures. The country 
 was at peace with foreign nations ; calmness and moderation 
 reigned at home; and Parliament was enabled to proceed 
 unfettered with those wise and beneficent acts of legislation 
 which have caused the session to occupy one of the most 
 conspicuous positions in our domestic history. England and 
 France were to be in the future bound together, not by such ties 
 of alliance as the mutual dread of war involves, but by the 
 deeper and more lasting ties of friendship and of peace. Mr. 
 Cobden, commissioned by, and acting in unison with, the English 
 Government, was successful in negotiating with France a 
 commercial treaty based on Free Trade principles a treaty 
 which gave an impetus to the trade of this country whose far- 
 reaching effects are felt even to our own day. Whatever may 
 be the views of Englishmen upon the general tenor and spirit 
 of the Government of the third Napoleon, his ready acqui- 
 escence in, and determination to carry through, a treaty based 
 upon hitherto much-combated principles, redounded greatly to 
 his sagacity and penetration. The fight in France against the 
 adoption of Free Trade was not so long or so bitter as in 
 England ; but the Emperor's resolve, notwithstanding, involved 
 a sharp and severe struggle. In the end the treaty was success-
 
 THE BUDGET OF 1860. 255 
 
 fully negotiated by Mr. Cobden, under the auspices, and with 
 the aid, of Mr. Gladstone as our Finance Minister. 
 
 The conclusion of this treaty invested the budget of the year 
 with additional importance. It was awaited with the deepest 
 interest and solicitude, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 fixed the earliest day possible for its delivery, namely, the 6th of 
 February. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Gladstone was seized 
 with indisposition, and the statement was postponed until the 
 10th. On that day the Minister appeared before a densely crowded 
 assembly. The House was packed to the doors and through all 
 its approaches. Never in the memory of members had a 
 financial statement possessed such fascination. Combating his 
 physical weakness so far as to come down to the House three day.s 
 before the time originally specified after the announcement of his 
 illness, the Chancellor of the Exchequer * walked up the floor of 
 the House with an alacrity which was surprising, and bent his 
 head with conscious pleasure before the hearty cheers which 
 greeted his appearance.' There was in him, apparently, no trace 
 of weakness, physical or mental. 
 
 The House having resolved itself into a committee of Ways 
 and Means, Mr. Gladstone rose, and at once plunged into his 
 statement. * Sir,' he began, * public expectation has long marked 
 out the year 1860 as an important epoch in British finance. It 
 has long been well known that in this year, for the first time, we 
 were to receive from a process not of our own creation a very 
 great relief in respect of our annual payment of interest upon the 
 National Debt a relief amounting to no less a sum than 
 2,146,000 a relief such as we never have known in time past, 
 and such as, I am afraid, we shall never know in time to come. 
 Besides that relief, other and more recent arrangements have 
 added to the importance of this juncture. A revenue of nearly 
 12,000,000 a year, levied by duties on tea and sugar, which 
 still retain a portion of the additions made to them on account 
 of the Russian war, is about to lapse absolutely on the 31st of 
 March, unless it shall be renewed by Parliament. The Income- 
 tax Act, from which during the financial year we shall have 
 derived a sum of between 9,000,000 and 10,000,000, is likewise 
 to lapse at the very same time, although an amount not incon- 
 siderable will still remain to be collected in virtue of the law about 
 io expire. And lastly, an event of not less interest than any of 
 these, which has caused public feeling to thrill from one end of 
 the country to the other I mean the treaty of commerce, which 
 my noble friend the Foreign Minister has just laid on the table 
 has rendered it a matter of propriety, nay, almost of absolute 
 necessity, for the Government to request the House to deviate,
 
 256 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 under the peculiar circumstances of the case, from its usual, its 
 salutary, its constitutional practice of voting the principal 
 charges of the year before they proceed to consider the means of 
 defraying them, and has induced the Government to think they 
 would best fulfil their duty by inviting attention on the earliest 
 possible day to those financial arrangements for the coming year 
 which are materially affected by the Treaty with France, and 
 which, though they reach considerably beyond the limits of that 
 treaty, yet, notwithstanding, can only be examined by the House 
 in a satisfactory manner when examined as a whole.'* 
 
 Mr. Gladstone then went on to announce that the financial 
 results of the year so far, at least, as the receipts were con- 
 cerned were eminently satisfactory. The total estimated revenue 
 was 69,460.000 ; the actual amount produced was not less than 
 70,578,000'. The expenditure had been 68,953,000. Under 
 ordinary circumstances this amount would have left a surplus of 
 1,625,000; but there had been additional charges, arising out 
 of the expedition to China, in the army of 900,000, and 
 the navy, 270,000. Then came the effect of the treaty with 
 France, for which there was to be deducted from the customs 
 640,000. The total was 1,800,000, which would have placed 
 the revenue on the wrong side of the account ; but in a 
 happy moment, Spain 'not under any peculiar pressure 
 from us, but with a high sense of honour and duty'- 
 had paid a debt of 500,000, of which 250,000 would be 
 available at once, so that a small surplus would still be left 
 on the total revenue With regard to the interest of the 
 debt in the coming year, the estimated charge was 26,200,000, 
 leaving 2,438,000, or more than the annuities which were 
 about to lapse. The Consolidated Fund charges would be 
 2,000,000 ; the army, militia, and the charge for China 
 would be 15,800,000 ; the navy and packet service, 13,900,000 : 
 or altogether, 29,700,000, being an increase of more than 
 3,000,000 on the military estimates of the preceding session. 
 The miscellaneous estimates were 3,500,000; the revenue 
 departments, 4,700,000 ; the grand total being 70,100,000. 
 Coming to the estimate of the year in perspective, Mr. Glad- 
 stone said that, taking the imports as they then stood, it 
 was : Customs, 22,700,000; excise, 19,170,000; stamps, 
 8,000,000 ; taxes, 3,250,000 ; income-tax, 2,400,000 ; with 
 the post-office the total being 60,700,000 ; thus leaving a deficit 
 
 * A corrected verbatim report of this and other budget speeches appears in the 
 volume published under Mr. Gladstone's authority The Financal Statements of 
 1853, 1860-1863. To which are added a Speech on Tax Bills, 1861, and on Chanties, 
 1863. By the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
 
 THE BUDGET OF I860. 257 
 
 of 9,400,000 ; and this without any provision for 1,000,000 
 coming due on Exchequer bonds. Even if the existing war duties 
 on tea and sugar should be retained, the deficit would still be 
 7,300,000. This would require an income-tax of 9d. in the 
 pound, there being no remission of taxation in the trade and 
 commerce of the country ; but the 9,400,000 would require an 
 income-tax of 1 s. in the pound. He knew that it might with 
 justice be demanded of him, 'What has become of the calcula- 
 tions ot 1853 ? ' His answer was, that in that year it was reckoned 
 there would be gained by taxes then imposed between that and 
 the present time a sum of 5,959,000, which was about the sum 
 that the income-tax would have reached at 5d. in the pound in 
 the present year. The succession duty had failed to produce 
 what was expected ; surpluses had been stopped by the interven- 
 tion of war ; and there was, moreover, the charge for additional 
 debt incurred by the Kussian war, which amounted to 2,920,000. 
 The alteration in the spirit duties, however, had added 
 2,000,000 to- the revenue ; and the revenue generally had been 
 so prosperous, that if the expenditure had not rapidly increased 
 the amount calculated in 1853 would have been realised. It 
 was a constantly increasing expenditure which had destroyed the 
 calculations of 1853. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer next demonstrated by 
 elaborate statistics how much richer the country was than in 
 1842 and 1853. In. the former year the annual income of 
 the country was 154,000,000; in 1853 it had risen to 
 172,000,000; in 1857-8 it stood at 191,000,000; and in 
 1859-60 at 200,000,000. The increase had occurred in every 
 class in the country, and in the agricultural class most of all. 
 In 1842, the gross expenditure of the country was 68,500,000 ; 
 in 1853 it was 71,500,000; in 1859-60 it was 87,697,000; 
 these totals including the local expenditure as well as that 
 of the State properly so called, showing a gradual but large 
 increase. The comparative growth of wealth and expenditure 
 was therefore wholly unequal, and it showed the course which 
 the country was pursuing a course with which, he was far from 
 being satisfied. But there was a deficit of 9,400,000 to be 
 met. He had shadowed out a budget by which with an income- 
 tax of Is. in the pound their object could be achieved, with a 
 relief to the consumers of tea and sugar to the extent of the 
 remaining portions of the war duty; or, there was a more 
 niggardly budget, which would keep up the duties on tea and 
 sugar, yet still leave the country liable to an income-tax of not 
 less than 9d. in the pound. It was his intention to apply in aid 
 of the expenditure of the year a sum of not less than 1,400,000, 
 
 8
 
 258 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 which was no part of the proposed taxation of the year, but which 
 would be obtained by rendering available another portion of the 
 malt credit, and likewise the credit usually given on hops. The 
 heavy income-tax which had been borne would not have been 
 borne as it had been without discontent, but for the strength 
 which the country had derived from the recent eommercial 
 legislation, and the confidence of the nation in the integrity and 
 wisdom of Parliament. Slightly modifying the statement as 
 to the absence of discontent, the right hon. gentleman said, * I 
 speak in general terms. Indeed, I now remember that I myself 
 had, about a fortnight ago, a letter addressed to me complaining 
 of the monstrous injustice and iniquity of the income-tax, and 
 proposing that, in consideration thereof, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer should be publicly hanged ! ' 
 
 Enforcing the duty of the Government to take further steps 
 in the direction of- relieving trade and commerce from imposts 
 in pursuance of the principles of Free Trade (nowithstanding 
 the difficulties which existed), Mr. Gladstone" subsequently 
 entered into calculations to show that remissions of taxation had 
 always been accompanied by increase of revenue, consequent on 
 the increase of trade and commerce. He then announced that he 
 did not propose to touch the taxes on tea or sugar, which would 
 be renewed as they then stood for one year. ' I now come,' con- 
 tinued the speaker, 'to the question of the commercial treaty 
 with France. And, sir, I will at once confidently recommend the 
 adoption of the treaty to the committee as fulfilling and satisfy- 
 ing all the conditions of the most beneficial kind of change in 
 our commercial legislation.' With regard to the points of the 
 treaty, France was to reduce the duties on coal and iron in 
 1860 ; on yarn, flax, and hemp early in 1861. On the 1st of 
 October, 1861, the duties would be reduced or prohibition 
 removed from all British articles, so that no duty should be 
 higher than 30 per cent, ad valorem, all the staple manufactures 
 of Britain being included. In three years afterwards the 
 maximum duty was to be 25 per cent, ad valorem. England, on 
 her part, engaged herself immediately and totally to abolish all 
 duty on all manufactured goods from France, to reduce the duty 
 on brandy to 8s. 2d. per gallon, on foreign wine (not merely 
 French) to 3s. per gallon, and in 1861 still further, in reference 
 to the strength of the wine the lowest duty being Is. per 
 gallon ; the charge on French articles liable to excise duty in 
 England to be the same as the English duty. The treaty was to 
 be ia force for ten years. Mr. Gladstone denied the charge of 
 subserviency to France brought against the treaty, and said that 
 he was aware it would be held to bear a political character. He
 
 THE BUDGET OF 1860. 259 
 
 thus eloquently enlarged upon the real friendship which the 
 treaty would inaugurate between the two countries : 
 
 ' I do not forget, sir, that there -was once a time when close relations of amity 
 were established between the Governments of England and France. It was in the 
 reign of the later Stuarts ; it marks a dark spot in our annals ; but the spot is dark 
 because the union was an union formed in a spirit of domineering ambition on the 
 one side, and of base and most corrupt servility on the other. But that, sir, was 
 not an union of the nations ; it was an union of the Governments. This is not to be 
 an union of the Governments apart from the countries ; it is, as we hope, to be 
 an union of the nations themselves ; and I confidently say again, as I have already 
 ventured to say in this House, that there never can be any union between the 
 nations of England and France, except an union beneficial to the world, because 
 directly that either the one or the other of the two begins to harbour schemes of 
 selfish aggrandisement, that moment the jealousy of its neighbour will be aroused, 
 and will beget a powerful reaction ; and the very fact of their being in harmony 
 will of itself at all times be the most conclusive proof that neither of them can be 
 engaged in meditating anything which is dangerous to Europe.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone next combated the objection that a commercial 
 treaty is an abandonment of the principles of Free Trade. That 
 would be so in one sense if it involved the recognition of exclu- 
 sive privileges. This particular treaty was an abandonment of 
 the principle of Protection. He was not aware of any entangling 
 engagement which it contained ; and it certainly contained no 
 exclusive privilege. ' It is a means, I hope,' the right hion, 
 gentleman added, * tolerably complete and efficacious, of sweep- 
 ing from the statute book the chief among such relics of that 
 miscalled system of Protection as still remain upon it. The fact 
 is and you will presently see how truly it is so that our old 
 friend Protection, who used formerly to dwell in the palaces and 
 the high places of the land, and who was dislodged from them 
 some ten or fifteen years ago, has, since that period, still found 
 pretty comfortable shelter and good living in holes and corners ; 
 and you are now invited, if you will have the goodness to concur 
 in the operation, to see whether you cannot likewise eject him 
 from those holes and corners.' Dwelling upon the effects of the 
 treaty, Mr. Gladstone said that the reduction on wine would 
 cause a loss in revenue of 515,000, on brandy of 225,000, on 
 manufactured goods of 440,000 making a total of 1,180,000. 
 He maintained that these were not revenue duties, but were all 
 protective duties. Statistics were quoted to show that it was 
 desirable to make such a bargain with France as would allow of 
 the interchange of manufactures and commodities, which was 
 already important, and which must largely increase when France 
 was induced to break down her prohibitory system. That which 
 had been done would have been good for this country if France 
 had done nothing ; it was better for us in proportion as France 
 did something. One result of the high duty on French brandy, 
 for example, was the manufacture of an unhappy production in 
 
 s2
 
 260 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the shape of a spirit called British brandy. As to wine, it was 
 said to be the rich man's luxury, and tea the poor man's luxury ; 
 but in 1760 tea was the rich man's luxury, and sold at 20s. a 
 pound ; and by reducing the duty you might make wine the poor 
 man's luxury. In fact, the existing duties were not merely pro- 
 tective but prohibitory, and there was a pressure with regard to 
 that article which, apart from any treaty with France, would 
 compel a dealing with the wine duties. The consumption of 
 foreign wines in this country had greatly increased by at least 
 16 8, 000 gallons in the last year; and concurrent with that there 
 had been a large consumption of colonial wines and even of 
 British wines. This showed a great demand for wine, and there 
 was reason to believe that a greater production of wines, fitted 
 for the English market and middle and lower classes of this 
 country, could be effected. 'The idea that under no possible cir- 
 cumstances could Englishmen like French wines ought to be 
 exploded, there being, in fact, a great taste in England for those 
 wines; but it was stifled by prohibitory duties, which generated a 
 mass of evils in the shape of fraud and adulteration. The altera- 
 tion in the tariff with France would tend greatly to facilitate 
 personal intercourse with the Continent, by enabling the Customs 
 authorities to withdraw the greater part of the annoying- 
 restraints now existing on the rapid transit of passengers and 
 their baggage. 
 
 No passage of Mr. Gladstone's speech was more warmly 
 applauded than the following, with its especially glowing and 
 generous tribute to Mr. Cobden : ' Sir, I cannot pass from the 
 subject of the French Treaty without paying a tribute of respect 
 to two persons, at least, who have been the main authors of it. 
 I am bound to bear this witness, at any rate, with regard to the 
 Emperor of the French : that he has given the most unequivocal 
 proofs of sincerity and earnestness in the progress of this great 
 work, a work which he has prosecuted with clear-sighted resolu- 
 tion, not, doubtless, for British purposes, but in the spirit of 
 enlightened patriotism, with a view to commercial reforms at home, 
 and to the advantage and happiness of his own people by means 
 of those reforms. With regard to Mr. Cobden, speaking as I do 
 at a time when every angry passion has passed away, I cannot 
 help expressing our obligations to him for the labour he has, at 
 no small personal sacrifice, bestowed upon a measure which he 
 not the least among the apostles of Free Trade believes to be 
 one of the most memorable triumphs Free Trade has ever 
 achieved. Eare is the privilege of any man who, having fourteen 
 years ago rendered to his country one signal and splendid service, 
 now again, within the same brief span of life, decorated neither
 
 THE BUDGET OP 1860. 261 
 
 by rank nor title, bearing no mark to distinguish him from the 
 people "whom he loves, has been permitted again to perform a 
 great and memorable service to his Sovereign and to his country.' 
 
 When the cheers evoked by this eulogium alike honourable 
 to -the speaker and its subject had subsided, Mr. Gladstone 
 proceeded to unfold his supplemental measure of customs reform. 
 It was proposed to reduce customs duties, in addition to those 
 named, to the extent of 910,100, but to supply that sum by 
 other impositions on trade. The duties to be abolished were 
 ihose on butter, tallow, cheese, oranges and lemons, eggs, &c., 
 which amounted to 380,000 a-year. There were to be reduc- 
 tions of duties on timber, currants, raisins, figs, and hops, 
 making together 658,000 ; the total reduction being 1,039,000. 
 An extension of penny taxation would be resorted to, in order to 
 compensate this loss, and by this means 982,000 would be res- 
 tored to the general revenue. The loss to the revenue by the French 
 Treaty and reduction of duties he estimated at 2,146,000, but 
 of this sum half was redeemed by the imposts specified. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer next announced that he pro- 
 posed the abolition of the excise duty on paper. Some of the 
 reasons advanced for this step were not very dissimilar to those 
 which, as we have already seen, he once adduced for the retention 
 of the duty ; but the press had shown a capacity to wield its enor- 
 mous power with (speaking, of course, generally) justice and 
 purity ; and Mr. Gladstone now augured the happiest results from 
 a spread of cheap literature. Besides, not only had the duty 
 been condemned by the Commons' House of Parliament, but it 
 was a bad and untenable one. It operated most oppressively on 
 the common sorts of paper, and tended to restrict the circulation 
 of cheap literature. The materials which the duty affected were 
 of boundless scope, as everything fibrous could be converted into 
 paper, which was an- article extensively used in sixty-nine trades. 
 The duty on paper had closed all the small mills, and the manu- 
 facture of paper was monopolised by two or three makers. By 
 taking off the duty it was contended that the House would pro- 
 mote rural labour, and so produce a beneficial effect on the poor- 
 rates of the various districts. Mr. Gladstone mentioned in proof 
 of this the case of a gentleman, ' second to no man in England 
 for his enterprise,' * who a few years before had established a 
 
 * Mr. Herbert Ingram, then M.P. for Boston, and proprietor of the Illustrated London 
 Hews. Besides its effects upon the newspaper branch of literature, it would be 
 impossible to exaggerate the beneficial results of the repeal of the paper duty upon 
 literature generally, through the operations of the great publishing houses of the 
 metropolis ; and amongst these the author cannot reconcile himself to omit mention 
 of the firm through whose instrumentality this work is presented to the public. 
 Did space permit, startling statistics could be adduced in proof of the wisdom and 
 foresight of Mr. Gladstone's policy.
 
 262 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 paper manufactory at Kickmansworth, with the result that within 
 three or four years after its establishment the poor-rates were 
 diminished in that parish by one-half. This was an argument of 
 a nature to be readily appreciated and understood. He therefore 
 proposed that the paper duty should be abolished from the 1st of 
 July, allowing the usual drawback to those who had stocks on 
 hand. It was also proposed to abolish the impressed stamp on 
 newspapers. With this announcement he had reached the end of 
 the remissions it was proposed to make. 
 
 It was still necessary, however, to refer to some articles which 
 were connected with the departments of excise and taxes. With 
 regard to hops, the system of credits would be altered. It was 
 proposed to remove the prohibition on malt, and to fix a duty on 
 it of 3s. a bushel. The alterations and reductions he had proposed 
 would give a total relief to the consumer of 3,931,000, and 
 cause a net loss to the revenue of 2,108,000, a sum about equi- 
 valent to the amount falling in from the cessation of Government 
 annuities that year. The number of articles which would remain 
 on the customs' tariff would be forty-eight, and next year forty- 
 four spirits, tea, tobacco, sugarj wine, coffee, corn, currants, and 
 timber being the principal only fifteen of the whole being 
 retained for purposes of revenue. He expected to obtain 1 ,400,000 
 by taking up the malt and hop duties within the year. Mr. 
 Gladstone then came to the last of the chief points of his budget. 
 There was no liberty of choice but to retain the income-tax. He 
 consequently proposed that, in order to supply the remainder of 
 the deficit of 9,400,000, the tax should be renewed at the rate 
 of lOd. in the pound on incomes of upwards of 150 a-year, and at 
 7d. below that sum ; the tax to be taken for one year only, three- 
 quarters of the year's rate to be collected within the year, which 
 would give a sum of 8,472,000. This would bring the total 
 income up to 70,564,000. The total charge was 70,100,000 ; 
 and thus they remained with an apparent or estimated surplus of 
 464,000. The Chancellor of the Exchequer concluded this 
 important and elaborate financial statement with the following 
 peroration : 
 
 ' Our proposals involve a great reform in our tariff ; they involve a large remis- 
 sion of taxation, and last of all, though not least, they include that commercial 
 treaty with France which, though we have to apprehend that objections in some 
 quarters will be taken to it, we confidently recommend, not only on moral, and 
 social, and political, but also, and with equal confidence, on economical and fiscal 
 grounds. . . . There were times, now long by, when Sovereigns made progress 
 through the land, and when, at the proclamation of their heralds, they caused to 
 be scattered whole showers of coin among the people who thronged upon their 
 steps. That may have been a goodly spectacle ; but it is also a goodly spectacle, 
 and one adapted to the altered spirit and circumstances of pur times, when our 
 Sovereign is enabled, through the wisdom of her 'great Council, assembled in Par- 
 liament around her, again to scatter blessings among her subjects by means of wise-
 
 THE BUDGET OF 1860. 203 
 
 and prudent laws ; of laws which do not sap in any respect the foundations of duty 
 or of manhood, but which strike away the shackles from the arm of industry, which 
 give new incentives and new rewards to toil, and which win more and more for 
 the Throne and for the institutions of the country the gratitude, the confidence 
 and the love of an united people. Let me say, even to those who are anxious, and 
 justly anxious, on the subject of our national defences, that that which stirs the 
 flame of patriotism in men, that which binds them in one heart and soul, that which 
 gives them increased confidence, in their rulers, that which makes them feel and 
 know that they are treated with justice, and that we who represent them are 
 labouring incessantly and earnestly for their good is in itself no small, no feeble, 
 and no transitory part of national defence. We recommend these proposals to your 
 impartial and searching inquiry. We do not presume, indeed, to make a claim on, 
 your acknowledgments ; but neither do we desire to draw on your unrequited 
 confidence, nor to lodge an appeal to your compassion. We ask for nothing more 
 than your dispassionate judgment, and for nothing less ; we know that our plan 
 will receive that justice at your hands ; and we confidently anticipate on its behalf 
 the approval alike of the Parliament and the nation.' 
 
 This speech occupied four hours in delivery, but it was 
 listened to without the least sign of weariness a result to 
 which the character of the speaker's oratory in no small degree 
 contributed. It was one of the peculiarities of Mr. Gladstone's 
 budget addresses that they roused curiosity in the outset, and, 
 being delivered in a musical, sonorous, and perfectly modulated 
 voice, kept the listeners interested to the very close. This finan- 
 cial statement of 1 860 was ' admirably arranged for the purpose 
 of awaking and keeping attention, piquing and teasing curiosity, 
 and sustaining desire to hear from the first sentence to the last. 
 It was not a speech, it was an oration in the form of a great 
 State paper made eloquent, in which there was a proper restraint 
 over the crowding ideas, the most exact accuracy in the sentences, 
 and even in the very words chosen ; the most perfect balancing 
 of parts, and, more than all, there were no errors of omission ; 
 nothing was put wrongly, and nothing was overlooked.' With a 
 House crowded in every corner, with the strain upon his own 
 mental faculties, and the great physical tax implied in the 
 management of the voice, and the necessity for remaining upon 
 his feet during this long period, ' the observed of all observers,* 
 Mr. Gladstone took all as quietly, we are told, as if he had just 
 risen to address a few observations to Mr. Speaker. Indeed 
 it was laughingly said that he could address a House for a whole 
 week, and on the Friday evening have taken a new departure, 
 beginning with the observation, ' After these preliminary remarks, 
 I will now proceed to deal with the subject matter of my finan- 
 cial plan.' 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer's great scheme was not to 
 pass unchallenged. He had brought forward proposals conceived 
 in a large and liberal spirit proposals in which neither the rich 
 nor the poor were forgotten ; proposals which provided for a 
 remission of taxes upon the simple necessaries of life, and which 
 gave a large stimulus to trade and industry. But no budget yet
 
 264 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 produced ever gave satisfaction, in all points, to every class of 
 the community : the shoe necessarily pinches somewhere. The 
 budget of 1860 accordingly had its opponents. The shipowners 
 condemned it because it failed to place the shipping of both 
 countries on the same footing ; the licensed victuallers organised 
 a movement for opposing the licences for eating-houses; and 
 several minor details were objected to ; but on the whole the 
 scheme was favourably viewed by the country. The Manchester 
 Chamber of Commerce, followed by other Chambers, petitioned 
 the House of Commons to pass the budget with all convenient 
 speed ; and at a meeting of the Lancashire Reformers' Union 
 Mr. Bright warmly expressed his approval of it. 
 
 The Opposition made one strong formal attack upon the 
 budget and the treaty. Mr. Du Cane, who had given notice of 
 a motion impeaching the principle of the budget, was induced 
 to postpone it ; and Mr. Disraeli brought forward a resolution to 
 the effect that 'this House does not think fit to go into 
 committee on the Customs Acts, with a view to the reduction 
 or repeal of the duties referred to in the treaty of commerce 
 between her Majesty and the Emperor of the French, until it 
 shall have considered and assented to the engagements in that 
 treaty.' The right hon. gentleman attacked the treaty, attacked 
 the Government, and attacked Mr. Cobden. * The treaty bears 
 marks,' he said, ' of the idiosyncrasy of the negotiator.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone retorted that he did not know what the resolu- 
 tion meant, and he did not believe Mr. Disraeli himself knew 
 what it meant. He ridiculed the latter's attributing to the 
 Government a course which had caused the Queen to commit an 
 illegal act, and to make an attack on the constitutional privi- 
 leges of the House of Commons. He repudiated the charitable 
 protection of inadvertence offered to him by the leader of the 
 Opposition, and rejected his proposition. The precedent of 
 Mr. Pitt had been followed in every respect, and Mr. Disraeli 
 was wrong both in his facts and his arguments with regard to 
 the course taken. by Mr. Pitt in 1786. " At the conclusion of the 
 debate there appeared For Mr. Disraeli's motion, 230 ; against, 
 293 majority for the Government, 63. Mr. Gladstone was 
 exceedingly buoyant, and even triumphant, in his speech in answer 
 to Mr. Disraeli ; he had the advantage of a strong case. One of 
 the journals at the time remarked that the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer * won his Magenta gallantly, and with extraordinary 
 damage to the enemy. The battle has been renewed, and is 
 raging while we write, but the Opposition army is dispirited and 
 charges languidly, and all seems tending towards a Ministerial 
 Solferino. Mr. Gladstone distinguished himself in the first
 
 THE BUDGET OF 1860. 2o5 
 
 engagement by a feat of arms of the most brilliant character, 
 and none of his own Homeric heroes could have more terribly 
 " poured in thunder on the foe." Dropping martial metaphor, it 
 may be said that the best debater in the House of Commons 
 delivered, in answer to Mr. Disraeli no unworthy antagonist 
 a speech in which the lucidity of the argument was worthy of 
 the powerful declamation of the orator. When Mr. Gladstone 
 addresses himself in his best manner to his work, as he did upon 
 the occasion in question, the House of Commons is justly proud 
 of its illustrious member. Sometimes, like Burke, 
 
 " He goes on refining, 
 And thinks of convincing while they think of dining * 
 
 (or rather of dividing, for he seldom throws himself away upon 
 the Impransi) ; but there was no such waste of thought upon 
 this occasion, when he closed with his adversary like a man who 
 meant mischief; and he did it. Mr. Disraeli knows best 
 whether it was wise to get his forces so exceedingly well beaten 
 at the beginning of the financial campaign ; but that is his affair 
 and Prince Rupert's.' 
 
 Mr. Du Cane subsequently brought forward his motion, 
 affirming the inexpediency of any remission of duties, and the - 
 disappointment which would be caused throughout the country 
 by the reimposition of the income-tax at an unnecessarily high 
 rate. The debate was continued through three sittings, and 
 towards its close Mr. Gladstone replied to the principal 
 arguments urged against his financial scheme. With consider- 
 able power and vivacity, he vindicated the policy of the treaty 
 with France, which he considered would do more to unite the 
 two countries in the bonds of amity than any measure that could 
 be adopted. The division showed an increased majority for the 
 Government, the numbers being For Mr. Du Cane's amend- 
 ment, 223 ; against, 339 majority for the Ministry, 116. A 
 futile attempt was afterwards made to retain the paper duty. 
 
 The budget, nevertheless, was not safe yet. Several of its 
 leading provisions were repeatedly attacked as, for example, the 
 remission of wine duties and the reimposition of the income-tax 
 and on the order for the third reading of the Paper Duty 
 Eepeal Bill, Sir S. Northcote moved that the existing state of 
 the finances of the country rendered it undesirable to proceed 
 further with the measure. The Opposition mustered strongly, 
 but the supporters of the Government, probably thinking the 
 bill safe, did not attend to vote in large numbers, the figures 
 being For the third reading, 219 ; against, 210. 
 
 As this budget of 1860 is the most important with which Mr.
 
 26G WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Gladstone's name is associated, some reference must be made to 
 the opposition which arose out of doors to one of its most 
 important provisions, before the scheme finally passed the House 
 of Commons. The turning point of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer's success in the matter of the paper duty was the 
 provision to repeal not only the paper duty at home, but the duty 
 upon foreign paper coming in ; which was the provision practically 
 settling the matter, inasmuch as the large paper-makers at 
 home could not compete with the foreign manufacturers, who 
 would not allow their rags to come into the English market. 
 This provision, whilst it served to turn the flank of the opposi- 
 tion, did not immediately disarm the hostility of the small 
 section of protective paper-makers in this country, and a paper 
 warfare ensued.* The real state of the case, however, was well 
 exposed in one of the daily journals. The Government, in 
 abolishing the excise duty on paper, proposed (as above stated) 
 also to abolish the import duty of l|d. per Ib. hitherto charged 
 on paper brought into the United Kingdom from abroad, and to 
 establish, so far as England was concerned, entire free trade in 
 that commodity. The effect of this undoubtedly was to expose 
 our own paper-manufacturers to foreign competition. But paper 
 of the highest class had hitherto been made chiefly from rags, 
 which thus became an important article of commerce ; and the 
 French Government, while doing away with the prohibition 
 which had so far prevented our getting any rags at all from 
 France, intended to levy a tax on their exportation. The effect of 
 this would be to make rags cheaper in France than in England, 
 and consequently the manufacture of paper cheaper ; and as 
 French paper was to be admitted without duty, our manufacturers 
 complained that they would be exposed to an unfair and ruinous 
 competition. Such was the nature of the arguments advanced 
 by the protectionist section on this question. In reply, it was 
 asked, looking at the question from a consumer's point of view, 
 whether we were to allow French blunders of a protective 
 character to control British legislation ? Mr. Gladstone was 
 asked to lay- an import duty on French paper, in order to make 
 English paper dearer than it otherwise would be, and enable 
 English paper-makers to get a higher price than they would 
 have to pay if we allowed the free importation of paper from 
 France. This would -have been an abandonment of the 
 principles of Free Trade, of which we had hitherto boasted. In 
 fact, as the French Treaty reserved to us the right of laying an 
 
 * The literature upon this subject was most voluminous ; but the arguments of 
 the Protectionist minority were fully and effectively answered by some of the 
 leading publishers, as well as by the daily journal^ which almost unanimously sup- 
 ported the budget propositions.
 
 THE BUDGET OF I860. 267 
 
 import duty on French goods sufficient to counterbalance any 
 excise duty which might be levied in England on the same 
 articles, consequently the abolition of the excise duty on paper 
 required us to admit French paper duty free. If the counter- 
 proposition had been adopted, it would have upset the treaty. 
 It was merely a desire on the part of the few leading paper- 
 makers who were foremost in the powerful 'phalanx of resistance. 
 to be saved from the proposed effects of foreign competition. 
 Immediately Mr. Gladstone perceived the full bearing of the 
 question, and the effect his measure must produce on this 
 opposition, he resolved upon pushing forward his comprehensive 
 propositions ; and we have seen that, after considerable 
 opposition, his financial scheme passed the Commons in its 
 entirety. 
 
 But the question now arose, What will the Lords do ? will 
 they consent to the repeal of the paper duty ? Unfortunately, 
 they resolved upon the rejection of. the measure. Lord Monteagle 
 gave notice of a hostile motion to this effect, and Lord Derby 
 stated his intention of supporting it. Immediately upon the 
 announcement of this resolution by the Conservative chief, an 
 influential deputation waited upon his lordship to procure a 
 reconsideration of his decision. Lord Derby himself was surprised 
 at the numbers and importance of those forming the deputation, 
 which included representatives of literature and journalism, as 
 well as some of the leading publishing houses in the 
 metropolis.* A memorial, adopted at a public meeting held at 
 St. Martin's Hall, was presented to his lordship, protesting 
 against the course he had intimated it to be his intention to 
 take. In reply, Lord Derby made a remarkable statement. He 
 said that in 1858 and 1859, as he had been reminded, he had 
 expressed his own opinion that the tax was objectionable, and 
 that it was desirable it should be repealed as soon as the state 
 of the revenue would permit it ; and the question between him- 
 self and the deputation was whether the present state of the 
 revenue and the financial prospects of the country admitted of 
 the Legislature taking a, step which he would assume, for the 
 sake of argument, to be beneficial in itself. 
 
 This admission was a virtual condemnation of Lord Derby's 
 own course; for Mr. Gladstone, as the administrator of the 
 national finances, was certainly best able to judge whether those 
 finances would stand the strain of repeal. Lord Derby made the 
 
 * It may be stated that amongst those comprising the deputation were Mr. Ewart, 
 M.P., Mr. Ingram, M.P., Mr. Crawford, M.P., and Mr. Serjeant Parry. The last- 
 named gentleman presented the memorial, adding some remarks, and the case for 
 repeal was forcibly and exhaustively placed before Lord Derby by Mr. Ewart, Mr. 
 G. William Petter, Mr. F. Evans, and some other speakers.
 
 268 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 further acknowledgment that not only must the House of Com- 
 mons originate all taxes that are to be imposed, but that the 
 House of Lords had no right to modify a tax in the slightest 
 degree. The proposed rejection of the Paper Duty scheme was 
 therefore diametrically opposed to Parliamentary usage and 
 practice, and to the rights of the people. Lord Derby could not 
 defend the tax .on its intrinsic merits ; and, moreover, while its 
 abolition was a positive and undeniable good, its retention under 
 any circumstances could not be very long. 
 
 Before the division in the Upper House was taken, Mr. Bright 
 attended a great public meeting, held to protest against 'the 
 usurpation, proposed by Lord Derby to the House of Lords, in 
 the retention of the tax upon paper, independent of the House 
 of Commons and the Crown.' The hon. member for Birmingham 
 denied the right of the House of Lords to supersede a vote of 
 the Commons, who had the right the sole right of voting 
 money for the service of the Crown. The step was an attack 
 upon liberty, upon the dignity and rights of the House of Com- 
 mons. If the Government tamely submitted they would lose the 
 confidence of the country. 4 And who would come in ? the old 
 thing over again : Derby in one House, Disraeli in the other 
 men who appear to have no principle. Wherever you see them 
 travelling, if you study with the minutest investigation their 
 political Bradshaw, you will find that every line converges to 
 one point, which is Downing Street.' The constitutional ques- 
 tion he declared to be worth a hundred times the excise duty 
 upon paper. 
 
 When the bill came on for second reading in the House of 
 Lords, notwithstanding, evil counsels prevailed, and it was 
 i ejected by the large, majority of 89. Mr. Gladstone was now 
 face to face with the gravest constitutional crisis in his career 
 not excepting, perhaps, that which subsequently arose respecting 
 the abolition of Purchase in the Army. 
 
 It was held by many and those unquestionably the great 
 majority in the country that the rejection of the bill by the 
 Lords, if sustained, would establish a marked precedent for the 
 future. The minority again, looking at the question in what 
 they deemed to be a practical light, regarded the decision of the 
 Lords as wise and prudent. Eventually, the House of Commons 
 appointed a committee to draw up a report on historical 
 precedents in the matter ; and on the 5th of July Lord Palmer- 
 ston moved the following resolutions : * 1. That the right of 
 granting aids and supplies to the Crown is in the Commons 
 alone, as an essential part of their constitution, and the limita- 
 tion of aD such grants as to matter, manner, measure, and time
 
 THE BUDGET OF 1860. 269 
 
 is only ill them. 2. That although the Lords have exercised the 
 power of rejecting bills of several descriptions relating to taxa- 
 tion by negativing the whole, yet the exercise of that power by 
 them has not been frequent, and is justly regarded by this 
 House with peculiar jealousy as affecting the light of the Com- 
 mons to grant the supplies, and to provide the Ways and 
 Means for the service of the year. 3. That to guard for the 
 future against an undue exercise of that power by the Lords, and 
 to secure to the Commons their rightful control over taxation 
 and supply, this House has in its. own hands the power so to 
 impose and remit taxes and to frame bills of supply that the 
 right of the Commons as to the matter, manner, measure, and 
 time may be maintained inviolate.' His lordship said that as the 
 House of Lords had been encouraged by the diminution of the 
 majority in the Lower House which had fallen from 53 on the 
 second to 9 on the third reading it would be better for the 
 Commons to satisfy themselves with a mere declaration of their 
 constitutional privileges The resolutions were carried. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, in speaking upon them, said that while the 
 resolutions did all that language could do to defend the honour 
 of that House, he was prepared to go further, and to reserve 
 to himself the right of acting. The precedents quoted had 
 not touched in the slightest degree the case under consideration ; 
 for there was a great difference between the House of Lords 
 advising an alteration in a money bill and rejecting the repeal 
 of a tax. The House of Commons had declared that they 
 could spare from the revenue of the country 1,125,000 of the 
 taxation, and .having an option between the tea and the paper 
 duties as to which they should remit, they chose that which 
 they believed would prove more beneficial to the country, though, 
 perhaps, not the most. popular. The result had been that the 
 House of Lords had chosen to assume to themselves the power 
 of dictating to the House of Commons, and of saying that the 
 country could not spare such a remission of taxation. Mr. 
 Gladstone maintained that the House had the undoubted right 
 to select the manner in which the people should be taxed, and 
 they were bound to preserve intact that precious deposit. He 
 reserved to himself the privilege of submitting such practical 
 measures as would give effect to the resolutions. 
 
 In the closing days' of the session this important financial 
 question was once more discussed in a House which (owing to 
 the strenuous exertions of the Whips) numbered exactly five hun- 
 dred members, including the Speaker. This was an unusual 
 spectacle in a session already almost moribund. Mr. Gladstone 
 moved his resolutions for the reduction of the duty on foreign
 
 270 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 paper. The question, he said, was great in connection with 
 important commercial principles, and obligations of honour and 
 policy, as it related to a contract with France. Reducing the 
 customs duty on paper to that of the excise was clearly within 
 the sense and meaning of the treaty with France. On the ground 
 of humanity towards the papermakers, it would be desirable to 
 settle the question then. The obligation of the treaty was, in 
 the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, undoubted ; and in 
 that opinion the legal authorities of France concurred. The 
 question was also one of policy, and a touchstone was now to be 
 applied to old and new friends of Free Trade, and that was, this 
 very last article which claimed protection. He could not doubt 
 that the sense of honour of the House, as well as its sense of 
 policy, would dictate to them the acceptance of a resolution which 
 for the last time would deal with Protection. 
 
 The first resolution was carried by a majority of 33, the 
 numbers being For the resolution, 266 ; against, 233. The 
 cheers which followed the announcement of these figures were 
 loud and prolonged ; and when Mr. Gladstone rose to read his 
 second resolution he was kept standing for five or six minutes, 
 in consequence of the continued applause from the Liberal 
 benches. With the passing of these resolutions, the constitutional 
 question, which had given rise to so much acrimonious debate, 
 remained in abeyance for the time, but only to be re-opened in 
 the following session.* 
 
 In the course of this session Mr. Gladstone addressed the 
 House on the subject of Lord John Russell's Reform Bill. This 
 measure proposed to add to the 10 occupation franchise in 
 counties a security that would make it a bond fide franchise, and 
 to introduce a 6 franchise in towns, which would add (said Mr. 
 Disraeli) about 200,000 to the borough constituency. There were 
 also some redistribution changes in the bill, and the payment of 
 poor-rates only was to be the condition of the vote. In the debate 
 on the second reading, Mr. Gladstone vindicated the conduct and 
 consistency of the introducer of the bill, as well as of the Govern- 
 ment, upon the Reform question. The bill was brought forward 
 in obedience to frequent pledges, and after these pledges and the 
 expectations which had been raised, he must warn hon. gentle- 
 men opposite of the danger of further and unnecessary delay. He 
 ridiculed the fears of those who thought that the proposed 
 franchise would have the effect of deteriorating the constituencies 
 
 * It was pointed out by Lord Brougham and others how great would' have been 
 the injustice and loss inflicted upon the whole body of publishers if the tax had 
 been retained. Engagements entailing enormous expenditure had been entered 
 upon, on the faith of the determination of the House of Commons expressed 
 in the outset of the struggle to abolish the tax.
 
 THE BUDGET OF I860. 271 
 
 of the country ; and contended, on the contrary, that the class of 
 voters created by the bill were, by their position and intelligence, 
 fully as capable of exercising the franchise as independently as 
 many of the shopkeeping electors in our boroughs. The appre- 
 hensions of the 6 electors becoming so numerous as to swamp 
 the representation of property and station in that House were, he 
 maintained, utterly unfounded and delusive. 
 
 The bill was read a second time without a division ; but 
 finding it impossible to carry it through both .Houses this 
 session, Lord.,!. Russell withdrew it. 
 
 It is refreshing, for the moment, to turn from the arena of 
 politics, and to regard Mr. Gladstone in another capacity, and 
 one in which he has appeared on several occasions during his 
 lengthened career. On the 16th of April, 1860, he was installed 
 as Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh, receiving 
 previous to the installation the degree of LL.D. Having been, 
 formally introduced as Rector of the University by Sir David 
 Brewster, Mr. Grladstone delivered the customary address. 
 The right hon. gentleman began by stating that he intended 
 to speak to the assembled students of the work of the University 
 as a great organ of preparation for after life, with the view 
 of assisting them in arming themselves for the efforts and 
 trials of their career. Every generation of men, it was said, 
 as it traversed the vale of life, laboured under that which 
 succeeded it, and accumulated new treasures for the race. 
 No small part of that treasure was stored, and no small part of 
 that part was performed by universities, which had been entitled 
 to rank among the greater lights and glories of Christendom. Mr. 
 Gladstone then described the work of the University as covering 
 the whole field of knowledge, human and divine ; the whole field 
 of nature ; the whole field of time, in binding together successive 
 generations as they passed in the prosecution oi their common 
 destiny ; aiding each to sow its proper seed and to reap its proper 
 harvest from what had been sown before ; storing up into its own 
 treasure house the spoils of every new venture in the domain of 
 mental enterprise ; and ever binding the present to pay over to 
 the future, at least, an acknowledgment of the debt it owed to 
 the past. In the olden history of the universities, they were to 
 knowledge and mental freedom what the castle was to the feudal 
 baron what the guild was to the infant middle classes. The 
 universities were a great mediating power between the high and 
 the low the old and the new ; between the speculative and the 
 active ; between authority and freedom. In countries which 
 enjoyed political liberty, the universities were usually firm sup- 
 porters of the established order of things ; but in countries under
 
 872 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 absolute government they required a bias towards innovation. 
 After some remarks on the proper work of universities, Mr. Glad- 
 stone noticed the difficulties attending the question, how far 
 endowments for education were desirable, urging upon students 
 and teachers the duty of bestirring themselves in their own 
 persons to refute the charge that endowments of universities gravi- 
 tated towards torpor as their natural termination. The new 
 Lord Hector finally impressed upon the students the importance 
 of the acquisition of those particular forms of knowledge which 
 jrould be directly serviceable to them in their several professions, 
 and the value of the study of ancient literature, as affording the 
 most effective intellectual training. 
 
 Thus closed an address whose special characteristic was its great 
 practical value.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 
 
 The Eesults of Free Trade England's Foreign Relations Mr. Gladstone's Post 
 Office Savings Bank Bill Church Rates The Affairs of Italy Speech of Mr. 
 Gladstone The Budget of 1861 Effects of the French Treaty Character of the 
 Financial Statement The Paper Duty Its Repeal Opposed Attacks on the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer The Bill passed Mr. Gladstone's Mission to the 
 Ionian Islands Financial ineasuresof 1862 Their Scope and Character Another 
 Debate on the Affairs of Italy Mr. Gladstone's reply to Sii George Bowyer The 
 Confederate States of America Indiscreet Utterance of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer Presentation to Mr. Charles Kean The Budget of 1863 Applica- 
 tion of the Surplus Proposed Taxation of Charities The Scheme abandoned 
 Debate on the Income-tax Dissenters' Burials Bill The International Exhibition 
 Building. 
 
 THE sagacity of the statesmen who, through evil report and good 
 report, had remained the steadfast friends of the principles of 
 Free Trade, was strongly attested in the year 1861. The harvest 
 of the preceding year had failed, and the most lugubrious vatici- 
 nations of poverty and distress were indulged in by those who 
 had alike opposed the great measure of Sir Robert Peel and the 
 Commercial Treaty with France. These prognostications were 
 defeated, and England discovered that Free Trade, which had 
 been described as the parent of innumerable evils, was her saviour 
 in the period of national crisis. The removal of the restrictions 
 which had hitherto impeded the free interchange of commodities 
 with other countries, now operated in a most salutary manner, 
 when the country was driven, by her enlarged necessities, to the 
 resources of a foreign supply ; and Free Trade exercised a health- 
 ful influence in many other respects upon English industry. 
 Under other circumstances, the scarcity of the harvest and the 
 fetters upon trade would have seriously crippled the country at 
 this juncture; but the working classes especially now experienced 
 the most beneficial results from the removal, by the Legislature, 
 of a pressure that must long otherwise have retarded the internal 
 progress of the Empire. 
 
 When the session opened, the relations of England with foreign 
 Powers .were friendly and satisfactory ; and though events of great 
 importance were transpiring in Italy, it was hoped that the 
 
 T
 
 274 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 moderation of the Powers of Europe would prevent any interrup- 
 tion of the general peace. The Speech from the Throne 
 announced that the operations of the allied forces in China had 
 been attended with complete success. With the occupation ot 
 Pekin, an honourable and a satisfactory settlement of all the 
 matters in dispute had been procured. Serious differences had 
 arisen amongst the States of the North American Union, but it 
 was hoped that these differences might still prove susceptible of 
 a pacific adjustment. 
 
 In the House of Lords, the Earl of Derby strongly condemned 
 the policy of the Government with regard to France and Italy 
 a policy which he described as placing on the shoulders of the 
 people ' an amount of taxation absolutely unprecedented in time 
 of peace, and only made more intolerable by the financial freaks 
 of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.' To this attack upon Mr. 
 Gladstone, the records of the session of 1861 furnish the best of 
 all possible answers an eminently practical one. The Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer again proceeded with his legislation on 
 behalf of the people, and only three days after the speech of Lord 
 Derby in the Upper House, he brought forward in the House of 
 Commons the preliminary resolutions on which he designed to 
 found his new Post Office Savings Bank Bill. The object of this 
 measure was to give increased facilities for the deposit of small 
 savings to those who now only possessed imperfect ones, through 
 the medium of the savings-banks. Whereas, up to that time, 
 the savings-banks could only afford limited accommodation for 
 small depositors, there being only 600 in England and Wales 
 which opened only on two days in the week the post-offices, of 
 which he proposed now to avail himself, numbered 2,000 or 
 3,000, and were open every day in the week, and for ten hours 
 each day. The plan would be worked through the Postmaster- 
 General, and the functions of the commissioners would be simply 
 to receive the deposits. The Government proposed to offer the 
 working classes 2 10s. per cent, interest on their deposits, with- 
 out any expense to the public. The system was intended to be 
 self-supporting. There was nothing in the project to give it the 
 character of a national bank. Mr. Gladstone then moved a 
 resolution to provide for the payment out of the Consolidated 
 Fund of any deficiency which might arise from the establishment 
 of Post Office Savings Banks. It would be impossible to over- 
 estimate the advantages which have accrued to certain classes of 
 the community from the legislation thus initiated. 
 
 Taking the most important occasions upon which Mr. Gladstone 
 addressed the House during this session in their natural order, 
 we find that, before the close of February, he took part in thf
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 275 
 
 discussion on the vexed question of Church rates. Sir John 
 Trelawny had once more introduced his Church Kates Abolition 
 Bill, and on a proposition to defer the bill for six months, or 
 virtually to reject it, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said 
 there was a growing persuasion that it would be for the credit of 
 the legislature to bring this contentious matter to an end. He 
 did not regard the present bill as one calculated to effect * 
 settlement. The people of England were not prepared to part 
 with the union of Church and State, which was one of the avowed 
 objects of the abolition of Church rates. Abolish Church rates, 
 and the support of the fabric of the Church in the rural districts 
 would be at an end. Dissenters in the main were congregated 
 in the populous parishes, and the offer was made to them to 
 exempt themselves from the rate if they pleased ; but they did 
 not please. Accepting Church rates as the means of providing 
 religious worship for the great majority of the poor, were they 
 to be abolished for the sake of a minority who declared they 
 had a grievance from which they would not accept exemption ? 
 Mr. Gladstone concluded by suggesting that an arrangement 
 might be made to accept the power of a majority of a parish to 
 reject or agree to Church rates as a right, at the same time 
 allowing a parish also to tax itself by the will of the majority. 
 He should deeply regret if no agreement could be arrived at ; 
 but he thought that the House of Lords, in rejecting these bills 
 from time to time, occupied a strong, and perhaps impregnable 
 position, and he felt it his bounden duty to vote against the 
 second reading of the bill then before the House. 
 
 Mr. Bright complained that in effect Mr. Gladstone's proposi 
 tion was no more than what the existing law amounted to, viz., 
 that where you could not get Church rates you were to let them 
 alone, and where a majority was in favour of them they were to 
 prevail. The bill was carried by 281 to 266. In the majority 
 were Lords Palmerston and Russell, and other members of the 
 Government, but Mr. Gladstone voted in the minority. 
 
 The debates which arose in both Houses on the progress of 
 events in Italy demand some notice. The cause of the ex-King 
 of Naples had certain defenders in England, who likewise scoutea 
 the notion of a united Italy. Victor Emmanuel was strongly con- 
 demned for supporting Garibaldi in Sicily, and approving the 
 invasion of Naples. Mr. Roebuck predicted that if Garibaldi 
 attempted to do in Venetia what he had done in Sicily and 
 Naples, he would be hanged within a week. In the House of 
 Commons, upon the motion for going into committee of Supply 
 on the 4th of March, Mr. Pope Hennessy rose to call atten- 
 tion to the ' active interference of the Secretary of State for 
 
 T 2
 
 276 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Foreign Affairs, in promoting Piedmontese policy,' and to the 
 effect of that policy in increasing the national burdens in Pied- 
 mont, in the decline of its trade and commerce, the waste of the 
 population in predatory war, and the consequent decay of agri- 
 culture. The speaker contrasted this state of things with the 
 alleged flourishing condition of the Papal dominions in these 
 several respects. 
 
 Mr. Hennessy's resolution gave rise to the most exciting debate 
 of the session. Mr. Layard maintained that the policy of her 
 Majesty's Government in regard to the affairs of Italy was in 
 accordance with the sentiments of the large mass of the English 
 people. He entirely sympathised with the Italian people. Sir 
 George Bowyer took the opposite view, alleging that by our sup- 
 port of the ambitious designs of the Emperor of the French we 
 were paralysing all our European Allies. The Government 
 policy had destroyed that prestige of honour and justice which 
 used to attend the British flag. That flag now inspired dis- 
 trust and apprehension in the minds of sovereigns and nations, 
 and encouraged none but the revolutionary party in Europe, 
 who were the unprincipled tools of the unbounded ambition of 
 the French Emperor. 
 
 These speeches drew forth some impassioned replies on the 
 second night of the debate. The eloquence of Sir Eobert Peel 
 and Mr. Gladstone especially roused the feelings of the majority 
 of the House to a high pitch of enthusiasm. The picture of 
 Venice drawn by the former was very graphic. * Venice,' he said, 
 * is not Austrian ; it is certainly Italian ; but it is trampled under 
 foot by Austria, and held in subjection by 10,000 bayonets, by 
 a race foreign to Italy in language, sympathies, and feelings. 
 Do not tell me that this state of things can last. Venice may be 
 trodden down and ground into the dust, but they cannot destroy 
 her nature, nor change her from what she is. Venice is Italian ! 
 
 " States fall, arts fade, but Nature doth not die, 
 Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear, 
 The pleasant place of all festivity, 
 The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy ! " 
 
 That is what Venice was. What is she now ? See her " in her 
 voiceless woe ;" see her palaces crumbling into ruin !' 
 
 But the most crushing retort to Sir George Bowyer and his 
 friends came from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He began 
 his speech by saying that if the debate had been confined to 
 criticisms of the King of Sardinia, or if it concerned only the 
 policy of the English Foreign Minister, he should have remained 
 silent, because that policy was one which commanded approval 
 far beyond the limits of party connection, far beyond the walls
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 277 
 
 of that House, far beyond class or interest. He believed it to be 
 stamped with approval throughout the body of the people of 
 England, from the greatest to the least. But Sir George Bowyer 
 and Mr. Hennessy had extended the subject of debate, and raised 
 a great issue. They had called upon the House to lament the 
 foreign policy of the Government, which they alleged was 
 founded on injustice and could not prosper ; and they also said 
 that the cause which we favoured in Italy was the persecution of 
 righteous governments. The member for Dundalk had asserted 
 that a revolution which the people of England looked upon with 
 wonder was the result of a wicked conspiracy carried on by an 
 unprincipled king and a cunning Minister ; and that the people 
 of Naples, governed by benignant laws wisely, administered, were 
 devoted to their sovereign. Mr. Gladstone then went on to show 
 how the Constitution of Naples had been trodden under foot, 
 and detailed the melancholy history of the sufferings of the 
 people since the late king had so shamelessly set aside and vio- 
 lated the constitution he had sworn to maintain. Referring to 
 
 * that miserable monarch ' Francis II., and the courage he was 
 said to have manifested during the siege of Gaeta, the right hon. 
 gentleman remarked, ' It is all very well to claim consideration 
 for him on account of his courage, but I confess I feel much 
 more admiration for the courage of the hon. member for Dun- 
 dalk (Sir Of. Bowyer) and the hon. member for King's County 
 (Mr. Pope Hennessy) ; for I think I would rather live in a stout 
 and well-built casemate listening to the whizzing of bullets 
 and the bursting of shells, than come before a free assembly 
 to vindicate,' here Mr. Gladstone was interrupted by the loud 
 cheering of members, and for some time he was unable to 
 complete the sentence, When allowed to proceed, he added, 
 
 * than to vindicate such a cause as that which those hon. gentle- 
 men have espoused.' Francis II. had ascended the throne under 
 circumstances unusually favourable, but he had added to the 
 long roll of crimes for which the day of retribution was at hand. 
 
 Adverting to the government of the States of the Church, 
 Mr. Gladstone detailed various cases of outrage and executions 
 in the Romagna, long before the late revolution acts which, 
 whether perpetrated by their own Government or by a foreign 
 soldiery, would naturally and justly exasperate the most patient 
 people. Wanton and deliberate murders at Perugia the speaker 
 established by documentary proofs, and he supplemented these 
 with details of particular instances of illegal executions in 
 Modena, the favourite and pet state of Austria, under the late 
 
 * paternal ' government. Italy owed much to England, and a 
 heavy debt of gratitude to France ; but neither of these countries,
 
 278 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 nor even Victor Emmanuel, had created Italian unity : it was 
 the policy which had been pursued by Austria towards Italy 
 that was responsible for this consummation. Mr. Gladstone 
 closed with this felicitous reference to the manner in which the 
 /evolution in Italy had been accomplished : ' Never were changes 
 so great and important effected with so little to raise a blush on 
 the cheeks of those who promoted them. They recall to my mind 
 the words with which Mr. Fox greeted the first appearance of the 
 French Ke volution, when he said that it was the most stupendous 
 fabric that had ever been erected on the basis of human integrity 
 in any age or country of the world. Sadly indeed was that 
 prophecy falsified by subsequent events from causes which were 
 not then suspected ; but I believe the words were not far from 
 the truth at the time when they were spoken, and whether they 
 were or not, they are the simple and solid truth in their applica- 
 tion to Italy. For long years have we been compelled to reckon 
 Italy, in its divided state Italy under the friends of the 
 Austrians, Italy the victim of legitimacy, Italy with a spiritual 
 sovereignty as its centre to reckon it as one of the chief sources 
 of difficulty and disturbance in European politics. We are now 
 coming to another time. The miseries of Italy have been the 
 danger of Europe. The consolidation of Italy her restoration 
 to national life (if it be the will of God to grant her that boon) 
 will be, I believe, a blessing as great to Europe as it is to all the 
 people of the Peninsula. It will add to the general peace and 
 welfare of the civilised world a new and solid guarantee.' 
 
 The debate was continued by Mr. Maguire and Mr. Eoebuck, 
 and concluded by Lord John Kussell, who vindicated his policy, 
 claiming that it was a national one, and that the country 
 approved it. The discussion terminated without a division. 
 Towards the close of the session Italian affairs were once more 
 discussed, when Mr. Gladstone strongly denied the charge of 
 promoting revolutionary movements in Italy, which had been 
 brought against the Ministry. He also adduced facts and circum- 
 stances in justification of his previous indictment against the 
 Duke of Modena. as to the administration of criminal justice in 
 his dominions. 
 
 The annual financial statement of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer was produced on the 15th of April. Not only was 
 the budget awaited with great interest by the House, but an 
 extraordinary desire was manifested by strangers to be present 
 at its delivery. At half-past eight in the morning the doors of St. 
 Stephen's were opened, and in less than an hour the waiting-room 
 appropriated to those who had tickets for the Strangers' Gallery 
 was crowded, while a long stream of persons lined both sides of
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 279 
 
 St. Stephen's Hall, in the hope that unforeseen circumstance? 
 would arise by which they could procure seats in the gallery. 
 
 At half-past four o'clock Mr. Gladstone rose in a densely 
 crowded House. Commencing with the prefatory intimation that 
 the retrospective portion of the statement he had to submit to the 
 House was most unfavourable, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 observed that in the previous session questions of no ordinary 
 moment had been discussed. ' In the beautiful tragedy of Schiller, 
 Mary Queen of Scots is made to say of herself, " I have been much 
 hated, but I have also been much beloved ;" and I think I may 
 say with equal truth that the financial legislation of last year, while 
 I do not mean to contend that it was not unacceptable to many, 
 met, as a whole, with signal support from a great body of public 
 opinion in this country.' The past year had been signalised by 
 the commercial treaty with France, by the removal of great 
 national burdens, and by the abolition of the last protective duty 
 from our system ; it was a year of the largest expenditure that 
 had occurred in time of peace, while it was characterised by an 
 unparalleled severity of the seasons. The estimate for the year 
 1860, excluding the charge for fortifications, was 73,664,000, 
 while the aetual expenditure was 72,842,000, leaving a balance 
 of 822,000. In 1859 the revenue amounted to 71,089,000, 
 and in 1860 it was only 70,283,000, making a decrease of 
 806,000. The actual expenditure of the year 1859-60, as 
 stated, was 72,842,000, which, as compared with the revenue 
 received of 70,283,000, left an apparent deficiency of 2,559,000, 
 but with certain deductions this was reduced to an actual defici- 
 ency of 221,000. The estimate of revenue from customs, post- 
 office, &c,, was 27,457,000, and the yield was 27,522,000. 
 "Whatever might be the loss of excise in a bad year, it was gained 
 by customs ; and this was the case last year with regard to corn, 
 which, imported under a nominal duty, produced 866,000 ; 
 while the deficiency in the barley crop caused an increase of cus- 
 toms in the article of sugar for breweries of 54,000, and the 
 duty on imported hops was 47,000. Tea, sugar, and tobacco had 
 been almost stationary. Touching articles on which duty had 
 been reduced, such as timber, &c., the reduction had been esti- 
 mated to amount to 663,000, while the loss had actually been only 
 529,000. An abolition of the differential duties as affecting 
 spirits, made a reduction on brandy of 446,000 ; but in July an 
 additional duty had been placed on foreign spirits, which was 
 estimated to yield 400,000, so that the reduction was to be 
 only 46,000 ; and the result had been altogether a gain on 
 spirits of 79,000. The loss anticipated by the reduction in the 
 duty on wine was 830,000, and the actual loss had been 493,000
 
 230 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 only. There had been a great increase in the importation of wines, 
 including French wines ; though, with regard to the latter, Mr. 
 Gladstone argued that it was necessary for the national taste to 
 undergo some change before the full effect of the reduction of the 
 duty on French wines could be felt. Dealing next with the revenue 
 from excise, he stated that it was estimated at 2 1,36 1,000, while 
 it had yielded 19,435,000 only. The deficit arose on three 
 articles hops, malt, and spirits which together represented 
 the real sources and points of the failure of the revenue of 
 the year. 
 
 In considering the financial condition of the country, it was 
 necessary to advert to the growing expenditure. In 1858 the 
 sum voted was under 64,000,000, while in 1861 it was nearly 
 74,000,000 an increase of 10,000,000 in three years ; 
 9,000,000 of taxes being imposed to meet those requirements, 
 while of temporary resources only 2,700,000 had been called 
 in aid for that purpose. The balances in the Exchequer in 
 March, 1861, were 6,522,000. As regarded the National Debt, 
 1,000,000 of Exchequer bonds had been paid off, but replaced 
 by a new set to the same amount. The addition to the debt, 
 exclusive of money for fortifications, was 460,000. As com- 
 pared with 1853, there had been large remissions of taxation, 
 and unfavourable seasons; but although 1860 was far worse in 
 this latter respect, it would be found that the immediate and 
 palpable effect of remissions of taxation presented a remarkable 
 contrast. In 1853 there were remitted 1,500,000 of customs 
 duties, which loss was made up, and more, by the end of that 
 year. The gain on the year in excise duties was 900,000. In 
 1860 the excise ought to have produced a gain of 1,945,000, but 
 it had only produced a gain of 265,000. But the expenditure of 
 1854 was, of imperial expenditure, 56,000,000 ; and local expen- 
 diture, 16,000,000: total, 72,000,000. In 1860 the imperial 
 expenditure was 73,000,000, the local charge 18,000,000: 
 total, 91,000,000, or an increase of 20,00,0000 in seven 
 years ; and he believed that there must be some reference to 
 this cause in considering the falling off in the elasticity of 
 the revenue. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone next dealt with the question of trade as 
 affected by the French treaty. He was prepared to show that if 
 the employment of the people, and other circumstances, had not 
 been such as to yield an adequate revenue in the year, as it had 
 actually proved to be, the condition of affairs would have been 
 far less satisfactory but for the wise and provident legislation of 
 Parliament. Once more he referred to the signal services 
 rendered by Mr. Cobden, and observed, with regard to the part
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861 63. 281 
 
 taken by the French Government, ' Looking at the whole course 
 of proceedings, from first to last, no one can conceive a more 
 loyal, thorough, intelligent, unflinching determination than has 
 been exhibited by the Ministers of France, under the animating 
 spirit and guidance of the Emperor, to give full effect alike to 
 the terms and to the principles and spirit of the treaty, not for 
 the sake of British interest, nor with any mere wish to conciliating 
 England, but for the sake of the interests of France.' With 
 regard to the effect of the measures of 1860, the right hon. 
 gentleman went on to state that the export trade of the previous 
 year was 136,000,000 of declared value (as against 130,000,000 
 in 1859), and this the largest ever known. There had been an 
 increase in several imported articles : butter, cheese, eggs, and 
 rice gave an increase of 7,000,000 in 1860, as compared with 
 4,000,000 in 1859; and these were articles on which small 
 customs duties had been abolished. The importation of corn 
 had risen from some 17,000,000 in 1859 to 38,154,000 in 
 1860 a fearful proof of the failure of production in this 
 country, but an equally cogent proof of the value of that legisla- 
 tion which had removed all obstruction to the importation of 
 that article of necessity. Articles of import on which the duties 
 still remained had been about the same. The articles on which 
 there had been a reduction of duty last year were, in value, in 
 1859, 11,346,000, and in 1860, 13,323,000; while those on 
 which the duty was abolished last year were, in 1859, in value, 
 15,735,000, and in 1860, 22,630,000, an increase of nearly 
 six millions and a half. 
 
 Arriving at the estimated expenditure of the coming year, Mr . 
 Gladstone stated its total to be 69,900,000. The revenue, 
 assuming the continuance of the tea and sugar duties, and an 
 income-tax, he calculated at 71,823,000, thus leaving a surplus 
 of 1,923,000 over the estimated expenditure. The Grovernment 
 had come to the conclusion that it would not be justified in 
 keeping so large a balance in hand, and it was proposed to apply 
 it to the diminution of taxation. There were four articles which 
 would at once present themselves for notice, namely, the tea and 
 sugar duties, the tenth penny of the income-tax, and the paper 
 duty. Mr. Gladstone announced, amid loud cheers, that it was 
 proposed to remit the penny on the income-tax, which had 
 been imposed in the preceding year. * I think that it would be 
 a most enviable lot,' he said, ' for any Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 I certainly do not entertain any hope that it will be mine 
 but I think that some better Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 
 some happier time, may achieve that great accomplishment, and 
 that some future poet may be able to sing of him as Mr. Tenny-
 
 282 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 sou has sung of Godiva although I do not suppose the means 
 employed will be the same 
 
 ' He took away the tax, 
 And built himself an everlasting name." 
 
 But the business we have before us is of a much humbler order/ 
 The remission of the penny in the income-tax, continued the 
 right hon. gentleman, would cause a loss in the current financial 
 year of 850,000. Kenewed plaudits greeted the announcement 
 that it was proposed to repeal the duty on paper on the 1st of 
 October, making a loss of revenue in the year of about 665,000. 
 There would thus be left a surplus of 408,000. No case had been 
 made out against the minor charges on commercial operations, 
 and it was not proposed to remit them. The portions of the 
 reduced income-tax, and the duty on paper, would be provided 
 for by the China indemnity, and reductions in military estimates. 
 It was only proposed to re-enact the income-tax and tea and 
 sugar duties for one year. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 thus concluded his statement : 
 
 ' We have seen this country during the last few years without European war, 
 but under a burden of taxation, such as, out of a European war, it never was called 
 upon to bear ; we have also seen it last year under the pressure of a season of 
 blight, such as hardly any living man can recollect ; yet, on looking abroad over 
 the face of England, no one is sensible of any signs of decay, least of all can such 
 an apprehension be felt with regard to those attributes which are perhaps the 
 highest of all, and on which most of all depends our national existence the spirit 
 and courage of the country. It is needless to say that neither the Sovereign on 
 the Throne, nor the nobles and the gentry that fill the place of the gallant chieftains 
 of the Middle Age, nor the citizens who represent the invincible soldiery of Crom- 
 well, nor the peasantry who are the children of those sturdy archers that drew the 
 cross-bows of England in the fields of France none of these betray either inclination 
 or tendency to depart from the tradition of their forefathers. If there be any 
 danger which has recently in an especial manner beset us, I confess that, though it 
 may be owing to some peculiarity in my position, or some weakness in my vision, 
 it has seemed to me to be during recent years chiefly, in our proneness to constant, 
 and apparently almost boundless, augmentations of expenditure, and in the conse- 
 quences that are associated with them. . . . Sir, I do trust that the day has 
 come when a check has began to be put to the movement in this direction ; and I 
 think, as far as I have been able to trace the sentiments of the House, and the 
 indications of general opinion during the present-session, that the tendency to 
 which I have adverted is at least partially on the decline. I trust it will altogether 
 pubside and disappear. . . . The spirit of the people is excellent. There 
 never was a nation in the whole history of the world more willing to bear the heavy 
 burdens under which it lies more generously disposed to overlook the errors of 
 those who have the direction of its affairs. For my own part, I hold that, if this 
 country can steadily and constantly remain as wise in the use of her treasure as she 
 is unrivalled in its production, and as moderate in the exercise of her strength as she 
 is rich in its possession, then we may well cherish the hope that there is yet reserved 
 for England a great work to do on her own part and on the part of others, and 
 that for many a generation yet to come she will continue to hold a foremost place 
 among the nations of the world.' 
 
 Had not his budgets of 1853 and 1860 already lifted Mr. 
 G ladstone to an equality with the great Finance Ministers of the 
 past, his statement of 1861 would have entitled him to take this
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OP 1861-63. 283 
 
 distinguished rank. The House vibrated to his ' touch ' like an 
 instrument of music to the i touch of genius.' As a writer in 
 the Daily News observed, ' The audacious shrewdness of Lanca- 
 shire married to the polished grace of Oxford is a felicitous union 
 of the strength and culture of Liberal and Conservative England, 
 and no party in the House, whatever may be its likings or 
 antipathies, can sit under the spell of Mr. Gladstone's rounded 
 and shining eloquence without a conviction that the man who can 
 talk " shop " like a tenth muse, is, after all, a true representa- 
 tive man of the market of the world.' Another writer, in the 
 Illustrated London News, sketching the scene on the production 
 of the budget, said, ' Among those who ought to be judges there is 
 an almost unanimous opinion that, take it for all in all, this was 
 the very best speech Mr. Gladstone ever made. As we now know, 
 he was conscious that he had a pleasant surprise in store for those 
 hearers who had come to listen to a woful palinode, and there 
 was a lurking sense of triumph over his avowed opponents, and 
 still more over his skin-deep friends, which gave a lightness and 
 a buoyancy to his demeanour which of course spread to his audi- 
 ence. It even gave a raciness to his occasional flights of humour. 
 His quotations were happy and neatly introduced, and that in 
 Latin was loudly cheered by the gentlemen below the gangway, 
 probably because, they not understanding it, it had a great effect 
 upon them. But the chief merit of the speech, in reference to 
 its object, was the remarkable dexterity with which it appealed 
 to the tastes, feelings, and opinions of both sides of the House. 
 At one sentence, delivered with his face half turned to the 
 benches behind, Mr. Bright would break out into an involuntary 
 cheer, at once both natural and hearty ; while the very next 
 moment the orator would lean, with a fascinating smile on his 
 countenance, over the table towards gentlemen opposite, and 
 minister to their weaknesses or prejudices with equal power and 
 success. Indeed, at times one could not but be reminded of Sir 
 Joshua's famous picture of Garrick between tragedy and comedy, 
 the attitude and expression of face possessing that duality which 
 the great limner has so marvellously pourtrayed in the picture in 
 question. In every possible respect it was a masterpiece of ora- 
 tory ; and as it in the result actually led to something tangible 
 that is to say, to a surplus and a reduction of taxation it was in 
 every sense triumphant.' 
 
 Yet there was a fly (if a small one) in the pot of ointment. 
 Although the budget was regarded generally in a very favourable 
 light, Mr. Bentinck made a fierce personal attack on Mr. Glad- 
 stone, alleging that his policy bad long been one of antagonism 
 to British agriculture. The task of demolishing the Chancellor
 
 284 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 of the Exchequer was, indeed, undertaken at various times during 
 the session, both by Mr. Bentinck and Lord Robert Montagu, 
 but the records of the House show what chance ' Thersites had 
 in a tongue-contest with Ulysses.' 
 
 The repeal of the paper duty continued to be viewed with 
 great disfavour by the Conservatives, and on the motion for 
 going into committee upon the propositions of the budget on 
 the 22nd of April, this and other parts of the financial scheme 
 were strongly attacked. The debate lasted for four nights. It 
 was opened by Mr. T. Baring, who urged the House to pause in 
 the removal of any duty which would not give an impetus to the 
 revenue, unless there was a great reduction of expenditure. 
 Several members disputed the existence of Mr. Gladstone's 
 surplus, and Sir S. Northcote urged that that was not a time to 
 propose the surrender of a large amount of revenue. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone replied generally to the criticisms which had 
 been passed upon his scheme. It had been objected that there 
 was no surplus, and that it was the interest of a Government to 
 make out a surplus : but there were others who had an interest 
 in showing there was none ; there were prophets last year as 
 much pledged to a negative as he was to an affirmative. 
 Examining in detail the calculations upon which the arguments 
 against a surplus were founded, he pointed out their inaccuracies, 
 and justified his own calculations. The estimate of the amount 
 to be received from China was a perfectly sound one, and he 
 demurred to the doctrine that the merchants were to be paid 
 first. The inland revenue estimates had been framed with the 
 concurrence of able and experienced officers, and he demonstrated 
 the cautious manner in which the produce of the income-tax had 
 been computed. The estimates were based upon the expectation 
 of an ordinary season and ordinary circumstances, and he never 
 had a stronger conviction than that there was likely to be an 
 excess over the estimated revenue. As to the disposal of the 
 surplus, he balanced the claims of tea and sugar on the one hand 
 and paper on the other. The reduction of the duties upon 
 articles of popular consumption was not the first object kept in 
 view by Sir Robert Peel in 1842, but the liberation and 
 extension of trade ; this principle lay at the root of our reformed 
 financial policy, and had governed almost every budget. He 
 urged that the course he had taken in comprising the repeal of 
 the paper duty with other items of the budget in one bill, 
 seemed to him a fair and legitimate mode of meeting the 
 difficulty which had occurred with the House of Lords, while 
 the remission of the duty was accompanied by a reduction of the 
 income-tax. Mr. Gladstone concluded by demanding that if his
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OP 1861-63. 285 
 
 financial scheme was opposed to the real opinion of the House, 
 it should be declared by the test of a division, instead of being 
 dallied with in long-drawn out and aimless debates. 
 
 The opposition did not assume the definite form of a division, 
 but Mr. Disraeli announced that in committee he should ask the 
 House whether any remission of indirect taxation should not 
 take place on the duties on tea, and take the sense of the House 
 thereon. The resolution imposing the income-tax was agreed to 
 without a division. After an abortive amendment by Mr. 
 Hubbard, Mr. Gladstone moved a resolution to continue until the 
 1st of July, 1862, certain duties on tea, sugar, and other articles 
 of the same class as sugar, which had been popularly, though not 
 accurately, described as war duties. He recapitulated his argu- 
 ments that since 1846 remissions of duty had been proposed less 
 for the benefit of the consumer than for the abolition of Protection 
 and the liberation of trade. He also showed that the motion of 
 which Mr. Horsfall had given notice for the reduction of the 
 duty on tea to Is. per Ib would have a destructive effect upon 
 the surplus by the loss of 950,000 ; and he referred to examples 
 to prove the influence of postponing duties in paralysing the 
 revenue and diminishing consumption, the consumer having to 
 wait long before he derived benefit from the remission. The 
 reduction might be desirable, but absurd and inflated represen- 
 tations had been indulged in as to the effects of the change. He 
 maintained that the remission of duties, although non-recupera- 
 tive, was in perfect harmony with the views of the late Sir 
 Robert Peel, who desired to augment the means of employing 
 labour. The reduction of the duty on tea would only give an 
 impulse to foreign labour, whereas the remission of the paper 
 duties would stimulate British labour in the manufacture of 
 paper and the produce of agricultural fibre, while the removal of 
 the excise regulations would relieve the trade from restrictions 
 that operated as a check upon it by stinting and repressing 
 enterprise. Mr. Horsfall's amendment was supported by Sir S. 
 Northcote and Mr. Disraeli, but on a division there was a 
 majority of 18 in favour of the Government, the numbers being 
 For the amendment, 281 ; against, 299. 
 
 The Palmerston Government undoubtedly adopted a bold 
 course in supporting Mr Gladstone in his determination to 
 include all the chief financial propositions of the budget in one 
 bill, instead of dividing them into several distinct bills. This 
 was an effectual, and, under the circumstances, a legitimate 
 circumvention of the House of Lords in its hostility to the pro- 
 posal for the repeal of the paper duty. The attitude of the 
 Opposition in the Commons showed their chagrin over this
 
 286 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 potent means which had been devised by the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer for the settlement of a vexed question. When the 
 budget as a whole came on for second reading on the 13th of 
 May, it was objected that such a procedure was contrary to prece- 
 dent and constitutional usage, that it was intended to limit the 
 power which the House of Lords possessed and were accustomed 
 to exercise with respect to each bill individually of adopting or 
 rejecting it in toto, and that it left them no alternative but to 
 accept any obnoxious clause that might be inserted in the bill, 
 or to throw the country into confusion by rejecting the entire 
 financial proposals of the Government. Sir James Graham 
 made a powerful defence of the Government. While admitting 
 that the Lords had exercised an undoubted privilege in rejecting 
 the Paper Duty Bill, he as decidedly questioned the policy of 
 their course in refusing assent to a bill relating to finance on 
 financial grounds. This was such an innovation on established 
 formula from the Revolution down, that he thought the equally 
 constituted right of the Commons to include impositions and 
 remissions of taxation in one bill should be adopted, with a view 
 to check any attempt at invading their independence. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was subjected to several violent personal attacks 
 at this juncture, and of these none was more bitter or more 
 violent than that of Lord Robert Cecil (Marquis of Salisbury) in 
 the House of Commons. His lordship, who could with difficulty 
 obtain a hearing from the House, described the budget as a per- 
 sonal budget. ' They had no guarantee for it but the promises of 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and experience had taught them 
 that he was not a financier who was always to be relied upon.' 
 Amid loud cries of * Oh ! Oh ! ' the noble Lord proceeded to say 
 that on a former occasion he had described the policy of the 
 Government as one only worthy of a country attorney ; but he was 
 now bound to say that he had done injustice to the attorneys. 
 The attorneys were very humble men, but he believed they would 
 have scorned such a course as that of her Majesty's Ministers. 
 Here the interruptions and cries of ' Oh ! ' were so continuous 
 that for some time Lord Robert Cecil was unable to continue bis 
 speech. He declared that the course which Ministers had 
 adopted was one distinguished by all the ingenuity of legal chicane. 
 In any other place it would be called a ' dodge.' Americanised 
 finance was to be a consequence of Americanised institutions. 
 He thought the House of Commons ought to mark its peculiar 
 indignation at the way in which it had ben treated by the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer. So long as he held the seals of office 
 there was neither regularity in the House of Commons nor con- 
 fidence in the country.
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 287 
 
 To this intemperate attack Mr. Gladstone condescended no 
 reply ; but in defending his policy a few days later, the right hon. 
 gentleman said there had been personal matters introduced in 
 the course of the debate which he thought it best to pass by, but 
 legitimate criticisms upon his proposed plan with regard to the 
 tax bills before the House he should endeavour to meet. Pro- 
 feeding to discuss the constitutional question, he adduced a great 
 variety of precedents, showing the power of combination of 
 different provisions in the same financial measure exercised by the 
 House of Commons to a wider extent than in the present bill. 
 He observed that the practice was not only justified by precedent, 
 but by reason and convenience, the several matters in the bill, 
 essentially homogeneous, being items of one and the same 
 account. It was the doctrine of the Constitution that to 
 originate matters of finance was the exclusive right and duty 
 and burden of the House of Commons, and to divide this 
 function between two distinct and independent bodies would lead 
 to utter confusion. ^Referring to Mr. Horsman's objection that 
 the budget gave a mortal stab to the Constitution, he asked, 
 4 1 want to know what constitution it gives a mortal stab to. In 
 my opinion it gives no stab at all; but, as far as it alters, it alters 
 so as to revive and restore the good old constitution which took 
 its root in Saxon times, which groaned under the Plantagenets, 
 which endured the hard rule of the Tudors, which resisted the 
 Stuarts, and which had now come to maturity under the House 
 of Brunswick. I think that constitution will be all the better 
 for the operation. As to the constitution laid down by my right 
 hon. friend, under which there is to be a division of function and 
 office between the House of Commons and the House of Lords 
 with regard to fixing the income and charge of the country from 
 year to year, both of them being equally responsible for it, 
 which means that neither would be responsible as far as that 
 constitution is concerned I cannot help saying, that in my 
 humble opinion the sooner it receives a mortal stab the better.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's course was approved as constitutional by 
 Sir William Heathcote, his colleague in the representation of 
 the University of Oxford, and also by Mr. Walpole, chairman of 
 the Committee of Precedents in the preceding year. The 
 influence of these eminent Conservative members had great 
 weight, and although Mr. Disraeli in condemning the financial 
 policy of the Government said Ministers had created an artificial 
 surplus in order that they might perpetrate a financial caprice, 
 this protracted debate ended without a division, and the biU was 
 read a second time. The House subsequently went into com- 
 mittee, after an abortive motion by Mr. Newdegate, but upon
 
 288 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 arriving at the clause repealing the paper duty, another long 
 discussion arose, and all the arguments before advanced against 
 the repeal were once more repeated. 
 
 This proved to be the most critical and formidable stage at 
 which the bill had yet arrived, and in some quarters the fall of 
 the Government was confidently predicted. Able speeches were 
 made from different points of view by Mr. Disraeli, Lord John 
 Kussell, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Baring, Lord Palmerston, and the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. The last-named speaker, alluding 
 to a conflict of opinion between Mr. Baring and Mr. Cobdec, 
 said that it was necessary to weigh the value of their compara- 
 tive authority ; and he contended that the latter had done more 
 than any man living or dead to promote the principles which 
 had brought about a state of things that had made the country 
 as Conservative as it was said to be, while on every occasion the 
 former had opposed those principles ; therefore Mr. Cobden was 
 best qualified to advise the House at that moment. The repeal of 
 the paper duty was just and to be expected ; it had been demanded 
 both out of doors and in the House. Mr. Gladstone replied to 
 the arguments advanced by his opponents, and combated the 
 assertions which had been made, that all his principles of finance 
 and politics were identical with those attributed to Mr. Bright, 
 with some of which he did not sympathise. He fully sympathised 
 with him, however, in the great commercial doctrines which had 
 conferred such blessings on the community ; and as regarded the 
 legislation founded on those doctrines, it was not now at its 
 initiation, but its conclusion. He anticipated and expected 
 from the House that its decision would not only be faithful to 
 its own former acts, but that it would contribute to the future 
 and permanent welfare of the country. 
 
 The result of the division was -awaited with great anxiety ; and 
 when the position of the tellers revealed the fact of the majority 
 being for the Grovernment, the announcement of the numbers 
 was delayed for some time by the vigorous cheers of the Minis- 
 terialists. Order having been restored, the figures were found to 
 be as follows : Ayes, 296 ; Noes, 281 majority for the Grovern- 
 ment, 15. The bill passed the Commons, and was sent up to 
 the Lords. The Duke of Eutland moved its rejection, but the 
 Earl of Derby, under a due sense of the gravity of the position, 
 advised that the motion should not be pressed. In doing so, 
 notwithstanding, he indulged in a severe attack upon Mr. Glad- 
 stone. The amendment was withdrawn, and the bill eventually 
 became law. By this means was averted one of those constitu- 
 tional conflicts between the two Houses of Parliament, which are 
 fortunately of rare occurrence in our Parliamentary history.
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 28& 
 
 A discussion arose during this session respecting the results of 
 Mr. Gladstone's mission to the Ionian Islands. Mr. Maguire 
 moved for papers and correspondence relative to the mission, and 
 others in continuation, affecting the subsequent administration 
 of Sir Henry Storks as Lord High Commissioner. He alleged 
 that the people of the Ionian Islands were not contented with 
 the rule of England, and that information on the subject ought 
 not to be withheld. The whole course of events up to the present 
 time proved that annexation to Greece and the establishment of 
 their nationality was the wish of the lonians. He contended 
 that England should obtain the concurrence of the other Powers 
 to her giving up this protectorate and the annexation of the 
 Ionian Islands to Greece. Eeplying to this speech, the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer said the Government had no desire to with- 
 hold information, but for the sake of the peace of the Islands it 
 was not deemed advisable to produce the papers. He had not 
 repented having undertaken his mission to the Ionian Islands, 
 his object being to place their relations with this country on a 
 more satisfactory footing, by the offer of institutions founded on 
 the highest principles of constitutional liberty. The people set 
 a high value on nationality, and he protested against that 
 sentiment being treated with ridicule ; but it had been traded 
 in by selfish demagogues. The best classes, although desiring 
 to hail the coming of Hellenic nationality, distinctly declared 
 that the time had not yet arrived for its attainment ; while the 
 feeling of the great body of the people was that of kindness and 
 even gratitude to England, and they certainly preferred her rule 
 to that of any other foreign Power. England had no selfish 
 interest or advantage in the retention of these Islands, but was 
 bound to retain them in the interest of Europe. There was no 
 evidence that Greece desired this union, even if she were herself 
 in a different political and social position from that which she 
 actually held. He admitted that the Government of the Islands 
 was not free in the sense in which that word was understood in 
 England, and there was an incongruous mixture of free and 
 despotic institutions, which could only be remedied by recon- 
 struction. He had offered the Ionian Islands an entirely free 
 constitution, which had not been accepted. With the offer of the 
 Government to produce such papers as they thought proper, the 
 motion was withdrawn. 
 
 We have seen, in a previous chapter, that the Ionian Islands 
 were ultimately ceded to Greece. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's financial measures for 1862, while not involving 
 such momentous issues as those of the preceding year, neverthe- 
 less encountered considerable opposition. Though the budget 
 
 u
 
 290 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 speech of the 3rd of April proved to be another tribute to his 
 capacity as a Finance Minister, and though it excited considerable 
 interest, it contained no passages of special rhetorical excellence. 
 It was a business-like statement of the monetary position of the 
 country, with philosophical diversions upon the subject of national 
 finance. When there are no striking novelties expected or 
 assured, it would require more than the genius of a Pitt to make 
 a budget enthralling. Prefacing his address by the remark that 
 the statement he had to submit was of a simpler character than 
 its immediate predecessors, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 announced that the real expenditure of the past year was much 
 greater than the estimate by means of supplementary grants in 
 1861 and 1862, principally in reference to the despatch of troops 
 to Canada and a small amount to China ; so that the actual 
 expenditure of the past year was 70,878,000. The total expendi- 
 ture of the year 1860-61 was 72,504,000. The revenue last 
 year was 69,670,000. This was a decrease, taking into account 
 circumstances connected with the financial year, of 809,000 
 This must be considered satisfactory, when it was remembered 
 that in 1861-62 they had parted with three items of revenue by 
 reducing the income-tax Id. in the pound, making 850,000 ; 
 the paper duty, involving a loss on the last six months of the 
 financial year of 665,000 ; while no malt credit had been taken 
 up, as was the case in 1860-61, to the extent of 1,122,000. 
 In the face of a diminished trade with America, which amounted 
 to 12,609,000, our exports having sunk from 21,667,000 to 
 9,058,000 the depression arising from want of cotton and 
 after a harvest which, though good in quality, was deficient in 
 quantity, there had been an increase in our sources of 
 revenue to the extent of 1,828;000. It was not a fact 
 that the revenue was declining. In the customs, on the first 
 three quarters of last year there was an increase of 468,000, 
 but in the last quarter there had been a decrease of 100,000. 
 Yet although the gross revenue had fallen off by 609,000, the 
 customs had exceeded the estimate by 464,000, the stamps by 
 130,000, taxes by 10,000, the income-tax by 15,000, and 
 the miscellaneous by 81.000. In the excise there had been a 
 falling off amounting to 456,000 ; there had been a loss on 
 spirits, hops, and paper. With regard to the estimates, that of 
 the China indemnity, which had been placed at 750,000, had 
 only realised 478,000 up to September, but when the two 
 quarters due in March were paid there would be a gross receipt 
 of 658,000. There were other deductions which would make 
 the whole sum actually received this year from this source only 
 266,000. Mr. Gladstone then stated that he estimated the
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 291 
 
 expenditure for the coming year as follows : For the interest of 
 the public debt, 26,280,000 ; the consolidated fund, 1,900,000 ; 
 the army, 15,300,000 ; and the militia, 700,000. The navy was 
 estimated at 11,800,000. The miscellaneous estimates were 
 7,819,000. The revenue departments were estimated at 
 4,750,000 ; the packet service, 916,000 ; and a vote for China 
 would be asked of 500,000. The total estimate was 70,040,000 
 an announcement of expenditure which created considerable 
 surprise in the House. The estimate of total revenue would be 
 70,190.000, which would leave a balance of 150,000 com- 
 pared with the expenditure. The question arose whether new 
 taxes were to be imposed. He (Mr. Gladstone) had entertained 
 not long before the hope of being able to remit taxes, but 
 subsequently there appeared a probability of heavy expenditure, 
 and there was now the prospect of additional taxation. 
 
 Looking to our resources, everything was favourable except as 
 regarded our relations with America. There had been a great 
 improvement in our exports to the United States, but it was in 
 reference to cotton that anxiety must be felt, and the prospect 
 in that respect was not improving. But examining the results 
 of our trade with France since the treaty had come into opera- 
 tion, there had been in 1861-62 a real increase, as compared 
 with the previous year, of 3,039,000. There had also been an 
 increase of foreign and colonial exports in connection with the 
 treaty, amounting to 4,572,000. The total result of the opera- 
 tion of the treaty for 1861-62 was over 10,000,000. It was 
 unnecessary again to congratulate the author of the treaty, 
 whose services would become matter of history. The Govern- 
 ment had come to the conclusion to do without a surplus, and 
 to impose no new taxes, reserving to themselves the privilege of 
 taking the necessary steps to meet any contingency which might 
 arise. There could be no remission of taxes after the figures 
 which he had brought forward. The burdens of the country, 
 however, would be lighter by 600,000 or 700,000. After 
 alluding to the demands which had been made upon the Govern- 
 ment by various interests, Mr. Gladstone indicated certain minor 
 changes he proposed to make in the inventory duty in Scotland, 
 a moderate charge of an eighth per cent, upon all loans raised in 
 this country, and upon supplementary licences to publicans to 
 supply fairs ; and he then touched upon the spirit duties. There 
 had been a falling off last year below the estimate ; but as it was 
 proved not to have arisen from an increase of illicit distillation, 
 but from a diminished power of consumption combined with the 
 increased sobriety of the people, it was not proposed to deal with 
 the spirit duties. The sugar duties, being classified duties, were 
 
 U2
 
 292 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 unequal in their pressure ; but the difficulties of removing this 
 classification were so great that no change could be effected 
 without a complete inquiry into the subject, and he would con- 
 sequently be prepared to assent to a committee for the purpose. 
 With regard to the malt credits, no case for a change had been 
 made out, and an alteration would deprive the revenue of 
 1,300,000 a-year. The minor duties on exports and imports, 
 while entailing an amount of labour in collection which gave 
 them a claim to repeal, yet amounted to 182,000 ; and with a 
 surplus of 150,000, it was not possible to deal with theiii, 
 besides which they afforded a means to the Board of Trade of 
 obtaining valuable statistical information. But he was willing 
 to grant an inquiry into the subject. With regard to the wine 
 duties, there was a favourable increase in the trade ; but on the 
 whole, it was determined to retain what was called the alcoholic 
 test, but altering and modifying it by reducing the four scales to 
 two, admitting all wines from 18 to 26 degrees of alcohol at a 
 duty of Is., while from 26 to 42 the scale would be raised from 
 2s. 5d. to 2s. 6d., and above 45 an additional duty of 3d. on 
 every additional rise of strength. This would yield a net gain 
 of 15,000 a-year to the revenue. Coming- to the hop duties, the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that it was not possible 
 to surrender duties which yielded 300,000 a-year on the 
 average. He proposed, however, to do something in the way of 
 commutation, by re-adjusting the system of brewers' licences and 
 including in them a charge for the hop duty ; while, at the same 
 time, relief would be given to smaller brewers in respect of the 
 charge for their licences. The result of this plan would be to 
 secure to the revenue nearly as much duty as now, while it would 
 cause a complete free trade in home and foreign hops. The 
 customs and excise duty on hops would be repealed from next 
 September; and it was also proposed, as regarded private 
 brewers, to exempt from licence all brewing carried on by the 
 labouring classes. By this financial operation, there would be a 
 loss to the revenue of 45,000. 
 
 Having announced that the House was now in possession of 
 the proposals of the Government, Mr. Gladstone reviewed the 
 financial results of the past three years. He corrected an 
 erroneous impression that the public expenditure was still 
 growing, for that of 1861 was less than ihat of 1860, while in 
 the year ensuing there was a decrease in the estimates of over 
 700,000. Indeed, putting aside new items of expenditure 
 which had never been included in the estimates before, the 
 actual diminution was 1 ,700,000. But the level of our expen- 
 diture still demanded attention, for it was a higher level than
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 293 
 
 could be borne with comfort and satisfaction by the people, or 
 than was compatible with a sound condition of finance. The 
 growth of expenditure was partly owing to the growing wants 
 of the country ; then to a sense of insecurity which had prevailed 
 in the country ; next to the influence of the establishments and 
 expenditure of other nations; and lastly, to special demands 
 which had arisen out of exigencies which had sprung up, 
 demands which were in substance, and in everything except the 
 name, war demands. < With respect to the state of establish- 
 ments and expenditure abroad,' said Mr. Gladstone, ' I do not 
 know whether hon. members, in their perusal of the journals 
 and in their observation of the condition of other countries, 
 have fully comprehended what a race the Governments of the 
 world are running, and at what a fearful pace outside of Eng- 
 land national obligations are now in course of accumulation/ 
 Nearly all countries were in the same predicament, and the only 
 flourishing budget he had seen was that of the Ottoman Empire. 
 During the last twenty years France had added 250 millions 
 to her debt, of which 180 millions was not attributable to war 
 expenditure. Austria and Russia had added to their debts, 
 and the financial year of 1861 alone had added to the State 
 debts of all the great countries 200 millions of money. England 
 had not added to her debt, but among extraordinary expenses 
 there was the cost of the war with China, which had been 
 7,054,000. In the last three years, what might be called war 
 expenditure, including China, New Zealand, and the despatch 
 of troops to North America, was 8,600,000. To meet this 
 extraordinary expenditure the income-tax had risen since 1859 
 by three millions, and, including the spirit duties and other 
 imposts, there had been taxes imposed exceeding five millions. 
 The taxes reduced or abolished amounted to over four millions. 
 Their extraordinary resources were now at an end ; and if they 
 looked into the future, and asked themselves how provision was 
 to be made for it, they must make their reckoning without these 
 resources. About eleven millions had been devoted in the last 
 three years to extraordinary expenditure, of which six millions 
 had been met by extraordinary resources, and five millions by 
 taxes drawn from the people. As regarded the revenue, it had 
 increased since 1858-59 by upwards of four millions in 1861-62. 
 We had passed through exceptional years without going into the 
 market for loans, but as he had remarked all other extraordinary 
 resources were now exhausted, and to meet casualties which might 
 occur, it was only to ordinary sources of revenue we had to look, 
 and any difficulty which might be anticipated was only to be met 
 by the application of the principles of true and strict economy.
 
 294 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 This budget was described as a strictly stationary one ; the 
 existing amount of taxation being neither increased nor dimi- 
 nished. Its introduction was followed by a long discussion, in 
 which various points of the scheme were objected to ; but it was 
 not until the motion for going into committee some days 
 afterwards that the objections assumed a tangible shape. Mr. 
 Disraeli, as the representative of those who distrusted the 
 financial measures of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, opened 
 the debate by expressing his regret that the financial year should 
 commence with only a nominal surplus. Why was there not a 
 surplus ? If the paper duty had been retained, instead of a loss 
 of 850,000, there would have been a surplus of 1 ,400,000. In 
 the years 1860-61, and 1861-62, there had been a total deficiency 
 of 4,000,000 ; and in addition to this Mr. Gladstone had 
 anticipated the resources of the country to the extent of 
 3,500,000. But even this was not the full extent of his 
 prodigality, for it was done at a period when the national debt 
 had been reduced by 2,000,000, the amount of the terminable 
 annuities. All the rhetorical arts of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer could not disguise the critical position of our finances. 
 He maintained that the excuses offered to calm the public mind 
 were utterly fallacious. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, having replied to certain questions of Mr. Bass 
 upon the new brewing licences, applied himself to the ' historical 
 survey ' of the finances of recent years by the leader of the Opposi- 
 tion. With regard to the protest that the mode of conducting 
 the finances of the country was derogatory to the character of 
 public men, the Chancellor of the Exchequer sarcastically observed, 
 * I will deal strictly with the speech of the right hon. gentle- 
 man, and I will endeavour to show how far he, forsooth ! is trust- 
 worthy when he enters on these surveys. He does not resort to 
 rhetorical artifices ! Who ever heard him dealing in figures or 
 sarcasms ? It is plain and prosaic information which he delights 
 to lay before the House.' The fallacy of his speech, continued 
 Mr. Gladstone, was that which ran through his policy and that of 
 his party a want cf dependence on the principles of Free Trade, 
 which had given such elasticity to the resources of the country. 
 Mr. Disraeli had erred in charging him with exhausting by 
 anticipation the ordinary revenue, and with respect to the failure 
 of the China receipts he met him with a positive contradiction. 
 
 . He had given no personal guarantee of the amount, but he had 
 founded his estimate upon the safest authorities. He reasserted 
 
 'that the past two years were exceptional years. As to Mr. 
 
 i Disraeli's own financial calculations, in the only two cases in 
 which be hd prepared estimates, not for China, but for England
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 295 
 
 the tax on checks and the duty on Irish spirits he had 
 egregiously erred ; they had not realised one-third of the sums 
 calculated upon. The repeal of the paper duty was said to be 
 an improvident proposal ; yet the opponents of that measure 
 proposed to part with 950,000 of tea duty, which would have 
 been so much addition to the alleged deficiency. He was well 
 content to be called by Mr. Disraeli the most profuse Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer on record. He was satisfied to bear any epithets 
 of vituperation he had already produced or might produce on a 
 future occasion. It was not difficult to bear the abuse of the 
 right hon. gentleman, when he remembered that far better men 
 than himself had had to suffer it. But he should be still more 
 content if the effect of his opponent's speech was to bring the 
 House and the country to a due sense of the gravity of the 
 financial situation, and the necessity for a reduction of expendi- 
 ture. With regard to the income-tax, he did not desire that it 
 should be permanent ; and if the country could be governed 
 by something about 60,000,000, it could be done without 
 but it could not be abolished with an expenditure of 
 70,000,000. He did not yet despair of reduction and re- 
 trenchment, though he did not look forward to sweeping re- 
 ductions. 
 
 The budget was subjected to a second close examination by 
 Sir S. Northcote, but eventually the House went into committee. 
 On the motion for the second reading of the Customs and Inland 
 Revenue Bill (embodying several of the budget resolutions), Sir 
 S. Northcote again reviewed the financial condition of the 
 country, and referred to a speech delivered by the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer at Manchester, in which the latter admitted 
 that the national finances were not in a healthy state, because 
 the public expenditure was too large. But Mr. Gladstone had 
 added that it would not be difficult to restore our affairs to a 
 sound condition by a reduction of expenditure, if that step 
 should be urged upon Parliament by pressure from without. 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, repudiating the construction 
 which Sir S. Northcote had put upon his words, and denying that 
 he had asserted the doctrines imputed to him, replied to the follow- 
 ing charges, which he understood were brought against him : 
 First, that he had disclaimed responsibility for the estimates laid 
 before Parliament ; secondly, that he had not provided a proper 
 surplus of revenue ; and, thirdly, that he had taken away supplies 
 by which a surplus would have been provided. Notwithstand- 
 ing the exceptional circumstances of the time, the Government 
 had reduced the amount of the expenditure by 800,000 to 
 1,000,000 a year, and would continue the same course year by
 
 296 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 year. Sir S. Northcote must have been taken in by some vendor 
 of scandalous stories. 
 
 The Inland Revenue Bill, after another lengthy discussion, 
 was allowed to pass its final stage. The Lords subsequently 
 indulged their right of criticism very fully, but the financial 
 schemes of the Government ultimately received the sanction of 
 Parliament. 
 
 Sir G. Bowyer once more furnished Mr. Gladstone with an 
 opportunity of vindicating the Government and people of Italy 
 from the charges brought against them ; and this the right hon. 
 gentleman accomplished, as stated in the journals of the day, 
 with remarkable and convincing eloquence. On the llth of 
 April, on the motion for adjournment for the Easter holidays, 
 the member for Dundalk, the ardent defender of the temporal 
 power of the Pope, rose to call attention to the state of affairs in 
 Italy. Sir George Bowyer had already expressed himself on this 
 subject quite fully enough, as the House thought, judging from 
 its attitude of mingled amusement and impatience on this occa- 
 sion. The hon. member repeated his stock arguments against 
 the recognition of the kingdom of Italy, and again informed the 
 House that the British flag was regarded as the harbinger of 
 revolution. Sir G. Bowyer's unrivalled capacity for ignoring 
 the march of events was undeniable, and was generally conceded 
 by the House and the country ; and Mr. Layard had the former 
 with him when he said that he had never heard any speech in 
 that House which had met with so little sympathy. Mr. Layard 
 further put the question into a nutshell, when he observed that 
 in three short years a people previously down- trodden and 
 humbled had raised themselves up almost to the enjoyment of full 
 and entire liberty, and were using that liberty with wonderful 
 moderation. This was a change as great as though the sun 
 should beam forth at midnight. Mr. Pope Hennessy who on 
 these occasions was always the Pythias to Sir G. Bowyer's 
 Damon outdid even his friend in his prognostications. He 
 expressed his conviction that before another debate took place on 
 this subject in the House, the bubble of Italian unity would have 
 burst. 
 
 Remembering now how nobly the Italian struggle ended, the 
 most unpleasant and inconvenient reading which could be 
 recommended to these political Cassandras is their unfulfilled 
 prophecies of a past generation. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone began his masterly speech by observing that 
 there was a great deal of force in the objection to a discussion in 
 that House on the internal affairs of Italy, an act which was 
 scarcely consistent with the respect due to a friendly power
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OP 1861-63. 297 
 
 provided with an arena of its own for such a discussion. He did 
 not wish to use unparliamentary language, but if the words para- 
 dox and credulity were not unparliamentary, he desired to appeal 
 to the House whether an extraordinary power of paradox and 
 a marvellous capacity of credulity had not distinguished the 
 whole of the address of his hon. and learned friend, Sir George 
 Bowyer. This was shown by his statement as to the wonders 
 which Piedmont had effected. ' But to take a particular 
 instance,' continued the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ' there 
 is the downfall of the late kingdom of the two Sicilies. My hon. 
 and learned friend was so kind as to ascribe to me some infinite- 
 simal share in removing from the world the sorrow and iniquity 
 which once oppressed that unhappy country. I should take it 
 as a favour if the charge were made truly, but I claim or assume 
 no such office. Here is a country which my hon. and learned 
 friend says is, with a few miserable exceptions amongst the 
 middle classes, fondly attached to the expelled dynasty and 
 what happened there ? An adventurer, Garibaldi, clothed in a 
 red shirt, and some volunteers also clothed in red shirts, land 
 at a point in the peninsula, march through Calabria, face a 
 sovereign with a well-disciplined army of 80,000 men, and a 
 fleet probably the best in Italy, and that sovereign disappears 
 before them like a mockery king of snow ! And yet such is the 
 power of paradox that my hon. and learned friend still argues for 
 the affectionate loyalty of the Neapolitans, as if such results 
 could have been achieved anywhere, save where the people were 
 alienated from the throne.' It had been maintained that the king- 
 dom of Italy was non-existent, because it had not been recog- 
 nized by any European power, save England and France. Amidst 
 the cheers and laughter of the House, Mr. Gladstone said that 
 he would not inquire into the literal accuracy of that statement, 
 but so far as the existence of a kingdom depended upon the recog- 
 nition of European Powers, when it had got the recognition of 
 England and France it had already made very considerable 
 progress. Although only two years had elapsed since the 
 revolution, such had been the progress of events, that Sir George 
 Bowyer had practically abandoned his case as regarded two- 
 thirds of the Italian kingdom, whilst as to the other third, Mr. 
 Layard had shown that things were improving. He (Mr. Glad- 
 stone) regretted the continuance of the occupation of Borne ; and 
 he most earnestly hoped, for the sake of the name and fame of 
 France, for the sake of humanity and the peace of Europe, that 
 that occupation might soon cease. After a strong condemnation 
 of the impolicy and injustice of prolonging the temporal power 
 of the Pope, and a statement as to the improved prospects of
 
 298 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Italy, the right hon. gentleman thus concluded, by remarking 
 upon the responsibility of the English Government : * I do not 
 hesitate to say that I believe a special part of the duty, I may 
 say of the mission, of the Administration of which my noble 
 friend (Lord Palmerston) is at the head, is to be the true 
 expositor of the sense of the people of England on a question so 
 vitally important as the Italian question is, both to the main- 
 tenance of every high and sacred principle, and likewise to the 
 future tranquillity of Europe. I believe, too, so far as the 
 judgment of England is concerned, never was that judgment 
 pronounced on any public question at home or abroad with greater 
 unanimity or clearness ; and that there will not be any chapter 
 of the life of my noble friend on which Englishmen will pro- 
 bably dwell with greater satisfaction than that in which it shall 
 be recorded that, not now alone, but for 'many years past, before 
 the question had arisen to the magnitude of its present position, 
 through evil report and through good report, he sustained and 
 supported the cause of Italy.' 
 
 The debate was continued by Mr. Stansfeld, Mr. Maguire, and 
 other members, and concluded by Lord Palmerston, who said 
 that posterity would judge between the English Government and 
 those who had been the champions and advocates of everything 
 that was corrupt, tyrannical, and oppressive in the former institu- 
 tions of Italy. To that tribunal they would fearlessly appeal for 
 a decision in their favour. 
 
 Towards the close of 1862 Mr. Gladstone delivered a speech 
 at Newcastle, in which he expressed his conviction that Mr. 
 Jefferson Davis had already succeeded in making the Southern 
 States of America, which were in revolt, an independent nation. 
 This opinion, coming from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 caused great sensation, and pained many of Mr. Gladstone's 
 warmest political supporters, who were staunch defenders of the 
 North in a struggle which they regarded as virtually turning 
 upon the Slavery question. Only a few weeks before Mr. Glad- 
 stone thus expressed himself, Earl Russell had written as follows 
 to Mr. Mason, in reply to his claim to -have the Confederate 
 States recognised as a separate and independent Power : ' In 
 order to be entitled to a place among the independent nations of 
 the earth, a State ought not only to have strength and resources 
 for a time, but afford promise of stability and permanence. 
 Should the Confederate States of America win that place among 
 nations, it might be right for other nations justly to acknow- 
 ledge an independence achieved by victory, and maintained by a 
 successful resistance to all attempts to overthrow it. That time, 
 however, has not, in the judgment of her Majesty's Government,
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 299 
 
 arrived. Her Majesty's Government, therefore, can only hope 
 that a peaceful termination of the present bloody and destructive 
 contest may not be far distant.' Looking at the question apart 
 from all feeling for or against the North or the South, and 
 remembering Mr. Gladstone's position in the Ministry of the 
 day, as well as the fact that the policy of the Government was 
 one of neutrality, his utterance was unquestionably indiscreet. 
 Having been interrogated on the subject on behalf of the cotton 
 shippers, the right hon. gentleman said that his words were no 
 more than the expression, in rather more pointed terms, of an 
 opinion which he had long ago stated in public, that the effort 
 of the Northern States to subjugate the Southern ones was 
 hopeless by reason of the resistance of the latter. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, however, not only discovered that his remarks 
 had offended a large body of the people of this country, but lived 
 to see that his opinion was premature and misjudged. This he 
 fully and frankly acknowledged in August, 1867, in a letter to a 
 correspondent in New York. ' I must confess,' he wrote, c that I 
 was wrong ; that I took too much upon myself in expressing 
 such an opinion. Yet the motive was not bad. My sympathies 
 were then where they had long before been, where they are now 
 with the whole American people. I probably, like many 
 Europeans, did not understand the nature and working of the 
 American Union. I had imbibed conscientiously, if erroneously, 
 an opinion that twenty or twenty-four millions of the North 
 would be happier and would be stronger (of course assuming 
 that they would hold together) without the South than with it, 
 and also that the negroes would be much nearer to emancipation 
 under a Southern Government than under the old system of the 
 Union, which had not at that date (August, 1862^) been aban- 
 doned, and which always appeared to me to place the whole 
 power of the North at the command of the slave-holding interests 
 of the South. As far as regards the special or separate interest 
 of England in the matter, I, differing from many others, had 
 always contended that it was best for our interest that the Union 
 should be kept entire.' Mr. Gladstone had committed an error 
 of judgment, and was by no means measured in his confession 
 of the fact. 
 
 An interesting extra-parliamentary utterance by the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer is recorded in March, 1862, when he 
 acted as spokesman for the donors of a magnificent testimonial 
 to Mr. Charles Kean. This gift to the popular actor and his 
 wife, who had just retired from the stage, was subscribed for by 
 Etonians, who ' desired to express their appreciation of their emi- 
 nent school-fellow 'Mr. Kean having been educated at Eton.
 
 300 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 The testimonial, which consisted of a variety of articles in silver, 
 was presented to Mr. Kean in the great room of St. James's 
 Hall. The Duke of Newcastle, who was to have acted as chair- 
 man, had been summoned to attend her Majesty at Windsor, 
 and his Grace's place was supplied by the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, as stated. Mr. Gladstone regretted that he had rarely 
 the opportunity of witnessing the talent of Mr. Kean or others, 
 as his own pursuits, they were aware, were not of so agreeable a 
 character. His time was engaged at that part of the day when 
 such talents were exhibited ; in fact, he had to ' appear ' in 
 another place at the time when Mr. Kean was to be seen pur- 
 suing his own professional duties. Referring to the question of 
 the drama generally, and the revival of Shakespeare, the right 
 hon. gentleman said they must look to the fact that Mr. Kean 
 was one who had laboured in the noble and holy cause of 
 endeavouring to dissociate the elements of the drama from all 
 moral and social contamination. That was the work to which Mr. 
 Kean had given many anxious years and all the best energies of 
 his mind ; and there were few who could be compared with him 
 for pursuing the profession with all the understanding an'd the 
 heart. He hoped that others would follow him in endeavouring 
 to improve the tone and elevate the character of the English 
 stage. 
 
 The session of 1863 promising to be barren in great legislative 
 enactments, public interest naturally centred in the budget. A 
 considerable surplus of income over expenditure having become a 
 certainty, speculation was rife as to the manner in which it would 
 be employed. The income-tax and the tea duties were the chief 
 topics of discussion, and the enemies of both looked confidently 
 for relief. The public mind had decreed, without Ministerial 
 warrant, that the income-tax should be reduced to 7d., and that 
 the ' war duties ' on tea and sugar should be abolished. Outside 
 opinion did not prove to be far wrong, and on the 16th of April 
 Mr. Gladstone once more appeared in the character of a financial 
 benefactor. Prefacing his statement by the observation that the 
 causes which had given peculiar interest to the financial state- 
 ments of the last few years were not such as it was desirable should 
 be permanent, he reminded the House that a resolution had 
 been passed to the effect, that while it was necessary to provide 
 for the defences of the country, the burden of taxation should 
 be dealt with by the Executive. The Government would now 
 put in their answer to that resolution. From 1858 to 1860-61 
 there had been an increase of over 8,000,000 in the expendi- 
 ture. The average annual expenditure from 1859 to 1863, includ- 
 ing the charge for fortifications, was 71,195,000. Excluding
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 801 
 
 certain items which in their nature did not increase, viz., the 
 interest of the national debt and the charge for the collection of 
 the revenue, he found that the charge for the year 1858-59 was 
 31,621,000 : but in 1860-61 it had risen to 42,125,000 or an 
 increase of ten millions and a half in two years. Since 1853, 
 that is, previous to the Eussian war, the charge had increased by 
 something like 18,000,000. This increase was called for by the 
 public desire to strengthen the defences of the country. As 
 regarded the Government, all he had to say for it was, that, in 
 making the increase in the expenditure, it certainly did not outrun 
 but rather fell short of public opinion. It was true that the state 
 of tension in which the finances of the country had been kept for 
 the last four years was occasioned by the policy of the Govern- 
 ment. The estimates he had to make for the present year were 
 hopeful, but they must be considered with regard to special cir- 
 cumstances, such as the condition of Lancashire. Here Mr. 
 Gladstone interposed this just and warmly-applauded tribute to 
 the great northern county. Towards that Lancashire, to which 
 up to this time every Englishman has referred, if not with pride, 
 yet with satisfaction and thankfulness, as among the most 
 remarkable or perhaps the most remarkable of all the symbols that 
 could be presented of the power, the progress, and the prosperity 
 of England towards that Lancashire we feel now more warmly 
 and more thankfully than ever in regard to every moral aspect 
 of its condition. The lessons which within the last twelve 
 months have been conveyed, if in one aspect they have been 
 painful and even bitter, yet in other aspects, and in those, too, 
 which more intimately and permanently relate to the condition 
 and prospects of the country, have been lessons such as I will 
 venture to say none of us could have hoped to learn. For how- 
 ever sanguine may have been the anticipations entertained as to 
 the enduring power and pluck of the English people, I do not 
 think that anyone could have estimated that power of endur- 
 ance, that patience, that true magnanimity in humble life, at a 
 point as high as we now see that it has actually reached.' But 
 the tale he had to tell of the material condition of Lancashire 
 was a melancholy one. The price of cotton, which at the begin- 
 ning of the previous year was 8d. per lb., had now reached 2s. per 
 lb., so that the distress in Lancashire had reached a condition of 
 the utmost stringency. It was with reference to this portion of 
 the community that the balance-sheet of the year had been pre- 
 pared. But there was also another cause of depression, viz., the 
 distress in Ireland, of which the people of England had formed 
 no adequate idea. Comparing the agricultural produce of Ire- 
 land of the various years from 1856 to 1862-63, he found that in
 
 302 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the last-named year it amounted to 27,327,000, being an increase 
 of twelve millions on the figures for the previous period- 
 equal to one-third of the whole agricultural products of the 
 country. 
 
 These circumstances had necessarily diminished the general 
 revenue. Coming next to the estimates for the ensuing year, Mr. 
 Gladstone said that of expenditure amounted in the whole to 
 67,749,000. This, however, did not include fortifications, for 
 which Parliament had made other provision. The estimate 
 of the revenue for the year was taken at 71,490,000. There 
 was an increase in the excise. There was a difference between 
 revenue and expenditure, in favour of the former, of 3,741,000. 
 As to the application of this surplus, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer said .it would probably be thought the Government 
 ought to proceed to the reduction of taxation, and not speak of 
 augmentation ; but there were certain anomalies to rectify. It 
 was proposed to raise the duty on chicory, so as to equalise it 
 with that on coffee. He further announced, amid some 
 murmurs, that clubs should henceforth pay the same duty on 
 liquors as the keepers of hotels and coffee-houses. A person 
 having obtained a beer licence through the medium of having 
 first taken a spirit licence, should now pay the same duty as one 
 who obtained it without that process. Wholesale beer merchants 
 might, in future, under a 1 licence, sell quantities under two 
 dozen bottles. Carriers would be subjected to one-half the duty 
 now paid by stage-carriage proprietors. Railway companies 
 now paid a duty of 5 per cent, on ordinary traffic, but nothing 
 on excursion trains ; there would be a general charge in future 
 upon the whole of 3^ per cent. The duty on charitable legacies 
 in Ireland would be assimilated to that in England. He proposed 
 to do away with the exemption from income-tax of endowed 
 charities, though it would be continued as far as buildings and 
 sites were concerned. This change would produce 75,000 on 
 the revenue of the present year, which, with other items, would 
 be added to the surplus. 
 
 Arriving at the question of the disposition of the surplus, Mr. 
 Gladstone said that the charge of one penny on packages of 
 goods inwards would be dispensed with, and the charge of Is. 6d. 
 on bills of lading outwards would also cease at the same time. 
 With regard to the income-tax, it was proposed to make the sum 
 of 100 the point at which a man was taxable, and to. fix that of 
 200 as the point at which he should come under the full force 
 of the tax ; to remove the rate of 150 altogether, and to allow the 
 man in receipt of an income of between 100 and 200 to deduct 
 60 from his taxable income, which would largely reduce the
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 303 
 
 amount of the tax on a pro raid scale. After considering the 
 various arguments in favour of a reduction, both of the tea and 
 sugar duties, he had come to the conclusion to choose one rather 
 than divide the reduction between them. The duty on tea would 
 accordingly be reduced to Is. per lb., making a diminution of 
 revenue estimated at 1,300,000. The loss consequent on the 
 reduction of the income-tax from 9d. and 7d. in the pound to 
 7d. and 6d., would be 2,350,000 per annum, while a loss would 
 be sustained by the relief to minor incomes of 1,300,000 on the 
 present year. There -would be a reduction of 2d. in the pound 
 on the general rate, and thus the whole remission of taxation on 
 the year would be 3,340,000, or, reckoning the total remission, 
 present and prospective, of 4,601,000. After these remissions, 
 there would be left an actual surplus of some 400,000, but with 
 that he did not propose to meddle. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone then entered into an elaborate review of the 
 income and expenditure of the country during the preceding four 
 years. In those years eight millions had been paid for war 
 expenditure in China, and the charge for the reconstruction of 
 the navy had been met, and these out of the ordinary resources 
 of the country. Adducing statistics in reference to the trade of 
 the country, he showed that there had been an enormous advance 
 in the consumption of paper, fed by larger imports and a greater 
 manufacture at home. Our trade with America exhibited a 
 decrease of 6,000,000, but in the case of France there had been 
 an increase of over 12,000,000. In nineteen years, during 
 which the income-tax was imposed for the purpose of assisting 
 the development of the resources of the country by means of the 
 remission of taxes on its industry, there had been an extension 
 of the wealth of the country amounting to 65,000,000 of 
 annual income. Having instituted a comparison between the 
 progress of Great Britain and the condition of other countries, 
 Mr. Gladstone observed finally, ' In framing the estimates of 
 public charge for the year, it has of course been the duty of her 
 Majesty's Government, first and most of all, to keep in view the 
 honour, the interests, and the security of the country ; and next 
 to that honour, those interests, and that security, the deliberate 
 judgment given by the House of Commons in the last session oi 
 Parliament. But, subject to these considerations, as I trust I 
 may also say, both on my own behalf and on that of my 
 colleagues, it is to us matter of additional satisfaction, after 
 reading the eloquent denunciation of the Finance Minister of 
 France, if, while we submit a plan which offers no inconsiderable 
 diminution of the burdens of the people, we can also minister 
 ever so remotely to the adoption of like measures in other
 
 8?4 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Lands ; if we may hope that a diminished expenditure for England 
 will be construed across the Channel as the friendly acceptance 
 of a friendly challenge, and that what we propose, and what 
 Parliament may be pleased to accept, may act as an indirect, yet 
 powerful, provocative to similar proceedings abroad. Gratifying 
 it must ever be to the advisers of the British Crown that the 
 British people should enjoy an alleviation of their burdens ; but, 
 over and above the benefit to them, and the satisfaction to us, 
 there will be a further benefit, and a further pleasure, if we may 
 hope that we are allying ourselves with, and confirming such 
 tendencies as may exist elsewhere on behalf of peace, of order, 
 and of civilisation, and that we are assisting, in however humble 
 a degree, to allay unhappy jealousies, to strengthen the senti- 
 ments of goodwill, and to bring about a better and more solid 
 harmony among the greatest of the civilised nations of the world.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone spoke for three hours, and for the first time one 
 of the Queen's sons Prince Alfred, accompanied by Prince Louis 
 of Hesse attended the delivery of a budget speech. Upon its 
 conclusion, Mr. Disraeli had nothing to urge against his rival's 
 scheme. Indeed, as soon as the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 arrived at his survey of the trade and resources of the country, 
 the leader of the Opposition left the House. 
 
 The two leading features of the budget the remissions on the 
 tea duty and the income-tax were very popular with the coun- 
 try. Minor details were of course objected to by those classes 
 whom the changes directly affected, the proposed extension to 
 clubs of the licence duties paid by hotel and coffee-house pro- 
 prietors offending an influential class, whose opposition even- 
 tually resulted in the proposal being withdrawn. But the 
 proposition in the budget which excited the greatest hostility 
 was that removing the exemption of charities from the income- 
 tax. On the 4th of May, one of the largest and most influ- 
 ential deputations which have ever waited upon a Minister of 
 State had an interview with Mr. Gladstone, to urge upon 
 the right hon. gentleman the injustice and the impolicy of 
 extending the property-tax to the funded property of chari- 
 table institutions. The Duke of Cambridge, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and others, having 
 expressed their views as to the injurious consequences of the 
 proposed measure, the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that 
 it would be his duty to state to the House of Commons the 
 reasons upon which the motion of her Majesty's Government 
 was founded. They would leave it to the opinion of the House 
 whether their proposal should receive its free sanction. 
 
 The same evening, from his place in the House of Commons,
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. SCo 
 
 Mr. Gladstone made a powerful defence of his proposition. While 
 he did not affect to disguise his knowledge of the opposition 
 which had been raided against his scheme, and while expressing 
 his opinion that the course he had taken was a wise and prudent 
 one, he admitted that it ought not to be adopted without the 
 full concurrence of the House. The question was not under- 
 stood, and he desired to call attention to the nature of the exemp- 
 tions it was proposed to remove. As to the character of the 
 charities sought to be dealt with, nineteen-twentieths of them 
 were death-bed bequests; a species of bequest which the law did 
 not favour, and which were essentially different from charities, 
 properly so-called, which were subject to taxation. He objected 
 to immunities which encouraged men to immortalise themselves 
 as founders. The loss to the State, of the exemptions in question, 
 was 216,000 a-year ; while there was a large and growing charge 
 upon the public funds connected with the administration of chari- 
 ties, amounting to about 45,000 a-year ; and with other items, 
 the whole loss to the State was nearly half-a-million per annum. 
 He then analysed the charities in three groups small, middle, 
 aud large affirming that amongst the small there was hardly 
 one which, in itself, was deserving of the toleration of the House, 
 and which had not been condemned by three separate commis- 
 sions of inquiry, as tending to pauperise people who seek them, 
 and to compromise their independence and self-respect. The 
 middle charities, which were distributed in money only, were in 
 the main not charities in the strict sense of the term ; while as; 
 regarded the larger charities, they were full of abuses, and often 
 mere vehicles for patronage, and were not fit subjects for exemp- 
 tions, which, in fact, amounted to grants of public money. ' We 
 propose this measure,' said Mr. Gladstone, ' not as one of financial 
 necessity, but as a ju.st measure. I shall not revert to the hard 
 words which have been applied, but of this I am sure, that no 
 person would have given it a more cordial and conscientious sup- 
 port than the colleague whom we all on this bench so deeply 
 lament ;* and of whom it may be said, as it was said of one of 
 jld 
 
 " Justisshnus unus 
 Qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus sequi," 
 
 We propose this as a just, as a politic measure. We do not 
 presume as a Government, by any means which a Government 
 might dream of, to press it on an adverse House. The House is 
 responsible; we do not wish to show undue obstinacy; we defer 
 to its opinions ; but we reserve to ourselves the power of deciding 
 
 * Sir Geor^o C'oinewall Lewis, who (as we have already seen) had filled tha 
 office of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
 
 306 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 upon the way in which this question is at a future time to be 
 considered. We have proposed this measure to the House as 
 consistent with every principle which has governed administra- 
 tion for the last twenty years ; as being just to the taxed com- 
 munity, and fair to the labouring poor ; favourable to the great 
 object of elevating their character, as well as of improving their 
 condition. In proposing this measure we feel ourselves impreg- 
 nable and invulnerable to all rude reproaches, and we recommend 
 it to the courage, the wisdom, and the justice of the House of 
 Commons.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had financial and substantial justice on his side 
 in making this proposal, and Lord Palmerston stated that it 
 received the support of all his colleagues ; Tout as the sense of the 
 House appeared to be opposed to the scheme, it was withdrawn 
 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. His arguments, however, 
 were endorsed by a very large and intelligent body of the com- 
 munity, who were strongly opposed to the indiscriminate and 
 mistaken beneficence which was so prevalent. 
 
 With the withdrawal of this much-combated proposition, the 
 success of the budget, as a whole, was virtually secured. At a 
 later period, nevertheless, Mr. Hubbard, who had already 
 provoked several contests with the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 on the subject of the income-tax, moved the following resolution : 
 ' That the incidence of an income-tax touching the products of 
 invested property should fall upon net income, and that the net 
 amounts of industrial earnings should, previous to assessment, be 
 subject to such an abatement as may equitably adjust the 
 burden thrown upon intelligence and skill as compared with 
 property.' This was not the first occasion upon which this 
 particular modification had been raised, and Mr. Gladstone 
 again remarked that the plan proposed by Mr. Hubbard would 
 only shift the tax from one set of anomalies to another, and for 
 one class of evils substitute a greater. The plan had not only 
 been rejected by Mr. Hubbard's own committee, but his motion 
 had been negatived last session by a large majority. Those 
 whom he desired to relieve were the class whose fortunes were in 
 the most rapid state of progress and increase. Those who were 
 needy in proportion to the station they occupied were left 
 untouched, or rather they were subjected to additional burdens 
 in order to give a great relief to those who were in more 
 fortunate circumstances. He (Mr. Gladstone) did not deny that 
 there was a natural feeling in the direction of the motion which 
 had been made, but there were great dangers in agitating 
 subjects like this, which could not be realised except on the 
 adoption of judicious economy and the consequent application
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF 1861-63. 307 
 
 of sound principles to the relief of the public. Mr. Hubbard's 
 resolution was negatived by 118 to 70. 
 
 During this session, Sir Morton Peto introduced his Dissenters' 
 Burials Bill, the object of which was to enable Nonconformists 
 to have their funerals celebrated with their own religious rites 
 and services, and by their own ministers, in the graveyards of 
 the Established Church. The bill was strongly opposed on its 
 second reading by Lord Kobert Cecil, Mr. Disraeli, and Mr. 
 Gathorne Hardy. Mr. Gladstone said that he could not refuse 
 his assent to the second reading of the measure, though some 
 portions of it were open to objection. ' But,' he continued, ' I 
 do not see that there is sufficient reason, or indeed any reason 
 at all, why, after having granted, and most properly granted, 
 to the entire community the power of professing and practising 
 what form of religion they please during life, you should say to 
 themselves or their relatives when dead, " We will at the last 
 lay our hands upon you, and not permit you to enjoy the 
 privilege of being buried in the churchyard, where, perhaps, the 
 ashes of your ancestors repose, or, at any rate, in the place of 
 which you are parishioners, unless you appear there as members 
 of the Church of England, and, as members of that Church, have 
 her service read over your remains." That appears to me an 
 inconsistency and an anomaly in the present state of the law, and 
 is in the nature of a grievance.' Mr. Gladstone at a later period 
 discovered that his progress in ecclesiastical and political ques- 
 tions was creating a breach between himself and his constituents. 
 The bill which he now supported was rejected by 221 to 96. 
 
 Amongst a variety of questions on which the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer addressed the House in the course of this session, 
 one calls for brief notice. Few debates in Parliament were 
 more animated than those which arose in connection with 
 the International Exhibition Building at South Kensington. 
 On the 15th of June, the House of Commons voted, by a 
 majority of 267 to 135, a sum of 123,000 for the purchase of 
 the seventeen acres of land which formed the site of the Exhibi- 
 tion building. It was not, however, until a fortnight later that 
 the actual contest for the purchase and retention of the building 
 came on. Lord Palmerston being unable to propose the vote by 
 reason of indisposition, Mr. Gladstone accepted the duty. 
 Whether it was, however, that this duty took him somewhat by 
 surprise, does not appear from the debate, but the Government 
 sustained a severe defeat. Mr. Gladstone proposed a vote oi 
 105,000 for the purchase of the buildings at Kensington Gore, 
 and for repairing, altering, and completing them. He invited 
 the House to look at the question as a dry matter of business. 
 
 x 2
 
 308 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 The Government and the House would be in an awkward situa- 
 tion if, after the important step already taken for the purchase 
 of the land, they should stop short, and nothing more was to be 
 done. He then furnished the data upon which the Government 
 had made the offer of 80,000 to the contractors. The Govern- 
 ment had to provide for three urgent public wants the National 
 Portrait Gallery, the Patent Museum, and the Natural History 
 Collections of the British Museum which they had no means 
 of meeting except by appropriating some portion of the site at 
 Kensington. The attitude of the independent members of the 
 House on this occasion surprised both the Government and the 
 Opposition. Although Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Lowe were anxious 
 to express their approval of the Ministerial scheme, they could 
 scarcely obtain a hearing in consequence of the great excitement 
 which prevailed. On the Government motion being put, it was 
 negatived by a majority of 166, the number of members present 
 being only a little over 400. 
 
 This was the last question of domestic importance in a not 
 undistinguished session. 
 
 We have now reached that stage of Mr. Gladstone's career 
 when he may be said to have touched his zenith as a financier, 
 though for some years to come we shall still witness him adminis- 
 tering the national exchequer with that consummate ability 
 which made him the first of living financiers. Yet not alone in 
 the light of a practical statesman have we regarded him ; we 
 have seen him engaged in polemics ; we have witnessed his 
 outbursts of indignation over the wrongs of humanity in Southern 
 Europe ; and we have endeavoured to trace the results of his long 
 and close companionship with the divine Homer. That which 
 remains of his public life possesses as deep and wide an interest 
 as that which has gone before; while for good or for evil its 
 effects are irreversible, claim a much wider scope, and must 
 exercise a permanent influence upon the national history aa<i 
 welfare.
 
 JE.1A1 31
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL REFORMS. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone and Parliamentary Reform Financial Statement of 1864 Grov.'fh 
 of the Kevenue Decrease in the National Debt Imports and Exports Further 
 Relief of Taxation Favourable Reception of the Budget Government Annui- 
 ties and Life Insurances Mr Gladstone on the Working Classes and the 
 Franchise Important Declaration Hostility to the Palmerston Government 
 Mr. Disraeli's ' No Confidence ' Motion Speech by Mr. Gladstone Mr. Bernal 
 Osborne on the Ministry Mr. Disraeli's Motion rejected The Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer on the Irish Church Budget for 1865 Prosperous Condition of 
 the Country A large Surplus Great Reduction in Taxation. 
 
 THE period of three years with which the two ensuing chapters 
 are concerned, viz., that extending from 1864 to 1866 inclusive, 
 is remarkable as showing the rapid development of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's views on the subject of Parliamentary Reform. In the 
 first-named year he delivered a speech upon the franchise which 
 filled the Conservative party with alarm, but correspondingly 
 elevated the hopes of the Reform party. It was the first note 
 sounded in a conflict which, twelve months later, was to lose Mr. 
 Gladstone his seat for Oxford University, and finally to culminate 
 in the disruption of the Liberal Government. With the excep- 
 tion of this speech and of the budget, there was nothing to 
 distinguish the session of 1864, or to give it a conspicuous place 
 in the annals of legislation. The year was comparatively 
 uneventful, and the country was at peace. Concurrently with a 
 tranquil condition of public opinion was witnessed a striking 
 advance in the material prosperity and general welfare of the 
 people. The trade of Great Britain, as the official periodical 
 reports demonstrated, continued to advance by those extra- 
 ordinary ' leaps and bounds ' which had marked its course since 
 the first onslaught made upon the commercial restrictions in 
 force twenty years before. 
 
 The financial statement for the year was brought forward 
 on the 7th of April; and it was widely anticipated before its 
 delivery that Mr. Gladstone would be able to announce further 
 reductions in taxation. It was not until a later stage in ov.c 
 history that the results of Free Trade were seriously called in
 
 310 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 question by its strongest opponents. At the period of which 
 we write, ' the effect of twenty years of Free Trade legislation, 
 inaugurated by Sir Robert Peel in 1842, and carried on by his 
 successors in office, had been such that, concurrently with the 
 repeal of a long catalogue of duties and imposts which had 
 previously fettered manufacturers, and excluded most valuable 
 foreign products, the finances of the country presented an aspect 
 of abundance and stability almost without precedent in our 
 liistory, and to which no foreign country could offer a compari- 
 son. In point of wealth and national credit, indeed, England 
 stood almost alone at this time amongst the nations of the 
 world,' Under the old system of Protection, this magnificent 
 exhibition of strength, stability, and progress in the trade oi 
 the United Kingdom would have been an absolute impossibility. 
 Great solicitude was exhibited as to the distribution of the 
 large surplus which was known to exist, and when the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer rose, it was in a House closely packed in every 
 part peers, foreign Ministers, and other distinguished visitors 
 crowding the places assigned to them, while in Westminster Hall 
 there was an assembly which would have filled the Strangers' 
 Gallery three times over. Often as Mr. Gladstone had performed 
 this annual financial feat, there appeared to be no diminution in 
 the interest with which the budget oration was regarded by the 
 public. The Chancellor of the Exchequer began by referring to 
 the condition of the country in 1862-3, when there was a defi- 
 cient harvest, and when Ireland and Lancashire were suffering 
 from unusual pressure and distress ; circumstances had improved 
 somewhat in 1863-4, but still not to such a degree as to make 
 the financial year completely favourable. The actual expendi- 
 ture that year was 67,056,000, being a million and a quarter 
 less spread over the different departments than had been 
 authorised by Parliament. The revenue of the year was 
 70,003,561, showing a surplus of nearly 3,000,000 ; but from 
 this was to be taken the expenditure on fortifications, viz., 
 800,000. Deducting this from the surplus, it still stood at a 
 large figure. The real diminution of taxes in the three last 
 years had been 6,638,000. The revenue had decreased by only 
 1,760,000, so that, taking reduction of taxation into considera- 
 tion, it had actually increased, in round numbers, by 5,000,000. 
 The revenue had grown since the year 1859 at the rate of 
 1,200,000, and since 1853 still over the rate of a million per 
 annum. With regard to the liquidation of debt over the last 
 year, Mr. Gladstone stated that a million of Exchequer bonds 
 had been paid off, and other liquidations of the capital of the debt 
 had been effected, which amounted to upwards of three millions.
 
 ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL REFORMS. 311 
 
 The sum paid for terminable annuities in liquidation of debt was 
 1,400,000. The decrease in the National Debt since 1855 was 
 69,000,000, and the charge for interest had now decreased by 
 about six millions a-year. Dealing next with our imports and 
 exports, he showed how within three years they had enormously 
 increased. The total exports last year, including foreign and 
 colonial exports, were 195,000,000, while the exports and 
 imports together for last year were 444,905,000. This 
 enormous movement of British trade represented nearly a 
 million and a half of money for every working day of the year, 
 and the great increase had taken place since that period 
 when the removal of trammels on trade had been the 
 policy of Parliament. These facts not only demonstrated the 
 vigorous prosperity of the country, but were a pledge that Eng- 
 land was to be the champion of peace and justice against all the 
 world. There had undoubtedly been other elements working 
 towards the attainment of this great end, but it was a remark- 
 able fact that at those times, when the Legislature acted in the 
 direction towards the liberation of commerce, the greatest results 
 had followed. In 1853 and I860, for example, when this policy 
 was pursued, the exports had risen enormously as compared with 
 the respective years preceding. Mr. Gladstone admitted, with 
 respect to the effect of the paper duty, that there had been a 
 great increase in the import of paper, but there were no means 
 of ascertaining that there had been a proportionate decrease in 
 the product of the British manufacture. Still, there had been 
 an immense increase in the demand for the materials for paper- 
 making, while there had been a considerable increase in the 
 export of British-made paper ; the price had been reduced beyond 
 the amount indicated by the duty ; the diminution in the num- 
 ber of paper-makers, which had been going on until the repeal 
 of the duty, had absolutely stopped ; the expense of manufacture 
 had greatly decreased, and all these facts must be taken as proofs 
 that the trade had not suffered to the extent predicted and 
 asserted. An arrangement for a reduction of the duty on rags 
 was in progress by France. Considering next the spirit duties, 
 he found that there had been an increase in the receipts of above 
 800,000. The export trade in spirits had increased. There 
 was a change taking place in the national taste for milder 
 liquors. As compared with 1859, there had been an increase of 
 about 55 per cent, in the consumption of wine ; the same thing 
 occurred with regard to tobacco. Our total imports from France 
 had more than doubled since 1859, while the exports from Eng- 
 land thither had risen from about 9,000,000 to about 
 22,000,000. Another favourable point in the condition of
 
 312 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the country was that, excluding Lancashire, pauperism, if not 
 decreasing, was at least stationary. 
 
 Dealing with the estimates for 1864-65, Mr. Gladstone stated 
 that the total calculated revenue was 69,460,000, and the total 
 expenditure 66,800,000 yielding a surplus of 2,570,000. A 
 sum of 10,000, however, would be required for various minor 
 changes and modifications which he enumerated ; and the surplus 
 left to dispose of would be 2,560,000. There were, of coursi . 
 many strong claims for the application of this surplus. Fir.'t 
 and foremost, the largest and most important reduction he pro- 
 posed was in the article of sugar, which he held to have the 
 greatest claim to the consideration of the House. At present 
 there was a classified scale of duty on sugar, and opinion and 
 authority were in favour of such a duty in preference to a 
 uniform charge. After detailing plans of classification which 
 had been mooted, he said he desired that that form of duty 
 should be adopted Avhich should least interfere with the natural 
 course of trade. Mr. Gladstone then stated the various reduc- 
 tions that would be made, the effect of which would be to place 
 the sugar duty at Is. per cwt. lower than it had ever been. This 
 alteration would cause a diminution of revenue at once of 
 1,701,900, but the net actual loss for the coming year would be 
 1,330,000. The surplus would thus be reduced to 1,230,000. 
 There was no intention of proposing a reduction in the malt 
 duty. The Chancellor of the Exchequer then took up the 
 subject of the income-tax, and once more stated his belief that 
 the existence of the tax as a permanent duty was inconsistent 
 with the achievement of a judicious public economy an object 
 towards which, despite the great and growing prosperity of the 
 country, considering the co-existence of large pauperism with 
 that prosperity, it was the duty of Parliament carefully to direct 
 its attention and its efforts. He did not then ask the House to 
 remodel or to abolish the income-tax, but he proposed to make 
 a reduction of one penny in the amount. The immediate loss 
 by this reduction would be 800,000, and the ultimate loss 
 1,200,000. This would leave a surplus of 130.000. It was 
 proposed to reduce the duty on fire insurances from 3s. to Is. Gd., 
 so far as stock-in-trade was concerned ; and with a view to test 
 the principle of recovery of the revenue after reduction of duty, 
 which had been so strenuously asserted, the reduction would take 
 place from 1st July. The financial result of this would not be a 
 very heavy loss. The surplus ultimately remaining after the 
 various reductions he had specified would be only 238,000. 
 Such were the Government proposals. He trusted they would 
 meet with acceptance, and that the House would receive them as
 
 ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL REFORMS. 313 
 
 pledges, on the part of the Ministry, of an earnest desire to co- 
 operate with the Legislature in carrying yet further forward 
 those purposes, the steady prosecution of which had already done 
 so much for the strength and security of England, for the 
 comfort and happiness of the people, for the honour of the age 
 in which they lived, and for the hopes they entertained on behalf 
 of the times that were to come. 
 
 The budget which was equivalent to a declaration of policy 
 on behalf of the Government, a policy in which peace, progress, 
 and economy were the watch-words was most favourably 
 received. Notices of opposition on minor points were given, but 
 Mr. Gladstone's resolutions were ultimately adopted without a 
 division. Notwithstanding the continuous assaults which hnd 
 been made upon the fiscal policy of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, its success could not be denied, and the author of it was 
 now the chief mainstay of the Government. From whatever 
 quarter of the House criticism arose, Mr. Gladstone met it 
 readily and successfully, showing an unprecedented familiarity 
 with all branches of the public industry and the public revenue. 
 
 A motion still further to reduce the fire insurance duty was 
 negatived. On the order of the day for going into consideration 
 of the proposed reduction in the sugar duties, Colonel Barttelot 
 moved an amendment, * That the consideration of these duties 
 be postponed until the House has had an opportunity of con- 
 sidering the expediency of the reduction of the duty upon malt.' 
 During the discussion on this amendment, a member of the 
 Opposition advocated the re-imposition of the paper duty, upon 
 which the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose and protested against 
 all such idea, referring in most laudatory terms to the establishment 
 of a cheap press, and hailing the benefits it had conferred on the 
 community. The surplus was totally inadequate to a substantial 
 reduction of the malt-tax, and if that subject were approached at 
 all it ought not to be in a petty and inadequate manner, or 
 without considering the relation of the tax to the whole system 
 of taxation on the other beverages of the country. Colonel 
 Barttelot's motion was rejected by 247 votes to 99. A subse- 
 quent motion by Mr. Morritt, ' That in case of any modification 
 of the indirect taxation of the country the excise on malt requires 
 consideration,' was lost by 166 to 118. Mr. Gladstone, hov,-- 
 ever brought forward a proposal by way of concession to the 
 agriculturists, for the remission of so much of the duty as 
 had been hitherto levied upon malt used for the consumption 
 of cattle. The bill was variously viewed by Conservative mem- 
 bers, but after considerable debate it ultimately passed both 
 Houses. Two amendments were proposed to Mr. Gladstone's
 
 814 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 proposed re-arrangement of the sugar duties, but both were 
 defeated. 
 
 Early in this session the Chancellor of the Exchequer intro- 
 duced a bill for amending the law relating to the purchase of 
 Government annuities through the medium of savings banks, 
 and to enable the granting of life insurances by the Government. 
 It was explained that, up to the introduction of the Bill, sums 
 could be received for deferred annuities only in large amounts, 
 and the objects of the measure were to enable them to take 
 smaller amounts through the medium of the post-office savings- 
 banks. No hostility was at first shown to the bill, but subse- 
 quently it was violently opposed. On moving the committal of 
 the measure, Mr. Gladstone demonstrated the groundlessness of 
 the fears which had arisen respecting it. The bill prohibited 
 nothing : it simply offered certain facilities for self-help to the 
 poorer classes of the community. The plan was both safe and 
 just. The Friendly Societies, however, raised a strong opposition 
 to the scheme, and their supporters in the House inveighed 
 against what they termed a ' paternal Government.' The author 
 of the proposal had the effective retort that during his long 
 public life he had never received so many letters as he had upon 
 this measure, from various classes of the community, all expres- 
 sing approval of, and gratitude for, the bill. After the rejection 
 of an amendment directed against the whole scheme, the bill was 
 referred to a select committee, which, while recommending 
 slight modifications, reported favourably to the House. The 
 Opposition collapsed, and the bill passed the Lower House amid 
 warm approval on both sides. In the House of Lords, also, it 
 \vas regarded as a measure ' conceived in the true interest of 
 the working classes.' It became law, and it has since been 
 generally acknowledged as one of the most valuable products of a 
 session not very prolific in legislative reforms. Its singularly 
 successful operation may readily be traced from year to year by 
 all who are interested in the welfare and progress of the working 
 classes. 
 
 It was during the debate on Mr. Baines's bill for lowering the 
 borough franchise that the Chancellor of the Exchequer startled 
 the House by his declaration upon the question of Reform. Mr, 
 Baines's resolution was defeated by 272 against 216, but it was 
 generally admitted that Mr. Gladstone's speech had given a. 
 great impetus to the movement. The right hon. gentleman, at 
 the outset, signified cordial concurrence in the proposition that 
 there ought to be, not a wholesale, but a sensible and con- 
 siderable addition to that portion of the working classes in 
 present almost infinitesimal which was in possession of the
 
 ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL REFORMS. 315 
 
 franchise. * We are told,' he continued, i that the working 
 classes don't agitate ; but is it desirable that we should wait 
 until they do agitate? In my opinion, agitation by the 
 working classes upon any political subject whatever is a thing 
 not to be waited for, not to be made a condition previous to 
 any Parliamentary movement, but, on the contrary, is to 
 be deprecated, and, if possible, prevented by wise and provi- 
 dent measures. An agitation by the working classes is not 
 like an agitation by the classes above them having leisure. The 
 agitation of the classes having leisure is easily conducted. 
 Every hour of their time has not a money value ; their wives and 
 children are not dependent on the application of those hours of 
 labour. When a working man finds himself in such a condition 
 that he must abandon that daily labour on which he is strictly 
 dependent for his daily bread, it is only because then, in railway 
 language, the danger signal is turned on, and because he feels a 
 strong necessity for action, and a distrust of the rulers who have 
 driven him to that necessity. The present state of things, I 
 rejoice to say, does not indicate that distrust ; but if we admit 
 that, we must not allege the absence of agitation on the part of 
 the working classes as a reason why the Parliament of England 
 and the public mind of England should be indisposed to enter- 
 tain the discussion of this question.' He denied that there was 
 that special virtue in the nature of the middle classes which 
 justified them in drawing a marked distinction between them 
 and a select portion of the working classes, so far as related 
 to the exercise of the franchise. He advocated the extension 
 of the franchise, on the ground that it would tend to advance 
 that unity of classes which was now in happy progress throughout 
 the country. 
 
 The general feeling in connection with this speech was that if 
 the Liberal party had failed in its duty on the subject of Keform 
 in the existing Parliament, after the utterances of Mr. Gladstone 
 that state of things must undergo a change. Mr. Gladstone's 
 declaration had naturally a great effect upon the country. 
 
 On the 4th of July the hostility to the Palmerston Govern- 
 ment, chiefly on the ground of its foreign policy, reached its full 
 height in a formal encounter between the Ministry and the 
 Opposition. Mr. Disraeli brought forward on the day named his 
 'no confidence' motion as follows: t To thank her Majesty for 
 having directed the correspondence on Denmark and Germany, 
 and the protocol of the Conference recently assembled in London^ 
 to be laid before Parliament ; to assure her Majesty that we have 
 heard with deep concern ';hat the sittings of the Conference have 
 been brought to a close without accomplishing the importan'-
 
 316 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 purpose for which it was convened ; and to express to her Majesty 
 our great regret that, while the course pursued by her Majesty's 
 Government has failed to maintain their avowed policy of 
 upholding the integrity and independence of Denmark, it has 
 lowered ihe just influence of this country in the capitals of 
 Europe, and thereby diminished the securities for peace.' Mr. 
 Kinglake proposed to substitute the following words as an 
 amendment to the last sentence of the resolution : ' To express 
 the satisfaction with which we have learned that at this con- 
 juncture her Majesty has been advised to abstain from armed 
 interference in the war now going on between Denmark and the 
 German Powers.' Mr. Disraeli, in a speech which was loudly 
 cheered by his supporters, maintained that the time had come 
 when Ministers should no longer be allowed to escape their 
 responsibility. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone at once accepted the responsibility cast upon 
 the Government, and proceeded to rebut the accusations made 
 by the leader of the Opposition. It was the very first occasion, 
 he said, on which the British House of Commons had been called 
 upon for the sake of displacing a Government to record the 
 degradation of the country. Why could not the right hon. 
 gentleman speak plainly in his motion? The terms of the 
 resolution were nothing better than an echo of the almost ribald 
 language of a few obscure journals of Germany. It was from 
 that source that this intended Minister derived his inspiration. 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer thus concluded his stirring 
 reply : 
 
 ' Why does not the right hon. gentleman adopt the language of our forefathers, 
 who, when they were dissatisfied with a Government, addressed the Crown, and 
 prayed that the Government might be dismissed? They said boldly that the con- 
 duct of the Government was open to such and such charges, and they prayed that 
 other men might be put in their places. But the right lion, gentleman was afraid 
 to raise that issue. He has, indeed, plucked up courage to propose this motion ; 
 but why has he not done it in the proper constitutional form in which votes of 
 want f confidence have hitherto been drawn ? Kever before, as far as I know, has 
 party spirit led gentlemen in this country to frame a motion which places on 
 record that which must be regarded as dishonourable to the nation. I go back to 
 the time of Sir R. Walpole, of Lord North, and Mr Fox, but nowhere do we find 
 such a sterile and jejune affair as this resolution. Those charges were written in 
 legible and plain" terms ; but the right hon. gentlemnn substitutes language which 
 might indeed be sufficient for the purpose of rendering it impossible for the Govern- 
 ment to continue in office, but which cannot transfix them without its sting first 
 passing through the honour of England. For the reasons I have stated I look 
 forward with cheerfulness to the issue which has been raised with regard to our 
 conduct. >.ay, more, I feel the most confident anticipation that both the House and 
 the country will approve of the course taken in this difficult negotiation by her 
 Majesty's Government, and that they will reject a motion which both prudence and 
 patriotism must alike emphatically condemn.' 
 
 In the course of the debate, which was very protracted, Mr. 
 Bernal Osborne grew amusingly sarcastic at the expense of the
 
 ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL EEFOEMS. 317 
 
 Government, though he paid at the same time a great compli- 
 ment to Mr. Gladstone. He likened the Cabinet to a museum 
 of curiosities, in which there were some birds of rare and noble 
 plumage, both alive and stuffed. There had been a difficulty, 
 unfortunately, in keeping up the breed, and it was found neces- 
 sary to cross it with the famous Peelites. ' I will do them the 
 justice to say that they have a very great and able Minister among 
 them in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it is to his 
 measures alone that they owe the little popularity and the little 
 support they get from this Liberal party.' Describing Mr. 
 Milner Gibson, the hon. gentleman said he was like some ' fly 
 in amber,' and the wonder was ' how the devil he got there.' Mr. 
 Cobden and Mr. Bright must have been disappointed in this 
 'young man from the country.' He had become insolent and 
 almost quarrelsome under the guidance of the noble lord. Should 
 that Parliament decide on terminating its own and their exis- 
 tence, they would find consolation that the funeral oration would 
 be pronounced by Mr. Newdegate, and that some friendly hand 
 would inscribe on their mausoleum, ' Best and be thankful.' 
 The Government having accepted Mr. Kinglake's amendment, 
 a, division was taken with the following result : For Mr. 
 Disraeli's motion, 295 ; for the amendment, 313 majority for 
 Ministers, 18. 
 
 In the House of Commons, during a debate which occurred at 
 the close of March, 1865, Mr. Gladstone delivered an important 
 speech in connection with the Irish Church. Mr. Dillwyn 
 having proposed a motion, ' That the present position of the Irish 
 Church Establishment is unsatisfactory, and calls for the early- 
 attention of her Majesty's Government,' Mr. Gladstone rose and 
 said that, although the Government were unable to agree to the 
 resolution, they were not prepared to deny the abstract truth of 
 the former part of it. They could not assert that the present 
 position of the Establishment was satisfactory. At the close of 
 a lengthy speech, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he 
 could come to no other conclusion than that the Irish Church, ay 
 she then stood, was in a false position. It was much more diffi- 
 cult, however, to decide upon the practical aspect of the ques- 
 tion, and no one had ventured to propose the remedy required 
 for the existing state of things. This question raised a whole 
 nest of political problems; for while the vast majority of the 
 Irish people were opposed to the maintenance of large and liberal 
 endowments for a fragment of the population, they repudiated 
 any desire to appropriate these endowments, and firmly rejected 
 all idea of receiving a State provision for themselves. How 
 could the Government, in view of these facts, substitute a satis-
 
 318 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 factory for an admittedly unsatisfactory state of things ? They 
 were unable to do so. Consequently, ' we feel that we ought to 
 decline to follow the hon. gentleman into the lobby, and declare 
 that it is the duty of the Government to give their early atten- 
 tion to the subject ; because if we gave a vote to that effect we 
 should be committing one of the gravest offences of which a 
 Government could be guilty namely, giving a deliberate and 
 solemn promise to the country, which promise it would be out of 
 our power to fulfil.' The debate was adjourned, but was not 
 resumed during the session. Some months later, in a letter to 
 Dr. Hannah, Warden of Trinity College, Glenalmond, Mr. Glad- 
 stone gave his reasons for declining at that time to entertain the 
 question of the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. 
 
 ' First, because the question is remote, and apparently out of all bearing 1 on the 
 practical politics of the day, I think it would be for me worse than superfluous to 
 determine upon any scheme, or basis of a scheme, with respect to it. Secondly, 
 because it is difficult ; even if I anticipated any likelihood of being called upon to 
 deal with it, I should think it right to take no decision beforehand on the mode of 
 dealing with the difficulties. But the first reason is that which chiefly weighs. 
 . . . I think I have stated strongly my sense of the responsibility attaching to 
 the opening of such a question, except in a state of things which gave promise of 
 satisfactorily closing it. For this reason it is that I have been so silent about the 
 matter, and may probably be so again ; but I could not, as a Minister and as 
 member for Oxford University, allow it to be debated an indefinite number of times 
 and remain silent. One thing, however, I may add, because I think it a clear land- 
 mark. In any measure dealing with the Irish Church, I think (though I scarcely 
 expect over to be called on to share in such a measure) the act of Union must be 
 recognised, and must have important consequences, especially with reference to 
 the position of the hierarchy.' 
 
 This question, however, was already rapidly pressing forward for 
 settlement how rapidly Mr. Gladstone himself seemed not to be 
 aware of. Yet the act of Disestablishment was to proceed from 
 his own hand within a very brief period. 
 
 The budget this year was brought forward on the 27th of 
 April, and the prosperous condition of the finances of the country 
 again justified the hopes of a reduction of taxation. The Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer began his statement by remarking upon 
 the contrast between the opening and closing circumstances of 
 the existing Parliament. 
 
 ' When the Parliament met, we had been involved although we did not know it 
 at the time in a costly and difficult war with China. The harvest of the year 
 which succeeded was the worst that had been known for half a century. The 
 recent experience of war had led to costly, extensive, and somewhat uncertain 
 reconstructions ; and clouds hung over the Continent of Europe, while the Italian 
 war had terminated in such a manner as to occasion vague but serious alarms in 
 the public mind. Since that period those clouds have moved Westward across the 
 Atlantic, and have burst in a tempest, perhaps the wildest that ever devastated a 
 c-ivilised country a tempest of war, distinguished, indeed, by the exhibition of 
 many of the most marvellous and extraordinary qualities of valour, heroism, and 
 perseverance; and on the whole, perhaps, no scenes have been so entirely painful 
 as that of which the intelligence has Jst reached us, which now causes ore thrill
 
 ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL REFORMS. 319 
 
 of horror throughout Europe.* But, so far as this country is concerned, we have 
 been mercifully spared. We see the state of the public mind tranquil and reassured, 
 and the condition of the country generally prosperous and satisfactory. The finan- 
 cial history of the Parliament has been a remarkable one. It has raised a larger 
 revenue than, I believe, at any period, whether of peace or war, was ever raised by 
 taxation. After taking into account the changes in the value of money within an 
 equal time, the expenditure of the Parliament has been upon a scale that has never 
 before been reached in time of peace. The amount and variety of the changes 
 introduced into our financial legislation have been greater than within a like number 
 of years at any former time. And I may say, lastly, that it has enjoyed the distinc- 
 tion that, although no Parliament ever completes the full term of its legal existence, 
 yet this is the seventh time on which you have been called upon to make provision 
 for the financial exigencies of the country.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone then proceeded with the details of his state- 
 ment. The actual expenditure for 1864-65 had been less than 
 the estimate by about 611,000. The estimate of the revenue 
 for the year 1864 was 67,128,000, while the amount received 
 was 70,313,000, showing an increase of 3,185,000. The 
 actual expenditure of the past year had been 66,461,000, 
 and the revenue being 70,313,000, there was thus a surplus of 
 3,852,000, or, subjecting it to all deductions, of 3,200,000. 
 The debt paid off in the year had amounted to 5,240,000, 
 while, deducting the charge for fortifications, the real diminu- 
 tion was over 4,000,000, Since 1859 the National Debt 
 had diminished by three millions per annum, and there was a 
 total reduction of nearly eighteen millions during the present 
 Parliament. Dealing with the trade of the country, he observed 
 that the paper trade was in a satisfactory condition, and that our 
 commerce with France continued to increase, both in exports and 
 imports. Although nominally the trade of France had increased 
 in greater proportion than that of this country, yet relatively, 
 and looking to the steady progress of the latter, that had not 
 been the case ; while in comparison with Belgium and Holland 
 it had considerably increased. He came to the conclusion that 
 immense advantage had resulted to our trade in the removal of 
 bars, fetters, and impediments from the path of human industry 
 in this empire, as well as in the union of class with class and, he 
 hoped, of nation with nation. Not for the first time, the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer said that in such a retrospect he could 
 not forbear rendering a tribute to the character and ability of 
 the man who was the main instrument of these great commercial 
 changes Mr. Cobden. With regard to the charges for 1865-66, 
 Mr. Gladstone stated that the total expenditure was estimated at 
 66,139,000, being considerably less than for 1864-65. The total 
 estimated revenue was 70,170,000, and there was thus left a sur- 
 plus of 4.031,000. Coming to the question of the disposal of 
 this surplus, after enumerating various minor reductions, there 
 
 * The assassination of President Lincoln.
 
 320 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 remained, said the right hon. gentleman, the question of th<* 
 malt- tax. The total abolition of the duty would be the death- 
 warrant of oui' whole system of indirect taxation, and the prac- 
 1 ical qu istion was, what reduction could be made ? He allowed 
 that the tax upon beer from the malt duty was 20 per cent. 
 How much of the malt duty must be taken off to reduce the 
 price of beer one farthing a quart ? A little less than one-half. 
 The loss to the Exchequer by such a reduction would be in the 
 first year 2,489,000 ; in the second year, 3,360,000. Now, 
 looking at the relative taxation of malt, as compared with other 
 potable articles, he found that while beer was taxed 20 per cent., 
 the common wines which entered into competition with beer 
 were taxed 50 per cent. There was no argument in favour 
 of the repeal to be derived from any languor in the con- 
 sumption of beer ; on the contrary, there had been an 
 increase in the use of this national drink as compared with 
 spirits. But if beer ought to be taxed more lightly than 
 wines or spirits, he confidently asserted that tea ought to be 
 more heavily taxed than beer. The tax on a barrel of beer 
 was 20 per cent. ? that on a chest of tea was not less than 40 per 
 cent., and tea was entitled to a preference in the reduction of 
 duty. He would, however, give the maltster the option of having 
 the duty charged by weight instead of by measure, which 
 would operate as a relief to the growers of medium and lower 
 qualities of barley. He did not say that he looked forward to 
 an indefinite imposition of the malt-tax, but at the present time 
 a large portion of the surplus could not be applied to the reduc- 
 tion of the malt-tax, especially as the incidence of the income- 
 tax remained to be finally settled. The diminution of the duty 
 on tea by 6d. a pound would reduce the price to the consumer 
 by 20 per cent. ; the loss to the revenue would be upwards of 
 2,375,000, but looking to recuperation by consumption, in the 
 present year it would only be 1,808,000. Touching upon the 
 income-tax, he observed that it was now at the lowest point 
 which it had ever reached ; but it was proposed to reduce the 
 existing charge of 6d. in the pound by one-third of that amount. 
 The effect would be to reduce the tax to a total of 5,200,000. 
 Its final adjustment might be dealt with by the new Parliament, 
 but if it was thought desirable to retain the income-tax, 4d. in 
 the pound was the rate at which it might well be kept in time 
 of peace. The reduction of 3,518,000 on tea and income-tax 
 left a margin of the surplus, enabling it to be applied to the 
 duty on fire insurance, and a reduction in conformity with a 
 resolution already passed by the House upon the subject, would 
 be made to Is. 6d. from the 25th of June ; while a reduction
 
 ADVANCING OPINIONS AND FISCAL REFORMS. 21 
 
 would be made in the shilling duty on the policy to a penny 
 stamp. There would be a relief on fire insurance of 520,000. 
 The total reduction of taxation amounted to 5,420,000. The 
 loss in the year 1865-6 would be 3,778,000, and in the following 
 year 1,417,000, making a total for the two years of 5,195,000. 
 There would be an ultimate surplus this year of 253,000, and 
 any invasion of this he earnestly deprecated. There were several 
 claims for a reduction of duty, but he trusted that the House 
 would agree that that of tea was paramount, and he hoped 
 generally that the measures of the Government, in dealing with 
 the financial situation, would be acceptable to the House and the 
 nation. 
 
 The budget met with less opposition than had been encoun 
 tered by any of its predecessors, and gained the warm approval 
 of the country, notwithstanding the inevitable demonstration 
 made in connection with the malt-tax. The Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer's fiscal proposals were embodied in a bill, which 
 passed through the House with scarcely any delay. The de- 
 creasing expenditure on the army and navy estimates was viewed 
 with general and very lively satisfaction. Notwithstanding that 
 the House and the country at large had become accustomed to 
 Mr. Gladstone's masterly manipulation of the national finances, 
 the magnitude of the remissions of taxation in the budget of 
 1865 excited feelings of pleasant and universal surprise. These 
 financial proposals demonstrated not only the soundness of the 
 calculations made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but also 
 the continued prosperity of the country.
 
 CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S REJECTION AT OXFORD- THE EEFOEM BELL 
 
 OF 1866. 
 
 Dissolution of Parliament Oxford University Election Defeat of Mr. Gladstone 
 Character of the Election Public Opinion thereon The Election in South Lan- 
 cashire The Chancellor of the Exchequer at Manchester and Liverpool Return 
 of Mr. Gladstone Death of Lord Palmerston Reconstruction of the Ministry 
 The New Leader in the Commons The Budget of 1866 Scheme for the Reduction 
 of the National Debt Disaffection in Ireland Suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
 Act Church Rates Debate on Continental Affairs Mr. Gladstone introduces 
 the Government Reform Bill Digest of the Measure it is attacked by Mr. Lowe 
 and others Mr. Bright's Rebuke of Mr. Horsman The Adullamites The Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer at Liverpool The Reform Struggle continued Amend- 
 ments to the Ministerial Scheme Eloquent Speech by Mr. Gladstone His 
 Relations with the Liberal Party Government Victory Exciting Scene in the 
 House Redistribution of Seats Bill Further Reform Debates The Government 
 Defeated on Lord Dunkellin's Amendment Resignation of the Ministry A Derby 
 Administration formed. 
 
 ON the 6th of July, 1865, Parliament having, in a constitutional 
 sense, reached its full term was prorogued, with a view to an 
 immediate dissolution. The Prime Minister had announced 
 some time previously that this day had been selected for 
 remitting to the constituencies their legislative trust ; and many 
 members had issued their addresses for re-election in anticipation 
 of the issue of the new writs. Yet there was no ' burning ' 
 question upon which the Palmerston Government appealed to 
 the country for a continuance of its confidence. Parliament had 
 expired in a natural manner, and there were few contests looked 
 forward to with any extraordinary degree of interest. With the 
 exception of the elections for the Metropolitan constituencies, 
 there was, indeed, but one electoral struggle which the country 
 watched with peculiar solicitude, viz., that in which Mr. 
 Gladstone's seat for Oxford University was threatened. It was 
 not a little singular that, while the great body of the people 
 Liberal and Conservative alike admitted that the stability of 
 the Ministry was in great part due to the sagacious and 
 statesmanlike measures of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, his 
 re-election was widely felt to be most uncertain. As a natural 
 consequence, the eyes of the whole country were turned in the 
 direction of Oxford. By the irony of fate, a Liberal measure
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S REJECTION AT OXFORD. 323 
 
 was destined to operate most injuriously against Mr. Gladstone. 
 Only in the previous Parliament an Act was passed on the 
 instigation of a well-known member of the Liberal party, by 
 which the election for the Universities was authorised to be made 
 by means of voting papers, transmitted through the post or 
 otherwise to the Vice-Chancellors, and a period of five days was 
 allowed for keeping open the poll. An uncompromising 
 Conservative candidate was found at Oxford, in the person of 
 Mr. Gathorne Hardy, to oppose Mr. Gladstone, and the 
 friends of both candidates agreed to give their second vote to 
 Sir W. Heathcote, whose return was not opposed. The nomi- 
 nation took place on the 13th of July, the proceedings being 
 conducted in Latin. Mr. Gladstone was proposed by Dr. Liddell, 
 the Dean of Christ Church ; the Warden of All Souls, in an 
 oration of some length, proposed Sir William Heathcote ; and the 
 Public Orator, in the absence of the President of St. John's, proposed 
 Mr. Gathorne Hardy. At the close of the first day's poll Mr. Glad- 
 stone was in a minority of six as compared with his opponent, Mr. 
 Hardy. The last vote registered for Gladstone on the first day 
 caused some amount of commotion. The Standard of the follow- 
 ing morning stated that the Vice-Chancellor was in ' the act of 
 receiving a long string of proxies for Gladstone when a voter 
 appeared to give his vote in person. On being asked his name 
 he gave that of " Samuel Wilberforce," on which one of the gen- 
 tlemen appointed to watch the proceedings on the Conservative 
 side, inquired, with all due courtesy, if his lordship was aware 
 that the House of Commons had passed a resolution to the effect 
 that peers of Parliament could not vote in the election of mem- 
 bers of the Lower House. The Bishop replied that he was per- 
 fectly aware of the resolution in question, and again tendered his 
 vote, which (the objection not being pressed) was received and 
 duly registered.' Several other peers recorded their votes at an 
 early stage for Mr. Gladstone, including the Bishop of Durham 
 and Earl Cowper. On the third day Mr. Gladstone's minority 
 had increased to 74, and on the fourth to 230. A circular was 
 now issued by Sir J. T. Coleridge, chairman of the right hon. 
 gentleman's committee, intimating to the electors still unpledged 
 that there was reason to fear the seat was in danger, and pressing 
 upon them the duty of recording their votes in favour of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. ' The Committee do not scruple 
 to advocate his cause on grounds above the common level of 
 politics. They claim for him the gratitude due to one whose 
 public life has for eighteen years reflected a lustre on the Univer- 
 sity herself. They confidently invite you to consider whether 
 bis pure and exalted character, his splendid abilities, and his 
 
 Y2
 
 824 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 eminent services to Church and State, do not constitute the 
 highest of all qualifications for an academical seat, and entitle 
 him to be judged by his constituents as he will assuredly be 
 j udged by posterity.' On the last day of the contest the excite- 
 ment waned, as it was found that Mr. Gladstone had little 
 chance of success. He lessened the majority against him, how- 
 ever, and the numbers were finally declared as follows : Heath- 
 cote, 3,236 ; Hardy, 1,904 ; Gladstone, 1,724 majority of Hardy 
 over Gladstone, 180. The total number of votes recorded was 
 3,850, being nearly double that at any former election. While 
 Mr. Gladstone received 415 plumpers, only 43 were registered 
 for Sir W. Heathcote, and but 16 for Mr. Hardy.* 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's defeat was shown to be due to the non-residents. 
 The resident body consisted of some 250 persons, and of these 
 155 voted or paired for the right hon. gentleman, while only 89 
 voted or paired against him. Mr. Hardy had a majority in 
 three colleges only St. John's, Magdalen, and Lincoln all the 
 important colleges being strongly on Mr. Gladstone's side. The 
 heads of houses were nearly equally divided, 12 voting for Mr. 
 Gladstone and 11 for Mr. Hardy; but the professors were 
 strongly for the former, 24 giving him their support, while only 10 
 voted for his opponent. Three-fourths of the tutors and lecturers 
 were also on the side of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, so that 
 in this celebrated contest it was not really Academic Oxford which 
 rejected him. He lost his seat through that great body of voters 
 who had little sympathy with the Oxford of 1865, as a writer at 
 the time pointed out. The Rector of Lincoln (the Rev. Mark 
 Pattison) stated that of the ten Fellows of that college seven 
 polled for Mr. Gladstone, and two only for Mr. Hardy. Half 
 the total number of members of Convocation on the college 
 books voted for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 While the rejection of Mr. Gladstone by the University of 
 Oxford was regarded in some quarters as a signal triumph of 
 Conservative reaction, in other respects it was felt that the 
 opposition offered to him was a most mistaken stroke of Tory 
 policy. Though he always courageously acted upon his convic- 
 tions, so long as he retained his seat for Oxford University he 
 must have remained to some extent fettered he could not 
 
 * Amongst the distinguished voters who supported the Chnncellor of tha 
 Exchequer were the following : the Bishops of Durham, Oxford, and Chester, Earl 
 Cowper, the Dean of Westminster, the Dean of Christchurch, Professors Farrar, 
 Rolleston, and Max Muller, the Dean of Lichfield, Sir J. T. Coleridge, Sir Henry 
 Thompson, the Rev. Dr. Jelf, the Bodleian Librarian, Sir F. T. Palgrnve, the Right 
 Hon. S. Lushington, the Dean of St. Paul's, the Rev. John Keble, the Principal of 
 Brasenose, the Dean of Peterborough, Prof. Conington, the Rev. J. B. Mozley, Mr 
 E. A. Freeman, Chief Justice Erie, Dr. Pusey, Professor Jowett, Mr. Cardwell, tha 
 Marquis of Kildare, and the Rector of Lincoln.
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S EEJECTION AT OXFOED. 325 
 
 altogether shake off the silent but deep and unmistakable 
 influence which such a connection must necessarily exercise. 
 Once the ties had been broken which bound him to his Alma 
 Mater, and Mr. Gladstone felt like a man who breathes the fresh 
 mountain air after a close confinement in the crowded city. 
 There were now many questions whose consideration he could 
 approach without the sense of an invisible but restraining 
 influence. By the whole Liberal party throughout the country 
 his rejection was immediately regarded with feelings of exultation 
 much as (for some reasons) they had desired his return for 
 that distinguished seat of learning which he had represented so 
 long and so well. By a large class of non-resident voters Mr. 
 Gladstone was viewed as too clever to be a safe man, and it was 
 not anticipated that Mr. Gathorne Hardy would forfeit the 
 confidence of this body by any eccentricities of genius. The 
 result of this election had another important effect. 'The 
 enemies of the University,' observed the Times, ' will make the 
 most of her disgrace. It has hitherto been supposed that a 
 learned constituency was to some extent exempt from the vulgar 
 motives of party spirit, and capable of forming a higher estimate 
 of statesmanship than common tradesmen or tenant-farmers. It 
 will now stand on record that they have deliberately sacrificed 
 a representative who combined the very highest qualifications, 
 moral and intellectual, for an academical seat, to party spirit, 
 and party spirit alone. Mr. Gladstone's brilliant public career, 
 his great academical distinctions and literary attainments, his 
 very subtlety and sympathy with ideas for their own sake, mark 
 him out beyond all living men for such a position. However 
 progressive in purely secular politics, he has ever shown himself 
 a staunch and devoted Churchman wherever Church doctrine or 
 ecclesiastical rights were concerned. . . . Henceforth Mr. Glad- 
 stone will belong to the country, but no longer to the University. 
 Those Oxford influences and traditions which have so deeply 
 coloured his views, and so greatly interfered with his better judg- 
 ment, must gradually lose their hold on him.' A yet more pro- 
 nounced expression of opinion came from the Daily News, the 
 organ of advanced Liberal thought : ' Mr. Gladstone's career as 
 a statesman will certainly not be arrested, nor Mr. Gathorne 
 Hardy's capacity be enlarged by the number of votes which Tory 
 squires or Tory parsons may inflict upon Lord Derby's cheerful 
 and fluent subaltern, or withhold from Lord Palmerston's bril- 
 liant colleague. The late Sir Eobert Peel was but the chief of a 
 party until, admonished by one ostracism, he became finally 
 emancipated by another. Then, as now, the statesman who was 
 destined to give up to mankind what was never meant for th<-
 
 326 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 barren service of a party, could say to the honest bigots who 
 rejected him 
 
 " I banish you : 
 There is a world elsewhere." 
 
 Mediocrity will not be turned into genius, honest and good- 
 natured insignificance into force, fluency into eloquence, if the 
 resident and non-resident Toryism of the University of Oxford 
 should prefer the safe and sound Mr. Hardy to the illustrious 
 Minister whom all Europe envies us, whose name is a household 
 word in every political assembly in the world.' 
 
 Such was the view taken by Liberals generally of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's defeat. How it was regarded by one important body in 
 the Church may be gathered from a letter which Dr. Pusey 
 addressed to the Editor of the Churchman, a journal which 
 looked with the liveliest satisfaction upon the return of Mr. 
 Hardy. ' You are naturally rejoicing,' wrote the Eegius Pro- 
 fessor of Hebrew, 'over the rejection of Mr. Gladstone, which I 
 mourn. Some of those who concurred in that election, or who 
 stood aloof, will, I fear, mourn hereafter with a double sorrow 
 because they were the cause of that rejection. I, of course, speak 
 only for myself, with whatever degree of anticipation may be the 
 privilege of years. Yet, on the very ground that I may very 
 probably not live to see the issue of the momentous future now 
 hanging over the Church, let me, through you, express to those 
 friends through whom I have be*en separated, who love the Church 
 in itself, and not the accident of Establishment, my conviction 
 that we should do ill to identify the interests of the Church with 
 any political party ; that we have questions before us, compared 
 with which that of the Establishment (important as it is in 
 respect to the possession of our parish churches) is as nothing. 
 The grounds alleged against Mr. Gladstone bore at the utmost 
 upon the Establishment. The Establishment might perish, and 
 the Church but come forth the purer. If the Church were cor- 
 rupted, the Establishment would become a curse in proportion 
 to its influence. As that conflict will thicken, Oxford, I think, 
 will learn to regret her rude severance from one so loyal to the 
 Church, to the faith, and to God.' The author of the Christian 
 Year also remained firm to the cause of Mr. Gladstone in 1865, 
 as he had done in 1847. 
 
 On the close of the poll at Oxford on the 18th of July, Mr. 
 
 ; Gladstone wrote the following valedictory address to the 
 
 'members of Convocation: 'After an arduous connection of 
 
 eighteen years, I bid you, respectfully, farewell. My earnest 
 
 purpose to serve you, my many faults and shortcomings, the
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S REJECTION AT OXFORD. 327 
 
 incidents of the political relation between the University and 
 myself, established in 1847, so often questioned in vain, and now, 
 at length, finally dissolved, I leave to the judgment of the 
 future. It is one imperative duty, and one alone, which induces 
 me to trouble you with these few parting words the duty of 
 expressing my profound and lasting gratitude for indulgence as 
 generous, and for support as warm and enthusiastic in itself, 
 and as honourable from the character and distinctions of those 
 who have given it, as has, in my belief, ever been accorded by 
 any constituency to any representative.' Like his illustrious 
 leader, Sir Robert Peel, when rejected by the University of Oxford, 
 Mr. Gladstone was now driven to appeal to a different kind of 
 constituency. The election in South Lancashire was still pending, 
 and at the nomination on the preceding day the name of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer had been proposed, in view of 
 eventualities at Oxford. Arriving in Manchester on the 18th, 
 Mr. Gladstone had a conference with the Liberal Election Com- 
 mittee, and immediately afterwards issued his address to the 
 electors as follows: 'I appear before you as a candidate for the 
 suffrages of your division of my native county. Time forbids 
 me to enlarge on the numerous topics which justly engage the 
 public interest. I will bring them all to a single head. You 
 are conversant few -" much so with the legislation of the last 
 thirty-five years. You have seen, you have felt its results. You 
 cannot fail to have observed the verdict which the country gene- 
 rally has, within the last eight days, pronounced upon the relative 
 claims and positions of the two great political Parties with 
 respect to that legislation in the past, and to the prospective 
 administration of public affairs. I humbly, but confidently, with- 
 out the least disparagement to many excellent persons, from 
 whom I have the misfortune frequently to differ, ask you to give 
 your powerful voice in confirmation of that verdict, and to pro- 
 nounce with significance as to the direction in which you desire 
 the wheels of the State to move. Before these words can be 
 read, I hope to be among you in the hives of your teeming 
 enterprise.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone first appeared on the Manchester Exchange ; 
 and from thence he proceeded to the Free Trade Hall, which, 
 though capable of holding many thousands of persons, was 
 densely packed within a few minutes of the doors being opened. 
 ' At last, my friends,' he began his address, ' I am come among 
 you and I am come, to use an expression which has become 
 very famous, and is not likely to be forgotten, I am come among 
 you, " unmuzzled." ' Here the cheering was so enthusiastic and 
 prolonged that for some time the speaker could not proceed.
 
 328 fflLLIAM. EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Quiet having been restored, the right hon. gentleman con- 
 tinued : 
 
 ' After an anxious struggle of eighteen years, during which the unbounded devo- 
 tion and indulgence of my friends maintained me in the arduous position of repre- 
 sentative of the University of Oxford, I have been driven from my seat. . 
 I have loved the University with a deep and passionate love, and as long as I 
 breathe, that attachment will continue ; if my affection is of the smallest advantage 
 to that great, that ancient, that noble institution, that advantage, such as it is, 
 and it is most insignificant, Oxford will possess as Ion" as I live. But don't mistake 
 the issue which has been raised. The University has at length, after eighteen 
 years of self-denial, been drawn by what I might, perhaps, call an over-weening 
 exercise of power, into the vortex of mere politics. Well, you will readily under- 
 stand why, as long as I had a hope that the zeal and kindness of my friends might 
 keep me in my place, it was impossible for me to abandon them. Could they 
 have returned me by a majority of one, painful as it is to a man of my time of 
 life, and feeling the weight of public cares, to be incessantly struggling for his 
 seat, nothing could have induced me to quit that University to which 1 had so long 
 ago devoted my best care and attachment. But by no act of mine I am free to 
 come among you. And having been thus set free, I need hardly tell you that it is 
 with joy, with thankfulness, and enthusiasm, that I now, at this eleventh hour, 
 a candidate without an address, make my appeal to the heart and the mind 
 of South Lancashire, and ask you to pronounce upon that appeal. As I have 
 said. I am aware of no cause for the votes which have given a majority 
 against me in the University of Oxford, except the fact that the strongest 
 conviction that the human mind can receive, that an overpowering sense of 
 the public interests, that the practical teachings of experience, to which from 
 my youth Oxford herself taught me to lay open my mind all these had shown me 
 the folly, and, I will say, the madness of refusing to join in the generous 
 sympathies of my countrymen, by adopting what I must call an obstructive 
 policy. 
 
 The same evening the Chancellor of the Exchequer addressed 
 an immense audience in the Royal Amphitheatre of Liverpool, 
 where he met with a similar ovation. In the opening words of 
 liis speech, which had a tone of pathos running through them, 
 Mr. Gladstone again paid a tribute to his University, and then 
 went on to deal with the impending election. ' If I am told 
 that it is only by embracing the narrow interests of a political 
 party that Oxford can discharge her duties to the country, then, 
 gentlemen, I at once say I am not the man for Oxford. We see 
 represented in that ancient institution represented more nobly, 
 perhaps, and more conspicuously than in any other place, at any 
 rate with more remarkable concentration the most prominent 
 features that relate to the past of England. I come into South 
 Lancashire, and I find here around me an assemblage of different 
 phenomena. I find development of industry ; I find growth of 
 enterprise ; I find progress of social philanthropy ; I find preva- 
 lence of toleration ; and I find an ardent desire for freedom. . . . 
 I have honestly, I have earnestly, although I may have feebly, 
 striven to unite in my insignificant person that which is repre- 
 sented by Oxford and that which is represented by Lancashire. 
 My desire is that they should know and love one another. If I 
 have clung to the representation of the University with desperate
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S REJECTION AT OXFORD. 329 
 
 fondness, it was because I would not desert that post in which I 
 seem to have been placed. I have not abandoned it. I have 
 been dismissed from it, not by academical, but by political 
 agencies. I don't complain of those political influences by which 
 I have been displaced. The free constitutional spirit of the 
 country requires that the voice of the majority should prevail. 
 I hope the voice of the majority will prevail in South Lancashire. 
 I do not for a moment complain that it should have prevailed in 
 Oxford. But, gentlemen, I come now to ask you a question 
 whether, because I have been declared unfit longer to serve the 
 University on account of my political position, there is anything 
 in that position, there is anything in what I have said and done, 
 in the arduous office which I hold, which is to unfit me for the 
 representation of my native county ? ' Before concluding his 
 speech, Mr. Gladstone briefly reviewed the course of Liberal 
 legislation during the last Parliament. 
 
 The polling for South Lancashire took place on the 20th, 
 with the following result: Egerton, 9171 ; Turner, 8806 ; Glad- 
 stone, 8786 ; Legh, 8476 ; Thompson, 7703; Heywood, 7653. 
 The Hon. A. Egerton and Mr. Turner, Conservatives, and the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer were accordingly declared elected. 
 Of the defeated candidates, Mr. Legh was a Conservative, and 
 Messrs. Thompson and Heywood were Liberals. Mr. Gladstone 
 was at the head of the poll in Liverpool, Manchester, and all the 
 large towns. 
 
 The general election resulted in considerable gains to the 
 Liberal party, but during the autumn that party sustained a 
 severe loss by the death of Lord Palmerston. The late Premier 
 had not only been successful in uniting the various Liberal 
 sections in the House of Commons, but had commanded the 
 esteem and forbearance of his Conservative opponents. The 
 Government was now reconstructed, with Earl Eussell as Prime 
 Minister and Mr. Gladstone leader in the Lower House. The 
 earnest temperament of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which 
 led him to regard everything in the most severely conscientious 
 light, with little desire for banter, for trimming, or for com- 
 promise, caused some speculation and not a little anxiety as to 
 his management of the House of Commons. To the joviality 
 in some instances amounting almost to buffoonery of Lord 
 Palmerston, the new First Minister in the Commons could lay 
 no claim. Politics, with him, ever formed a science of the 
 gravest and deepest moment. The prognostications and com- 
 plaints of those who declared that he had not the peculiar 
 qualities demanded in a leader must, on the whole, be considered to 
 have failed duriag the first year of his Parliamentary leadership ;
 
 330 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 and in our generation there has been no more arduous or critical 
 session witnessed than that of 1866. 
 
 Before discussing the great reform measures of the year 
 which were fraught with the most important consequences the 
 budget and several questions of moment, in whose discussion Mr. 
 Gladstone took a prominent part, demand attention. Dealing 
 first with the financial statement, it may be remarked (as, indeed, 
 it has been our lot to observe on previous occasions), that the 
 condition of the public revenue was still so flourishing as to 
 afford hopes of a yet further reduction of taxation. On the 3rd 
 of May, the Chancellor of the Exchequer causing for the 
 moment a suspension of hostilities between the rival political 
 parties on the Franchise question laid his annual account before 
 the committee. He expressed his own sense of relief in entering 
 upon a question which would involve no party struggle. He had 
 not to announce a surplus of revenue on the scale of the. last 
 three years, which had reached an average of three millions and 
 a half; but he should still be able to make reductions not 
 without interest. The estimated expenditure for the past year 
 had been upwards of 66,000,000, but the actual expenditure 
 was only 65,914,000. The revenue was 67,812,000, leaving a 
 surplus of 1,898,000. The revenue had been 1,424,000 more 
 1han was calculated. The average increase in revenues since 
 1864 was about a million and a quarter per year. The loss 
 caused by the reductions of last year had slightly exceeded 
 the estimate. The Exchequer balances had been reduced by 
 unusual liquidations of debt. On the 31st of March, 1865, they 
 v/ere 7,691,000; and on the same date in 1866, they had 
 fallen to 5,851,000. The total estimated expenditure of the 
 corning year Avas 66,225,000, which, as compared with the 
 expenditure of last year, showed an increase of 78,000. The 
 total estimate of the revenue for the year would be 67,575,000, 
 thus leaving a surplus of 1,350,000, which, but for the charges 
 of last year, would have been quite 2,700,000. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone next referred to the commercial treaties into 
 which this country had entered in the most disinterested spirit, 
 with a view of inducing other nations to follow our example. 
 The effect of the treaty with France on the export trade of that 
 country had been such that the total increase on all kinds of 
 goods had been from 58 millions and a half of francs to 141 
 millions. Treaties had been concluded with Belgium, Italy, the 
 Zollverein, and finally with Austria, on the same standard as that 
 with France no duty to exceed 25 per cent, ad valorem on 
 all British goods. This involved two changes in our own tariff, 
 viz., the repeal of the duty on timber and the equalisation of the
 
 THE SESSION OF 1866. 331 
 
 duty on wine in bottle and in wood. The consumption of timber 
 had greatly increased in proportion to the reduction of the 
 impost. The revenue for the year from this source was 307,000, 
 and this would l>e reckoned as an entire loss for the year the 
 repeal to be immediate. The loss from the equalisation of the 
 wine duty would be 71,000. It was further proposed to abolish 
 the duty on pepper, which would involve the loss of 112,000 for 
 the year. Turning to the duties on locomotion, he did not 
 propose to interfere with the duty on carriages, horses, railways, 
 &c., but as to the duty en post-horses, which was 266,000, 
 and on public conveyances, especially omnibuses, which was 
 142,000, he did not propose to deal with them, the question 
 being one of the comfort and convenience of the working classes, 
 as well as of the middle class. The licences would be left as at 
 present, but the mileage duty would be reduced from a penny to 
 a farthing a mile, at a loss for the future of 90,000 a-year. 
 The scale of the licence duty on post-horses would be so reduced 
 as to place the small proprietor on a fair footing with the large, 
 and this would involve a loss of 20,000 a-year. These items dis- 
 posed of 560,000 out of a surplus of 1,350,000. He should move 
 resolutions renewing the tea duties and the income-tax at 4d. in 
 the pound. With regard to the National Debt, a considerable 
 amount of Exchequer bills had been paid off, and the sum paid in 
 reduction of the debt last year was 5,179,000. The amount of 
 the unfunded debt was now 8,267,000, as compared with over 
 18,000,000 in 1858. 
 
 He was convinced that the time had arrived when Parliament 
 should face the subject of the National Debt. In the ensuing 
 year there would be a large cessation of terminable annuities, 
 not less than 600,000 a-year, which in a degree made the present 
 moment favourable for moving in that direction. Mr. Gladstone 
 then adduced a variety of statistics upon the amount and the 
 fluctuations in the National Debt, which, he said, was exercising 
 an injurious social influence. America was applying her revenue, 
 r.s far as possible, to the reduction of her debt ; and this was an 
 ( xample to Europe, where borrowing was the growing vice of all 
 European states. With regard to our own debt, we were living 
 in a commercial era of extraordinary magnitude and increase ; 
 and our commercial undertakings were now as great, with our 
 thirty millions of population, as those of France and America 
 with their seventy millions of people put together. The cause 
 of our pre-eminence was to be found in the possession and the 
 facile use of minerals, especially coal. It was a question 
 whether this store of coal was practically inexhaustible ; even if 
 a substitute could be found, it could not be peculiar to England
 
 332 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 therefore, if our coal should become exhausted, the relative 
 pre-eminent commercial position of this country to other nations 
 would be lost. It was calculated that at the end of one hundred 
 years coal would have become exhausted at four thousand feet 
 below the surface. The matter was one worthy of deep considera- 
 tion. It was idle to think of stopping the supply of coal, to 
 tax it, or to stop its export ; and therefore it was obvious that 
 as we could not supply coal at low prices beyond a given time, 
 it was desirable to do something to meet an exigency which 
 must arrive ; and this might be done in a manner by relieving 
 the country, as far as possible, of its great mortgage. A good 
 plan of operating on the debt was by the conversion of perpetual 
 into terminable annuities. There was then a sum of twenty-four 
 millions standing on a deposit account of the trustees of savings- 
 banks, the whole of which the State was now bound to pay ; and 
 it was proposed to take that sum, which now cost 720,000 a 
 year, and convert it into annuities terminating in 1885, which 
 would raise the annual charge to one million. If this was done 
 in 1866-7 there would be a charge something above 1,200,000. 
 The following year there would be a further charge on this con- 
 version of 502,000; but of this 293,000 would be relieved by 
 the falling in of other annuities. The total additional charges, 
 making all allowances, would be about 409,000 per annum. It 
 was further'proposed that so much of the dividends of the fund 
 which it was intended to create, as were found to be to spare, 
 should be re-invested; and the result would be that in 1885 
 the charge would be 1,440,000, while there would have 
 been cancelled no less than fifty millions of stock and from 
 year to year the State would be buyers of stock. The surplus 
 dealt with in making the reductions which he had stated would 
 be 1,064,000, leaving an unappropriated balance of 286,000. 
 In concluding his statement, the right hon. gentleman said the 
 Government had thought it well to cast a glance into the future, 
 and to endeavour in some degree to meet its demands, so that 
 those who came after them might have reason to say that, while 
 making provision for their own immediate wants, they had also 
 taken some concern for those which were to succeed. 
 
 These proposals excited little opposition. The plan for the 
 conversion of a portion of the National Debt into terminable 
 annuities, with a view to its gradual liquidation, was made the 
 subject of a separate bill, which passed its second reading. Here 
 its progress was arrested. A change of Ministry caused it to be 
 postponed ; but later in the session Mr. Gladstone said that he 
 should revive his scheme whenever a favourable opportunity 
 offered.
 
 THE SESSION OF 1866. 333 
 
 To commemorate the signal services rendered by Lord 
 Palmerston to his country, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 moved in the House of Commons an address to the Queen, pray- 
 ing her Majesty to order the erection of a monument to the 
 deceased statesman in Westminster Abbey. In the previous 
 November, when Mr. Gladstone visited Glasgow and was pre- 
 sented with the freedom of the city, he made a touching allu- 
 sion, in his reply, to the heavy losses which the country had 
 recently sustained in the ranks of official life. 
 
 This is no place in which to attempt an estimate of the 
 character of Lord Palmerston. He enjoyed an unusual degree 
 of popularity both in the House of Commons and the country, 
 though the full grounds for this popularity it would be some- 
 what difficult to define. To a buoyant disposition, however, he 
 united the especially English virtues of manliness, straight- 
 forwardness, and courage. His very frankness in diplomacy a 
 quality supposed to be fatal to diplomacy ensured him success 
 at many critical moments ; but he had few claims to the highest 
 rank of statesmanship. The two leaders of the House of Commons 
 admirably summed up his most prominent characteristics on the 
 occasion above alluded to. 'All who knew Lord Palmerston,' 
 observed Mr. Gladstone, ' knew his genial temper and the courage 
 with which he entered into the debates in this House ; his 
 incomparable tact and ingenuity his command of fence his 
 delight, his old English delight in a fair stand-up fight. Yet. 
 notwithstanding the possession of these powers, I must say I 
 think there was no man whose inclination and whose habit were 
 more fixed, so far as our discussions were concerned, in avoiding 
 whatever tended to exasperate, and in having recourse to those 
 means by which animosity might be calmed down. He had the 
 power to stir up angry passions, but he chose, like the sea-god in 
 the ^Eneid, rather to pacify. 
 
 " Quos ego sed motos prsestat componere fluctus." 
 
 That which, in my opinion, distinguished Lord Palmerston's 
 speaking from the oratory of other men, that which was its most 
 remarkable characteristic, was the degree in which he said 
 precisely that which he meant to express.' Mr. Gladstone added 
 that the late Premier had a nature incapable of enduring anger 
 or the sentiment of wrath. This was a noble gift of the original 
 nature, and it was delightful to remember it in connection with 
 him. Mr. Disraeli supplemented these observations by the 
 remark that that statesman was peculiarly to be envied who, 
 when he left his contemporaries, left them not merely the memory 
 )f great achievements, but also the wider tradition of personal 
 affection and social charm.
 
 834 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Irish questions occupied much of the attention of the House of 
 Commons this session. The O'Donoghue moved an amendment 
 to the Address, expressing deep regret at the wide-spread disaffec- 
 tion existing in Ireland, and representing to her Majesty that it 
 was the result of grave causes which it was the duty of the 
 Government to examine into and remove. Mr. Gladstone opposed 
 the resolution, and said that the objects of the paragraph in the 
 Address for which it was proposed to substitute it, were threefold 
 to pronounce a solemn denunciation of Fenianism, to recog- 
 nise the existence of the public opinion which had enabled the 
 Government to deal firmly and boldly with the conspiracy, and 
 to place on record the impartiality with which the law had been 
 administered. The evils from which Ireland suffered could not 
 be eradicated immediately; the existing dissatisfaction must first 
 be uprooted by the vindication of the law, and that being done, 
 inquiry into the existence of evils became an obligation which 
 no Government could resist. The amendment was rejected by 
 an overwhelming majority. 
 
 The condition of Ireland became so grave that the Govern- 
 ment were driven to propose a bill suspending the Habeas Corpus 
 Act in that country. Mr. Bright called upon the ' two great 
 and trusted leaders,' Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli, to suspend 
 for a moment their contest for office, and to combine in an effort 
 to ascertain the causes of Irish discontent, and to apply a 
 remedy. He believed there was a mode of making Ireland 
 loyal, and he threw the responsibility of discovering it on the 
 Government and on the Imperial Parliament. The Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, in defending the Ministerial measure, expressed 
 the regret and pain with which he had listened to Mr. Bright's 
 speech, much of which was open to question, and was ill timed. 
 He declined to recognise the voice of Ireland except as conveyed 
 through the mouths of her legally elected representatives, and 
 congratulated the House on the general unanimity with which 
 the Irish members had acquiesced in the bill. The Government 
 were ready at a fitting time to consider any measures which might 
 be proposed for the benefit of Ireland, but it was the single duty 
 of the House that day to strengthen the hands of the Executive 
 in the preservation of law and order. The bill subsequently passed 
 through all its stages. After the Earl of Derby's Administration 
 came into power, Lord Naas brought in a renewal bill for the 
 suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in lieu of that which was 
 about to expire. Mr. Gladstone said that while the Government 
 were adding to their responsibilities in connection with Ireland by 
 asking for this renewal, yet without considering whether their 
 general policy was such as he could approve, he could not refuse
 
 THE SESSION OF 1866. 335 
 
 to strengthen their hands in such a way as they deemed necessary. 
 If the late Ministry had still been in office, it would have been 
 their duty to mate a similar application. 
 
 This second bill passed through both Houses, and the events 
 of the following autumn which were the result of an anticipated 
 great Fenian rising under ' Head Centre ' Stephens fully justi- 
 fied the course adopted by the Government. 
 
 In the course of this session, during the debate on Mr. 
 Hardcastle's bill for the abolition of Church rates, Mr. Glad- 
 stone admitted that the law of Church rates was prima facie 
 open to grave objection ; he could not vote for total abolition, 
 however, but he invited Mr. Hardcastle to consider whether, by 
 an equitable compromise, Dissenters might be exempted from 
 paying Church rates, and at the same time be disqualified from 
 interfering with funds to which they had not contributed. This 
 suggested compromise met with considerable favour, and 
 although the second reading of Mr. Hardcastle's bill was carried, 
 before any further proceeding could be taken upon it, the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer introduced his measure for the abolition 
 of compulsory Church rates. When the second reading of this 
 bill came on, Mr. Gladstone was no longer in office; but he 
 pressed forward his measure, which passed its second stage, the 
 bills introduced by Mr. Hardcastle and Mr. Newdegate being 
 withdrawn. The session terminated, nevertheless, as had many 
 sessions before it, without a final decision being arrived at upon 
 this question. 
 
 In a debate on Continental affairs, concerned chiefly with the 
 threatened hostilities between the two great rival states of Ger- 
 many, Mr. Gladstone expressed his approval of the policy of call- 
 ing a Conference to settle disputes between the European Powers, 
 and he regretted that it had failed in this case. Shortly after- 
 wards Austria and Prussia were at war. In a later debate in the 
 House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone said that the struggles of 
 Austria and Prussia for predominance had been an immense 
 injury to Europe and to Germany, and the elevation of one power 
 to position to wield enormous influence would be an unmixed 
 advantage even to the loser. The old position of Austria in Ger- 
 many and Italy had not been beneficial to her, and though he 
 lamented the attempt to introduce a third party into the strife, 
 by the cession of Venetia to France, the loss of Venetia would be 
 a gain to Austria. ' Even if she were excluded from Germany, 
 she had still a glorious task before her in the cultivation of that 
 vast and fertile territory, and the civilisation of those millions 
 of subjects which would still be left to her.' The right hon. 
 gentleman exhorted Lord Stanley not to forget that the cause of
 
 336 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Italy was dear to the people of England, and warned him that 
 they would never forgive a policy which attacked her unity and 
 independence. 
 
 We now come to the great Reform debates of the year 186b. 
 In redeeming the promise made in the Queen's Speech, on the 
 12th of March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, before a crowded 
 and deeply interested audience, introduced the Government 
 Reform Bill. In the outset he reviewed the recent history of 
 the question, and announced that in consequence of the limited 
 time at the disposal of Parliament, Government were compelled 
 to restrict their labours to a Franchise Bill alone. With regard 
 to the details of this measure, it was first proposed to create an 
 occupation franchise in counties, including houses at 14 rental, 
 and reaching up to 50, the present occupation franchise. It 
 was calculated that this would add 171,000 persons to the 
 electoral list. Next it was proposed to introduce into counties 
 the provision which copyholders and leaseholders within Parlia- 
 mentary boroughs now possessed for the purpose of county votes. 
 The third proposition was a savings-bank franchise, which would 
 operate in counties and towns, but which would have a more 
 important operation in the former. All adult males who had 
 deposited 50 in a savings-bank for two years would be entitled 
 to be registered for the place in which they resided. This privi- 
 lege would add from 10,000 to 15,000 electors to the constitu- 
 encies of England and Wales. In towns it was proposed to place 
 compound householders on the same footing as ratepayers. It 
 was intended to abolish the ratepaying clauses of the Reibrm 
 Act, which would admit about 25,000 voters above the line of 
 10. It was also proposed to introduce a lodger franchise, both 
 for those persons holding part of a house with separate and 
 independent access, and for those who held part of a house as 
 inmates of the family of another person. Then there was the 
 10 clear annual value of apartments, without reference to 
 furniture. It was further proposed to abolish the necessity in 
 the case of registered voters for residence at the time of voting. 
 Lastly, following the precedent of the Government of Lord Derby, 
 they would introduce a clause disabling from voting persons who 
 were employed in the Government yards. The total number of 
 new voters, of all classes, would be 400,000. With this appeal 
 Mr. Gladstone closed an address which had been looked forward 
 to with great expectation by the country : 
 
 ' If issue is taken adversely upon this bill, I hope it will be, above all, a plain and 
 direct issue. I trust it will be taken upon the question, whether there is or is not 
 to be an enfranchisement downwards, if it is to be taken at all. We have felt that 
 to carry enfranchisement above the present line was essential; essential to character, 
 essential to credit, essential to usefulness ; essential to the character and credit not
 
 THE KEFOEM BILL OF 1806. 337 
 
 merely of the Government, not merely of the political party by which it has the 
 honour to be represented, but of this House, and of the successive Parliaments and 
 Governments, who all stand pledged with respect to this question of the represen- 
 tation. We cannot consent to look upon this large addition, considerable although 
 it may be, to the political power of the working classes of this country, as if it were 
 an addition fraught with mischief and with danger. We cannot look, and we hope 
 no man will look, upon it as some Trojan horse approaching the walls of the sacred 
 city, and filled with armed men, bent upon ruin, plunder, and conflagration. W 
 cannot join in comparing it with that monstrum infelix we cannot say 
 
 " Scandit fatalis machina muros, 
 
 Fceta armis : mediaeque minans illabitur urbi." 
 
 I believe that those persons whom we ask you to enfranchise ought rather to t> 
 welcomed as you would welcome recruits to your army, or children to your family. 
 We ask you to give within what you consider to be the just limits of prudence and, 
 circumspection ; but, having once determined those limits, to give with an ungrudg- 
 ing hand. Consider what you can safely and justly afford to do in admitting new 
 subjects and citizens within the pale of the Parliamentary constitution ; and, having 
 so considered it, do not, I beseech you, perform the act as if you were compounding 
 with danger and misfortune. Do it as if you were conferring a boon that will be 
 felt and reciprocated in grateful attachment. Give to these persons new interests 
 in the Constitution, new interests which, by the beneficent processes of the law of 
 nature and of Providence, shall beget in them new attachment ; for the attach- 
 ment of the people to the Throne, the institutions, and the laws under which they 
 live is, after all, more than gold and silver, or more than fleets and armies, at once 
 the strength, the glory, and the safety of the land.' 
 
 The bill satisfied the majority of the Liberal party, and met 
 with considerable favour in the country ; but by the Conserva- 
 tives it was regarded as a dangerous step in the direction of 
 democracy. In the House of Commons its most brilliant and 
 effective opponent was Mr. Lowe. During these debates, while 
 content to act the part of a prophet of evil, Mr. Lowe developed 
 qualities which raised him into the first rank of Parliamentary 
 debaters. On the evening following Mr. Gladstone's speech, he 
 attacked the Chancellor of the Exchequer and not unhappily 
 upon his own classic ground, concluding as follows : ' The inten- 
 tions and actions of the new Parliament are as yet hidden by 
 the veil of the future. It may be that we are destined to avoid 
 this enormous danger with which we are confronted, and not, to 
 use the language of my right hon. friend, to compound with 
 danger and misfortune. But, sir, it may be otherwise ; and all I 
 can say is, that if my right hon. friend does succeed in carry- 
 ing this measure through Parliament, when the passions and 
 interests of the day are gone by I do not envy him his retro- 
 spect. I covet not a single leaf of the laurels that may encircle 
 his brow. I do not envy him his triumph. His be the glory of 
 carrying it ; mine of having to the utmost of my poor ability 
 resisted it.' 
 
 Amongst other Liberals who deserted the Government on the 
 Eeform question were Mr. Laing and Mr. Horsman. The latter 
 described Mr. Gladstone's address as 'another bid for power, 
 another promise made to be broken, another political fraud and 
 
 z
 
 838 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Parliamentary juggle.' This severe diatribe drew a crushing and 
 memorable retort from Mr. Bright. Mr. Horsman, he said, had 
 4 retired into what may be called his political Cave of Adullam, 
 to which he invited every one who was in distress, and every one 
 who was discontented. He has long been anxious to found a 
 party in this House ; and there is scarcely a member at this end 
 of the House who is able to address us with effect or to take 
 much part, whom he has not tried to bring over to his party and 
 his cabal. At last he has succeeded in hooking the right hon. 
 gentleman the member for Calne, Mr. Lowe. I know it was 
 the opinion many years ago of a member of the Cabinet that 
 two men could make a party. When a party is formed of two 
 men so amiable and so disinterested as the two right hon. 
 gentlemen, we may hope to see for the first time in Parliament a 
 party perfectly harmonious and distinguished by mutual and 
 unbroken trust. But there is one difficulty which it is impos- 
 sible to remove. This party of two is like the Scotch terrier that 
 was so covered with hair that you could not tell which was the 
 head and which was the tail.' This sally, which excited im- 
 moderate laughter, remains one of the happiest examples of Parlia- 
 mentary retort and badinage. Mr. Bright concluded by giving 
 his support to the Government measure, because so far as it went 
 it was simple and honest, and because he believed if it became 
 law it would give more solidity and duration to everything that 
 was good in the Constitution, and to everything that was noble 
 in the character of these realms. 
 
 Leave was given to bring in the bill, but hostile notices of 
 amendment quickly poured in, the most important being one 
 tabled by Earl Grosvenor, an ' Adullamite,' a name which, after 
 Mr. Bright's speech, was generally given to those Liberal mem- 
 bers who withheld their support from the Government. Earl 
 Grosvenor's amendment was to the effect that it was inexpedient 
 to consider the bill for the reduction of the franchise until the 
 House had before it the whole scheme of the Government for the 
 amendment of the representation of the people. This amend- 
 ment, which was hailed with delight by the Opposition, Mr. 
 Gladstone said he should meet with a direct negative. Replying, 
 the same evening, to Lord Robert Montagu, who had referred to 
 Mr. Villiers as the ' pretended friend ' of the working classes, the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer retorted the phrase upon the noble 
 lord himself, and declared that if the working men whom he and 
 others seemed to dread as an invading and destroying army, 
 instead of their own flesh and blood, were introduced into the 
 House, they would set him an example both of courtesy and 
 good breeding.
 
 THE EEFOEM BILL OF 1866. 339 
 
 The second reading of the Franchise Bill was fixed for an 
 early day after the Easter recess. During this recess the Con- 
 servative party met at the residence of the Marquis of Salisbury, 
 and decided upon strongly opposing the Government measure. 
 In the country, however, the bill excited different feelings, and 
 in many of the large towns enthusiastic demonstrations were 
 held in its favour. In a letter addressed to his constituents, Mr. 
 Bright said that the bill would pass if Birmingham and other 
 towns did their duty. He referred to the Opposition as ' a dirty 
 conspiracy,' and added, 'The men who, in every speech they 
 utter, insult the working men, describing them as a multitude 
 given up to ignorance and vice, will be the first to yield when 
 the popular will is loudly and resolutely expressed.' The greatest 
 interest was evoked by a demonstration at Liverpool, at which 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of Argyll, Mr. 
 Goschen, and other distinguished persons were present. Mr. 
 Gladstone spoke with great power and eloquence. Having 
 expressed bis regret that immediate danger to the measure which 
 the Government had introduced should proceed from a name 
 honoured in the ranks of the aristocracy, he made the following 
 declaration, which was received by the vast audience rising in a 
 body and cheering for several minutes : ' Having produced this 
 measure, founded in a spirit of moderation, we hope to support 
 it with decision. It is not in our power to secure the passing of 
 the measure : that rests more with you, and more with thos* 
 whom you represent, and of whom you are a sample, than it 
 does with us. Still, we have a great responsibility, and are 
 conscious of it ; and we do not intend to flinch from it. We 
 stake ourselves we stake our existence as a Government and 
 we also stake our political character on the adoption of the bill 
 in its main provisions. You have a right to expect from us 
 that we should tell you what we mean, and that the trumpet 
 which it i"s our business to blow should give forth no uncertain 
 sound. Its sound has not been, and, I trust, will not be, uncer- 
 tain. We have passed the Rubicon we have broken the bridge, 
 and burned the boats behind us. We have advisedly cut off the 
 means of retreat, and having done this, we hope that, as far as 
 time is yet permitted, we have done our duty to the Crown and 
 to the nation.' 
 
 This was a note of preparation for the Liberal party in view 
 of the coming struggle. The debate on the second reading of 
 the bill commenced on the 12th of April. On no occasion since, 
 and seldom before, has such a flow of eloquence been heard 
 within the walls of the House of Commons. The debate was 
 continued for eight nights. It was opened by the Chancellor 
 
 z2
 
 840 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 of the Exchequer, who, in moving the second reading of the 
 Ministerial measure, adverted upon the necessity for legislating 
 on the subject, and showed the propriety of proceeding by 
 well-defined stages. He also warmly defended the working 
 classes from the charges which had been brought against them 
 of ignorance, drunkenness, venality, and violence. He com- 
 bated the delusion of the Conservative party that the bill was 
 adverse to their interests, regretting that they should have 
 fallen into it, and created much amusement by reading a passage 
 from the current Quarterly Review, purporting to give an 
 account of the secret motives of the introduction of this bill, 
 which, by an apt Shakespearian quotation, he characterised as 
 a 'gross and palpable fiction.' Mr. Gladstone then replied in 
 detail to the arguments urged against the bill, and said he 
 calculated that the working classes would only have the command 
 of 120 seats against 538 elected by the other classes in the com- 
 munity. A further reduction of the franchise would not be 
 dangerous. Having announced that the Government would not 
 proceed with any other part of their reform scheme until the 
 fate of the present bill had been determined, the right hon. 
 gentleman replied to the charges of Mr. Lowe, and said there was 
 no hope for England if the picture which he strove to draw 
 with his matchless power were indeed true. * I thank the 
 House,' said the speaker, in conclusion, ' for the great patience 
 and kindness with which it has heard me on such a subject as 
 this ; and, after what has occurred, it can hardly be but that 
 men should become warm. But let us endeavour to keep our 
 balance ; let us recollect to look before and after. In this spirit 
 I do earnestly entreat and conjure the House, on whichever side, 
 to remember that it is not enough for us now to say, as we shall 
 soon be asked to say, " We are now ready to entertain the 
 question of reform with a view to its settlement." Enough, and 
 more than enough, there have been already of barren, idle, 
 mocking words. Deeds are what are wanted. I beseech you to 
 be wise, and, above all, to be wise in time.' 
 
 Earl Grosvenor then moved his amendment, which was seconded 
 by Lord Stanley. On the second night of the debate Sir E. 
 Bulwer Lytton delivered a powerful speech, and one that threw 
 the Opposition into a frenzy of delight. He turned upon the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer his phrase that the working classes 
 were our own flesh and blood, and expressed his amazement that 
 he could descend to a species of argument so hollow in itself and 
 so perilous in its logical deductions. ' What has the right hon. 
 gentleman,' demanded the hon. baronet, ' to say to the millions 
 who will ask him one day, "Are we an invading army? Are
 
 THE EEFOEM BILL OF 1866. 341 
 
 we not fellow-Christians ? Are we not your own flesh and 
 blood ? " Does he think it will be answer enough to give that 
 kind of modified opinion which he put forth last night, and to 
 say, " Well, that is very true. For my own part, in my individual 
 capacity, I cannot see that there is any danger of admitting you ; 
 but still, you know, it is wise Jx) proceed gradually. A 7 voter 
 is real flesh and blood. But you are only gradual flesh and 
 blood. Eead Darwin on tne origin of species, and learn that 
 you are fellow-Christians in an imperfect state of development." ' 
 He exhorted Liberal members, in Mr. Gladstone's words, to * be 
 wise in time,' and to vote for the rejection of the bill. 
 
 Mr. J. Stuart Mill welcomed the bill as a valuable gain, and 
 professed himself entirely uninfluenced by any terror of the 
 admission of the working classes. Sir Hugh Cairns contended 
 that the admission of the great body of the working classes 
 would disturb the balance of the Constitution. Mr. Horsman, 
 taking up the Chancellor of the Exchequer's phrase that the 
 Government had broken down their bridges and burnt their boats, 
 said these were the acts of desperate men, and were not calcu- 
 lated to inspire confidence. Mr. Bright spoke at considerable 
 length in favour of the measiire. He demonstrated that it would 
 only admit 116,000 real working men, and would give but one- 
 fourth ot the electoral power in the boroughs to the class which 
 formed three-quarters of the people, leaving four millions of adult 
 males entirely destitute of political power. The Opposition, in 
 rejecting this moderate scheme, were either misled by their 
 leaders, or else had driven their leaders into a pernicious course. 
 Mr. Lowe made another brilliant attack upon the bill. He ridi- 
 culed the ' flesh and blood ' argument, pointed out the danger 
 arising from the power of the working classes to combine for the 
 accomplishment of their objects, and prophesied that, if the 
 bill were adopted, there was no saying where they would stop in 
 the downward direction of democracy. Democratise the House 
 of Commons, and the institutions which now stood between it 
 and the Throne would be swept away. In a final appeal to the 
 House, Mr. Lowe said, fr Surely the heroic work of so many 
 centuries, the matchless achievements of so many wise heads and 
 strong hands, deserve a nobler consummation than to be sacri- 
 ficed at the shrine of revolutionary passion or the maudlin enthu- 
 siasm ol humanity ! But, if we do fall, we shall fall deservedly. 
 Uncoerced by any external force, not borne down by any internal 
 calamity, but in the full plethora of our wealth and the surfeit of 
 our too exuberant prosperity, with our own rash and inconsiderate 
 hands we are about to pluck down on our heads the vene- 
 rable temple of our liberty and our glory. History may tell of
 
 342 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 other acts as signally disastrous, but of none more wanton, none 
 more disgraceful.' Lord Cranborne said that he would not specu- 
 late in the dark ; and Mr. Disraeli, in a speech of nearly three 
 hours' duration, maintained that it was impossible to fathom the 
 effects of this Franchise Bill till the complete scheme was before 
 them. He defended his party from the charges brought against 
 it of dealing unfairly with this and other questions, and con- 
 cluded with an attack upon Mr. Gladstone, who, he said, was 
 Americanising our institutions. The House ought to proceed, 
 not upon the principle that it was the House of the people, but 
 that it represented a great political order in the State, and not an 
 indiscriminate multitude. 
 
 The most striking of all the incidents of this celebrated debate 
 arose in connection with the closing speech of the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, in which he made some unpremeditated and 
 pathetic allusions to his relations with the Liberal party. The 
 attack of the leader of the Opposition in great measure led to 
 this remarkable passage in his reply. Kising at one o'clock in 
 the morning to conclude a legislative battle which had begun a 
 fortnight before, Mr. Gladstone in his best vein, and in a strain 
 of eloquence which even his enemies allowed they had never 
 known surpassed proceeded to rebut the charges which had been 
 made against the bill. ' At last,' he said, alluding to a statement 
 by Mr. Disraeli, ' we have obtained a declaration from an authori- 
 tative source that a bill which, in a country with five millions of 
 adult males, proposes to add to a limited constituency 200,000 
 of the middle-class and 200,000 of the working-class, is, in the 
 judgment of the leader of the Tory party, a bill to reconstruct the 
 Constitution upon American principles.' Denying Mr. Lowe's 
 inference that in certain observations of his at a public meeting 
 he had meant to disparage the members of that House, Mr. 
 Gladstone said these words referred, 'not to the House of 
 Commons, but to certain depraved and crooked little men.' He 
 frankly owned that he was speaking first and foremost of Mr. 
 Lowe, who was opposed to Reform in any shape. Mr. Gladstone 
 then replied to the various animadversions of Mr. Disraeli to 
 which we have already alluded : 
 
 ' The right hon. gentleman, secure in the recollection of his own consistency, 
 lias taunted me witli the errors of my boyhood. When he addressed the hon. 
 member for Westminster, he showed his magnanimity by declaring that he would 
 not take the philosopher to task for what he wrote twenty-five years ago ; but 
 when he caught one who, thirty-six years ago, just emerged from boyhood, and 
 si ill an undergraduate at Oxford, had expressed an opinion adverse to the Reform 
 Vill of 1832, of which he had so long and bitterly repented, then the riglrt hon. 
 ontleman could not resist the temptation. He, a Parliamentary leader of twenty 
 years' standing, is so ignorant of the House of Commons, that he positively thought 
 lie got a Parliamentary advantage by exhibiting me as an opponent of the Reform 
 Jiill of 1832. As the right hon. gentleman has exhibited me, let me exhibit myself. It
 
 THE BEFORM BILL OF 1866. 343 
 
 is true, I deeply regret it, but I was bred under the shadow of the great name of Can- 
 ning, every influence connected with that name governed the politics of my childhood 
 and of my youth ; with Canning I rejoiced in the removal of religious disabilities, 
 and in the character which he gave to our policy abroad ; with Canning I rejoiced 
 in the opening which he made towards the establishment of free commercial 
 interchanges between nations ; with Canning, and under the shadow of that great 
 name, and under the shadow of that yet more venerable name of Burke, I grant, 
 my youthful mind and imagination were impressed just the same as the mature 
 ; mind of the right hon. gentleman is now impressed. I had conceived that fear 
 and alarm of the first Reform Bill in the days of my undergraduate career at 
 Oxford which the right hon. gentleman now feels ; and the only difference between 
 us is this I thank him for bringing it out that, having those views, I moved 
 the Oxford Union Debating Society to express them clearly, plainly, forcibly, in 
 downright English, and that the right hon. gentleman is still obliged to skulk 
 under the cover of the amendment of the noble lord. I envy him not one particle 
 of the polemical advantage which he has gained by his discreet reference to the 
 proceedings of the Oxford Union Debating Society in the year of grace 1831. My 
 position, sir, in regard to the Liberal party is in all points the opposite of Earl 
 Russell's. ... I have none of the claims he possesses. I came among you an 
 outcast from those with whom I associated, driven from them, I admit, by no 
 arbitrary act, but by the slow and resistless forces of conviction. I came among you 
 to make use of the legal phraseology, in fotma pauperis. I had nothing to offer you 
 but faithful and honourable service. You received me, as Dido received the ship- 
 wrecked .flSneas 
 
 ' Ejectum littore, egentem 
 
 Acoepi," 
 
 and I only trust you may not hereafter at any time have to complete the sentence 
 in regard to me 
 
 " Efc regni demens, in parte locavi." 
 
 You received me with kindness, indulgence, generosity, and I may even say 
 with some measure of confidence. And the relation between us has assumed such 
 a form that you can never be my debtors, but that I must for ever be in your 
 debt. It is not from me, under such circumstances, that any word will proceed 
 that can savour of the character which the right hon. gentleman imputes to the 
 conduct of the Government with respect to the present bill.' 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer thus concluded his impas- 
 sioned speech : 
 
 ' Sir, we are assailed ; this bill is in a state of crisis and of peril, and the Govern- 
 ment along with it. We stand or fall with it, as has been declared by my noble friend 
 Lord Russell. Wo stand with it now ; we may fall with it a short time hence. If 
 we do so fall, we, or others in our places, shall rise with it hereafter. I shall not 
 attempt to measure with precision the forces that are to be arrayed against us in 
 the coming issue. Perhaps the great division of to-night is not the last that 
 must take place in the struggle. At some point of the contest you may possibly 
 succeed. You may drive us from our seats. You may bury the bill that we have 
 introduced, but we will write upon its gravestone for an epitaph this line, with 
 certain confidence in its f ulfilment 
 
 " Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor. " 
 
 You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side. The great social forces 
 which move onwards in their might and majesty, and which the tumult of our 
 debates does not for a moment impede or disturb those great social forces are 
 against you : they are marshalled on our side ; and the banner which we now 
 carry in this fight, though perhaps at some moment it may droop over our sinking 
 heads, yet it soon again will float in the eye of Heaven, and it will be borne by 
 the firm hands of the united people of the three kingdoms, perhaps not to an easy, 
 but to a certain and to a not far distant victory.' 
 
 The division took place under circumstances of the greatest
 
 844 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 excitement. The Speaker having put the question, members 
 withdrew. After voting, the ' Ayes ' and the ' Noes ' gradually 
 found their way to the seats on the floor and in the galleries. A 
 spectator, describing the memorable scene, says that in about 
 twenty minutes a strange electric-like agitation began to mani- 
 fest itself. Mr. Walpole whispered to Mr. Disraeli the word 
 'Six.' Shortly afterwards Mr. Brand appeared, and it was 
 known that the strength of the Opposition was larger than the 
 Liberals had feared or the Tories had hoped. Mr. Childers 
 rushed up the floor to the Treasury bench, and, in a tone of dis- 
 appointment, uttered the word ' Five ' to Mr. Gladstone. Mr. 
 Adam, the Government teller, now emerged upon the scene. 
 The House was charged with electricity like a vast thundercloud ; 
 and now the spark was about to be applied. Strangers rose in 
 their seats, the crowd at the bar pushed half-way up the House, 
 the Koyal Princes leaned forward in their standing places, and all 
 was confusion. The tellers walked up the floor and made due 
 obeisance to the chair. Then, loudly and distinctly, Mr. Brand 
 read out the numbers as follows : Ayes to the right, 318 ; Noes 
 to the left, 313. The majority for the Government was accord- 
 ingly five. What followed is best described in the language ot 
 the spectator just mentioned : 
 
 ' Hardly had the words left the teller's lips than there arose a wild, raging, mad- 
 brained shout from floor and gallery such as has never been heard in the present 
 House of Commons. Dozens of half-frantic Tories stood up in their seats, madly 
 waved their hats, and hurrahed at the top of their voices. Strangers in both gal- 
 leries clapped their hands. The Adullamites on the Ministerial benches, carried away 
 by the delirium of the moment, waved their hats in sympathy with the Opposition, 
 and cheered as loudly as any. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his speech, had 
 politely performed the operation of holding a candle to Lucifer (Mr. Lowe) ; and 
 he, the prince of the revolt, the leader, instigator, and prime mover of the conspiracy, 
 stood up in the excitement of the moment flushed, triumphant, and avenged. 
 His hair, brighter than silver, shone and glistened in the brilliant lij;ht. His com- 
 plexion had deepened into something like bishop's purple. His small, regular, and 
 almost woman-like features, always instinct with intelligence, now mantled with 
 the liveliest pleasure. He took off his hat, waved it in wide and triumphant circles 
 over the heads of the very men who had just gone into the lobby against him. 
 " Who would have thought there was so much in Bob Lowe ? '' said one member to 
 another ; " why, he was one of the cleverest men in Lord Palmerston's Government! " 
 " All this comes of Lord Russell's sending for Goschen," was the reply. " Disraeli 
 did not half so signally avenge himself against Peel," interposed another ; " Lowe has 
 very nearly broken up the Liberal party " These may seem to be exaggerated 
 estimates of the situation ; but in that moment of agitation and excitement I dare 
 say a hundred sillier things were said and agreed to. Anyhow, there lie stood, that 
 usually cold, undemonstrative, intellectual, white-headed, red-faced, venerable-look- 
 ing arch-conspirator ! shouting himself hoarse, like the ringleader of schoolboys at 
 a successful barring-out, and amply repaid at that moment for all Skye-terrier witti- 
 cismsandany amount of popular obloquy ! But see, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 lifts up his hand to bespeak silence, as if he had something to say in regard to the 
 result of the division. But the more the great orator lifts his hand beseechingly, 
 the more the cheers are renewed and the hats waved. At length the noise comes 
 to an end by the process of exhaustion, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer rises. 
 Then there is a universal hush, and you might hear a pin drop. He simply says, 
 " Sir, I propose to fix the committee for Monday, and 1 will then state the order of
 
 THE REFORM BILL OF 1866. 345 
 
 business " It was twilight, brightening into day, when we got out into the welcome 
 fresh air of New Palace Yard. Early as was the hour, about three hundred persons 
 were assembled to see the members come out, and to cheer the friends of the bill. 
 It was a night to be long remembered. The House of Commons had listened to the 
 grandest oration ever yet delivered by the greatest orator of his age ; and had then 
 to ask itself how it happened that the Liberal party had been disunited, and a 
 Liberal majority of sixty " muddled away." ' 
 
 Few could anticipate at this time that there would be a swift 
 and irresistible appeal from ' Philip drunk to Philip sober,' and 
 that in the course of one short year a Conservative Government 
 would find itself compelled to take up that very question of 
 Keform whose virtual defeat its opponents now hailed with such 
 intoxicated expressions of delight. That the Liberal majority 
 on this question had been ' muddled away,' was certainly not Mr. 
 Gladstone's fault, for if matchless eloquence could have retained 
 it, his address was well calculated to achieve this end. He was 
 more than equal to a task that might well have discouraged any 
 Parliamentary leader. ' Those who read his speech,' wrote one 
 who listened to it, ' must be struck with its marvellous power, 
 breadth, and comprehensiveness ; its dignity, its spirit, its pathos, 
 its tact, as displayed in his deference to the Opposition as a 
 great party ; his touching appeal to the Liberal party to forget 
 the smallness of his claims to be their leader ; his confidence that 
 time was with him as the conductor of this great question, 
 conveyed in an ordinary metaphor, made brilliant by the 
 language in which it was expressed, and which formed the last 
 sentence of his speech. But really to appreciate the effect you 
 must, as ^Eschines said of Demosthenes, have heard him. The 
 sustaimnent of voice and power were equalled only by the infinite 
 variety of the manner, the fine spirit, and the moral earnestness 
 which pervaded it. It may not be the highest praise, but it 
 must be said that it was a speech which was not Gladstonian 
 proper that is, it was one that came from Mr. Gladstone 
 purified from his little defects, and elevated by the force of the 
 situation to the very perfection of oratory, and, better still, of 
 Parliamentary management. If ever a speech influenced, in the 
 sense of overwhelming an organised Opposition, this one did just 
 that.' The division list revealed how, and why, the Liberal 
 majority had dwindled away. With the Government there voted 
 only two Conservatives, but against them there were arrayed 
 thirty-one Liberals and 282 Conservatives. The cause of Reform 
 had been deserted by its professed friends. This division was 
 reported as the largest which ever took place in the House of 
 Commons. Six hundred and thirty-one members actually voted, 
 and two paired. This only left twenty-five members, out of the 
 entire number of which the House was composed, to be accounted
 
 346 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 for. Eleven seats were vacant, and there were absent mostly 
 from serious illness thirteen members, chiefly Liberals. These 
 various classes, with the Speaker, constituted the full House. 
 
 When the House met on the 30th of April, the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer stated that the Government saw nothing in the 
 recent division to prevent them from going on with their bill. 
 Both sides had agreed to the principle of a reduction of the 
 franchise. A few days later, Mr. Gladstone introduced the 
 Government measure for the redistribution of seats. It proposed,, 
 by grouping together a number of small boroughs, giving one or 
 two representatives only to each group, to gain forty-one seats y 
 and eight others were to be reduced to one representative each, 
 making a total of forty -nine. Where the population of a group 
 was less than 15,000, there would be one member; and where it 
 was above 15,000, there would be two members for the group^ 
 The seats thus gained it was proposed to distribute among 
 populous counties to the number of twenty-six ; to give an extra 
 representative to Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, 
 and Salford ; to divide the Tower Hamlets into two divisions, 
 with two members each ; to create seven new electoral boroughs 
 with one member each ; and one new borough, Kensington and 
 Chelsea, with two ; and to give, moreover, seven seats to Scotland. 
 Leave was also given to bring in the Scotch and Irish Reform 
 Bills. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone intimated that the Government would not 
 advise a prorogation of Parliament until both questions, viz., 
 that of the Franchise and that of Redistribution, had been dis- 
 posed of. The second reading of the Redistribution Bill was 
 carried on the 14th of May without a division, but Mr. Disraeli 
 took the opportunity of severely criticising the course of the 
 Government. The House and the country, he said, were in 
 ignorance how to proceed, and ignorance could never settle any- 
 thing. The House must come forward and help the Government, 
 and the Chancellor of the Exchequer must recross the Rubicon, 
 build up his bridges, and reconstruct his boats. After the Whitsun 
 holidays the debates were renewed with vigour. Sir R. Knightley 
 moved, 'That it be an instruction to the Committee on the 
 Franchise Bill to make provision for the prevention of corruption 
 and bribery at elections.' The motion was carried by a majority 
 of ten against the Government, whereupon Mr. Gladstone some- 
 what unnerved Sir R. Knightley by saying they would wait for 
 the production of his scheme. Those who had anticipated that 
 the result of this division would wreck the Ministerial scheme 
 were disappointed. A more formidable issue was raised by Captain 
 Hayter's resolution, that in the opinion of the House the system
 
 THE REFORM BILL OF 1866. 347 
 
 of grouping proposed by the Government was neither convenient 
 nor equitable, nor sufficiently matured to form the basis of a 
 satisfactory measure. A long debate ensued, in the course of 
 which Mr. John Stuart Mill said, with reference to an allegation 
 that he had called the Conservatives the stupidest of parties, i I 
 never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. 
 I meant to say that stupid persons are generally Conservative.' 
 This amended phrase, conveying no more grateful compliment 
 . than its predecessor, was, of course, strongly resented by the 
 Opposition. 
 
 Mr. Lowe made another vigorous and clever onslaught upon 
 the bill. After criticising its provisions and also the system 
 of ' grouping ' in the Eedistribution Bill, he came to more per- 
 sonal matters. Mr. Bright standing upon the Constitution, he 
 remarked, put him in mind of an American squib : 
 
 ' Here we stand upon the Constitution, by thunder, 
 It's a fact of which there are bushels of proofs ; 
 
 For how could we trample upon it, I wonder, 
 If it wasn't continually under our hoofs? ' 
 
 After 1860, the honour of the Government on the question of 
 Reform went to sleep for five years. ' Session after session it 
 never so much as winked. As long as Lord Palmerston lived 
 honour slept soundly ; but when Lord Palmerston died, and Lord 
 Russell succeeded by seniority to his place, the " sleeping beauty " 
 woke up.' It became necessary to have a Reform Bill. Mr. Lowe 
 closed with another prediction of ruin to the Constitution. 4 To 
 precipitate a decision in the case of a single human life would 
 be cruel. It is more than cruel, it is parricide in the case of the 
 Constitution, which is the life and soul of this great nation. If 
 it is to perish, as all human things must perish, give it at any 
 rate time to gather its robe about it, and to fall with decency 
 and deliberation 
 
 " To-morrow ! that's sudden ! spare it ! spare it 
 It ought not so to die ! " ' 
 
 Earl Grosvenor made an appeal to Captain Hayter to withdraw 
 his motion, on the ground that its success might lead to the 
 breaking-up of the Government, which in the present state of 
 European politics would be a great misfortune to the country, 
 as it would involve the loss of Lord Clarendon's services. This 
 drew from Mr. Disraeli a severe attack upon the policy of Lord 
 Clarendon. Mr. Gladstone said that not a single objection had 
 been made which went to the root of the bill, or which could not 
 be dealt with in committee. The bill was only the application 
 of the principles of 1832, and he warned the Opposition that any
 
 348 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 triumph which they might gain now would recoil with tenfold 
 tbrce on themselves. Much to the annoyance of the Opposition, 
 but greatly to the satisfaction of the supporters of the Govern- 
 ment, Captain Hayter withdrew his resolution. A strange scene 
 thereupon occurred. The bulk of the Opposition hurried out of 
 the House to avoid a division, when the Speaker put the usual 
 question. The amendment was then negatived without a 
 dissentient voice. 
 
 But more serious peril still awaited the measure. After several 
 abortive resolutions an amendment was proposed by Lord Dun- 
 kellin, which proved fatal to the existence of the bill, and led to 
 the resignation of the Government. His lordship proposed that 
 the borough franchise should be based on rating instead of rental, 
 as being a more convenient and constitutional principle. The 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer strongly opposed the motion on the 
 grounds, first, that it involved a limitation of the franchise, 
 and, secondly, that there were grave practical difficulties in the 
 way of the operation of the principle. 
 
 The discussion upon this amendment had an unlooked-for 
 result. The Government were placed in a minority of 11, the 
 numbers being For the amendment, 315 ; against, 304. The 
 Opposition were in a paroxysm of delight, and the scene almost 
 equalled in excitement that which occurred after the division 
 upon the second reading of the bill. The Adullamites and a 
 large number of the Conservatives were irrepressible in their enthu- 
 siasm. The clerk having handed the paper to Lord Dunkellin, 
 it was obvious which way the division had gone ; but a storm of 
 cheers from the Conservative benches prevented the numbers from 
 being read out for a minute or two. When the majority of eleven 
 against the Government became known, there was witnessed an 
 unparliamentary scene, viz., waving of hats, clapping of hands, 
 and other demonstrations both by the Opposition and strangers 
 who sympathised with them. 
 
 The Opposition had at length succeeded in their hostility to 
 Keform and to the Ministry. On the following day, the 19th of 
 June, Earl Eussell in the Lords and Mr. Gladstone in the Com- 
 mons announced that, in consequence of their late defeat, the 
 Government had felt it to be their duty to make a communi- 
 cation to her Majesty. On the 26th fuller explanations were 
 furnished in both Houses. In the Lords, Earl Eussell stated 
 that Ministers had tendered their resignations, to which they had 
 adhered notwithstanding an appeal from the Queen to reconsider 
 their determination. In the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone 
 defended the Government for their resolve to stand or fall by the 
 bill, and explained at length the circumstances which led to
 
 THE EEFORM BILL OF 1866. 349 
 
 that declaration. Such a pledge, he admitted, was one which a 
 Government should rarely give. ' It was the last weapon in the 
 armoury of the Government : it should not be lightly taken down 
 from the walls ; and if it is taken down, it should not be lightly 
 replaced, nor till it has served the purposes it was meant to fulfil. 
 The pledge had been given, however, under the deepest convic- 
 tion of public duty, and had the effect of making them use every 
 effort in their power to avoid offence, to conciliate, support, and 
 unite, instead of distracting.' 
 
 Earl Russell thus ceased to be First Lord of the Treasury, and 
 the Earl of Derby reigned in his stead. The Conservative leader 
 endeavoured unsuccessfully to obtain the active support of the 
 Adullamites, and a purely Conservative Government consequently 
 came into office, under difficulties which would have daunted 
 almost any political chief save ' the Rupert of debate.'
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE EEFOEM AND IRISH CHT7ECH QUESTIONS. 
 
 The Reform Agitation Statement by the Premier Demonstration in Hyde Park 
 Meetings in the Provinces Mr. Gladstone and the Liberal Party The 
 Ministerial Reform Scheme Debate on the Second Reading Mr. Gladstone's 
 Nine Points The Bill transformed Protest by Lord Cranborne His attack on 
 Mr. Disraeli Speech of Mr. Lowe Mr. Disraeli 'educates' his Party Becomes 
 Prime Minister The Abyssinian Expedition Scotch and Irish Reform Bills 
 Mr. Gladstone's Compulsory Church Rates Abolition Bill Liberal and Conser- 
 vative Finance The Irish Church Question Important Declaration by Mr. 
 Gladstone His Disestablishment Resolutions Address of the Mover Mr. 
 Disraeli's Reply His Retorts upon Lord Cranborne and Mr. Lowe Mr. 
 Gladstone's Motion carried by a large Majority Conduct of the Government 
 Ministerial Explanations The Suspension Bill passes the Commons General 
 Election Mr. Gladstone is defeated in South-west Lancashire Is elected for 
 Greenwich Great Liberal Triumph throughout the Country Resignation of Mr. 
 Disraeli Mr. Gladstone becomes Premier. 
 
 THE fall of Lord Russell's Ministry, with the necessary post- 
 ponement of the Reform question, led to a series of demonstra- 
 tions in London and the provinces. At a meeting held in 
 Trafalgar Square which was attended by about 10,000 persons 
 the ex-Premier was censured for not having dissolved Parliament. 
 A few days later, Lord Derby, in explaining the policy of the new 
 Ministry in the House of Lords, said that nothing would give 
 him greater pleasure than to see a very considerable portion of 
 the class now excluded admitted to the franchise ; but, on the 
 other hand, he was afraid that the portion of the community 
 who were most clamorous for the passing of a Reform Bill, 
 were not that portion who would be satisfied with any measure 
 such as could be approved of by the two great political parties in 
 the country. The Government reserved to themselves the most 
 entire liberty upon this subject. Meanwhile the authorities 
 prohibited the holding of public meetings in Hyde Park, though 
 the Home Secretary, Mr. Walpole, stated in the House of Com- 
 mons that there was nothing in the notice signed by Sir Richard 
 Mayne to imply that processions, orderly conducted, were illegal. 
 The council of the Reform League received great encouragement 
 to persevere in their intentions from Mr. Bright, who wrote, ' If 
 a public meeting in a public park is denied you, and if millions 
 of intelligent and honest men are denied the franchise, on what
 
 THE EEFOEM AND IRISH CHURCH QUESTIONS. 351 
 
 foundation do our liberties rest, or is there in this country any 
 liberty but the toleration of the ruling class ? ' On the 23rd of 
 July a riot occurred in Hyde Park in consequence of the order of 
 the Government being carried out against the proposed demon- 
 stration of the League. The Reformers marched in procession 
 to the Marble Arch, but were repulsed by the police in their 
 efforts to enter the park. The leaders then returned to Trafalgar 
 Square, where resolutions were passed thanking Mr. Gladstone, 
 Mr. Bright, and others, for remaining faithful to the cause of 
 Reform. At this time, however, a scene of great violence was 
 proceeding in Hyde Park. The mob tore down the railings and 
 entered the enclosure, with loud cheering and waving of hats 
 and handkerchiefs. Attacks upon the police by the mob, and 
 vice versa, ensued ; a number of persons were seriously injured, 
 and disastrous consequences were apprehended, when fortunately 
 order was restored by the intervention of a body of Life Guards. 
 On the 25th the Home Secretary received a deputation from the 
 Reform League, when he gave an undertaking that if the 
 Reformers would only use the park in a legal and peaceable way 
 there should be no display of military or police. Mr. Walpole 
 became deeply affected during this interview. The spectacle of a 
 Home Secretary in tears so greatly disturbed the gravity of the 
 press that many of the journals demanded a sterner guardian of 
 the public order. 
 
 Parliament was prorogued on the 10th of August, but the 
 Reform demonstrations continued through the whole of the recess. 
 A meeting was held at Brookfields, near Birmingham, the num- 
 ber attending being estimated at 250,000. At a second meeting 
 in the Town Hall the same evening, Mr. Bright urged his hearers 
 to press on in their agitation for restoring the British Constitu- 
 tion with all its freedom to the British people. The language 
 held by some of the prominent friends of Reform was not always 
 discreet, and Lord Derby and Mr. Lowe were especially subjected 
 to violent attacks out of doors. Mr. Gladstone alone, at this 
 juncture, amongst the popular leaders on the Reform question, 
 appears to have preserved a calm and dignified attitude. While 
 defending the proceedings of the late Government, in a speech 
 delivered at Salisbury, he promised that a fair consideration 
 should be given to any well-digested scheme brought forward by 
 their successors, provided it was introduced promptly and showed 
 a spirit of moderation and justice. Complaints were at this time 
 made against Mr. Gladstone's leadership of the Liberal party; 
 but Mr. Grant Duff interpreted the feeling of the bulk of his 
 supporters when he remarked of the right hon. gentleman, 'He 
 has a horrible foreboding, that to use his own words time is
 
 352 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 on the side of those very politicians who, when he started in 
 public life, were at the opposite pole of the political sphere, 
 against whom all the strength of his youth and of his manhood 
 was directed. Kead his early speeches, study his early books ; he 
 has travelled far since then, and may well murmur from time to 
 time at that destiny which may lead him, before he dies, like 
 the Sicambrian* of old, to burn what he adored, and to adore 
 that which he burnt.' 
 
 The Reform demonstrations proceeded, as we have already 
 observed, with little intermission, until the opening of Parliament, 
 on the 5th of February in the following year (1867). The strong 
 feeling pervading all classes in favour of a settlement of the Fran- 
 chise question had its due weight with the Government, and, 
 notwithstanding Lord Derby's previous declaration, the Queen's 
 Speech once more promised that attention should be called to the 
 representation of the people in Parliament. In the debate on the 
 Address, Mr. Gladstone said that the interests of the country 
 demanded a speedy settlement of the question ; and it was the 
 duty of Parliament to accept, wherever they could get it, a 
 measure which would be adequate to the just expectations of the 
 country. On the llth Mr. Disraeli announced the intentions of 
 the Government. He stated that it was proposed to proceed by 
 way of resolutions, which he now tabled ; but objections were 
 raised to this novel mode of dealing with the subject, and com- 
 plaints were made that no precise details were furnished in the 
 Chancellor of .the Exchequer's resolutions. On the 25th, accord- 
 ingly, Mr. Disraeli disclosed his scheme with greater fulness. He 
 proposed, he said, to reduce the occupation franchise in boroughs 
 to a Q rating ; in counties to 20 ; the franchise was also to be 
 extended to any person having 50 in the funds, or 30 in a 
 savings-bank for a year. Payment of 20 of direct taxes would 
 also be a title to the franchise, as would a university degree. 
 Votes would further be given to clergymen, ministers of religion 
 generally, members of the learned professions, and certificated 
 schoolmasters. It was proposed to disfranchise Yarmouth, Lan- 
 caster, Reigate, and Totnes, and to take one member each from 
 twenty-three boroughs with less than 7,000 inhabitants. The 
 House would have thirty seats to dispose of, and it was proposed 
 to allot fourteen of them to new boroughs in the northern and 
 midland districts, fifteen to counties, and one to the London 
 University. The second division of the Tower Hamlets would 
 return two members, and several new county divisions named 
 
 * An allusion to Clovis, the founder of the French Monarchy, -who was converted 
 to Christianity. Being baptised by St. Remi, the latter exclaimed, as he poured 
 upon the neck of Clovis the sacred oil, ' Humble thyself, fierce Sicamber ; adore 
 what thou didst burn, and burn that which thou hast adored.'
 
 THE EEFOEM AND IEISH CHUECH QUESTIONS. 353 
 
 would have two additional members each. The scheme would 
 add 212,000 voters to the borough, and 206,500 to the county 
 constituencies. 
 
 Mr. Lowe demanded a simple bill which would bring the ques- 
 tion fairly to an issue. He was ashamed to hear addressed to 
 him, as a 658th part of the House, such language as this : * If 
 the House will deign to take us into its counsel, if it will co- 
 operate with us in this matter, we shall receive with cordiality, 
 with deference nay, even with gratitude any suggestion it 
 likes to offer. Say what you like to us, only for God's sake leave 
 us our places ! ' Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone enforced the diffi- 
 culty of proceeding by vague resolutions. On the following day 
 a meeting of the Opposition was held, attended by 289 members, 
 when it was agreed to support an amendment with the object of 
 setting aside the resolutions, and urging the Government to pro- 
 ceed at once by bill. Seeing the manifest feeling of the House, 
 Mr. Disraeli, the same evening, announced that the Government 
 would abandon the method of proceeding by resolutions, and would 
 introduce a bill on the earliest possible day. Three Ministers 
 General Peel, the Earl of Carnarvon, and Lord Cranborne 
 resigned office in consequence of the decision of the Government 
 to bring in what they deemed to be an advanced Reform Bill. 
 On the 18th the scheme was introduced. Mr. Disraeli said that 
 its principles were that in boroughs the electors should be all who 
 paid rates, or twenty shillings in direct taxes ; the franchise would 
 also be extended to certain classes qualified by education, or by 
 the possession of a stated amount in the Funds, or in savings 
 banks rated householders to have a second vote. The re-distri- 
 bution of seats would be on the lines already specified. To guard 
 against the power of mere numbers, it was proposed to establish 
 a system of checks, based on residence, rating, and dual voting. 
 Mr. Gladstone strongly condemned these securities as illusions 
 or frauds, which would be abandoned whenever it suited the 
 Ministry ; and he also predicted that a lodger franchise would 
 have to be added to the bill. Lord Cranborne maintained that 
 if the Conservative party accepted the bill they would be 
 committing political suicide. 
 
 In the debate on the second reading, Mr. Gladstone cited 
 nine defects in the bill which called for amendment, and Mr. 
 Bright described the measure as bearing upon its face marks of 
 deception and disappointment. The leader of the Conservative 
 party in the House of Commons speedily allowed it to be seen 
 that he was to use a word current at the time ' squeezable ' 
 upon the measure. The second reading was carried without a 
 division. We do not propose to follow the course of the long 
 
 A A
 
 354 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 and acrimonious debates which ensued in committee, when tha 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer met with severe taunts from many 
 of his own followers. During the debate on clause 3, Mr. Beres- 
 ford Hope made an allusion to the Tadpoles and Tapers of certain 
 amusing story-books, and declared that, ' sink or swim, dissolution 
 or no dissolution, whether he was in the next Parliament or out 
 of it, he for one, with his whole heart and conscience, would vote 
 against the Asian mystery.' Mr. Disraeli retorted that when the 
 hon. member talked about an Asian mystery, there were Batavian 
 graces in all he said, which he noticed with satisfaction, and which 
 charmed him. 
 
 A division arose amongst the Liberal members at this time, 
 which resulted in the temporary withdrawal of Mr. Gladstone 
 from the leadership of the party. It shortly afterwards appeared, 
 however, that Mr. Gladstone did not intend to abandon the post 
 of leader altogether, but that, in consequence of the decision of 
 the House in favour of a direct and personal payment of rates by 
 the householder as essential to the franchise, he would personally 
 desist from attempting to alter the basis of the bill, though he 
 would still vote with his party on any amendments which they 
 might bring forward for securing a still further extension of the 
 franchise. 
 
 Mr. Bright, speaking of Mr. Gladstone at a Keform demonstra- 
 tion in Birmingham, said that since 1832 there had been no 
 man of his rank as a statesman who had imported into the 
 Reform question so much of conviction, of earnestness, and of 
 zeal. i Who is there in the House of Commons,' he demanded. 
 ' who equals him in knowledge of all political questions ? Who 
 equals him in earnestness ? Who equals him in eloquence ? Who 
 equals him in courage and fidelity to his convictions ? If these 
 gentlemen who say they will not follow him have any one who is 
 equal, let them show him. If they can point out any statesman 
 who can add dignity and grandeur to the stature of Mr. Gladstone, 
 let them produce him.' Shortly afterwards deputations from 
 various parts of the country, accompanied by members of Parlia- 
 ment, waited upon Mr. Gladstone to present addresses expressive 
 of confidence in him as the Liberal leader. 
 
 The changes effected in the Reform Bill on its passage through 
 committee were so great, as to lead almost to an entire trans- 
 formation of the measure. The Government were defeated on 
 an amendment restricting the residence in boroughs to twelve 
 months, while a lodger franchise was secured on the motion of 
 Mr. Torrens. A great difficulty arose with respect to the com- 
 pound householder, whose case gave rise to protracted discus- 
 sions; but ultimately, on the proposition of Mr. Hodgkinson,
 
 THE EEFOEM AND IEISH CHUECH QUESTIONS. 355 
 
 it was decided to abolish composition altogether in Parliamen- 
 tary boroughs. The occupation franchise in counties was lowered 
 from 15, the sum proposed by the bill, to 12. The 'fancy' 
 franchises the education and tax-paying clauses were struck 
 out. The boroughs of Lancaster, Keigate, and Great Yarmouth 
 were disfranchised for gross bribery ; and considerable modifica- 
 tions were secured in the clauses relating to the redistribution of 
 seats. The clause providing for the use of voting papers at elec- 
 tions was struck out ; and a third member was added to the 
 representation of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and 
 Leeds. Mr. Lowe was defeated on his proposal for cumulative 
 voting, and Mr. Stuart Mill in his effort to enfranchise women. 
 
 The bill was read a third time on the 15th of July, after a final 
 protest by its enemies. Lord Cranborne expressed his astonish- 
 ment at hearing the bill described as a Conservative triumph. 
 It was right that its real parentage should be established. The 
 bill had been modified at the dictation of Mr. Gladstone, who 
 demanded, first, the lodger franchise, which had been given ; 
 secondly, the abolition of distinctions between compounders and 
 non-compounders, which had been conceded, as had, 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, which had been 
 enlarged by fifty per cent. ; seventhly, the reduction of the county 
 franchise ; eighthly, the omission of voting papers ; ninthly and 
 tenthly, the omission of the educational and savings-banks fran- 
 chises. If the adoption of the principles of Mr. Bright could be 
 described as a triumph, then indeed the Conservative party, in 
 the whole history of its previous annals, had won no triumph so 
 signal as this. ' I desire to protest, in the most earnest language 
 I am capable of using, against the political morality on which 
 the manoeuvres of this year have been based. If you borrow your 
 political ethics from the ethics of the political adventurer, you 
 may depend upon it the whole of your representative institutions 
 will crumble beneath your feet.' 
 
 Parliamentary history probably furnishes no case precisely 
 parallel to this, where a prominent member of a great political 
 party who held such denunciatory language towards his chief, 
 should, in the course of events, accept office under that chief, and 
 become his ablest and most trusted lieutenant. Lord Cranborne 
 concluded the remarkable speech from which we have just quoted 
 by deeply regretting that the House of Commons had applauded 
 a policy of legerdemain ; and above all he regretted that ' this 
 great gift to the people if gift you think it should have been 
 purchased at the cost of a political betrayal which has no parallel 
 
 A A2
 
 356 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 in our Parliamentary annals, which strikes at the root of all that 
 mutual confidence which is the very soul of our party govern- 
 ment, and on which only the strength and freedom of our repre- 
 sentative institutions can be sustained.' Mr. Lowe observed that 
 Mr. Bright had been agitating for household suffrage ; now that 
 he had got it, would it be easy to stop in the path of concession ? 
 It would now be necessary, continued Mr. Lowe, to teach their 
 masters their letters, and he concluded with this philippic : ' Sir, 
 I was looking to-day at the head of the lion which was sculptured 
 in Greece during her last agony after the battle of Chaeronea, to 
 commemorate that event, and I admired the spirit and the power 
 which pourtrayed in the face of that noble beast the rage, the 
 disappointment, and the scorn of a perishing nation and a down- 
 trodden civilisation, and I said to myself, " Oh for an orator, oh 
 for an historian, oh for a poet, who would do the same thing for 
 us ! " We also have had our battle of Chaeronea ; we have had 
 our dishonest victory. That England that was wont to conquer 
 other nations, had gained a shameful victory over herself; and 
 oh that a man would rise, in order that he might set forth in 
 words that could not die, the shame, the rage, the scorn, the 
 indignation, and the despair, with which this measure is viewed 
 by every Englishman who is not a slave to the trammels of party, 
 or who is not dazzled by the glare of a temporary and ignoble 
 success ! ' 
 
 The Keform Bill went up to the Lords, and, with certain 
 amendments, was read a third time in the Upper House on the 
 6th of August. The Earl of Derby described the measure as ' a 
 leap in the dark.' Two months later, at a Conservative banquet 
 held in Edinburgh, Mr. Disraeli used the famous phrase respect- 
 ing the education of his party. ' I had to prepare the mind of 
 the country,' he remarked, ' and to educateif it be not arrogant 
 to use such a phrase to educate our party.' This observation 
 gave rise to so much comment, that Mr. Disraeli wrote to the 
 journals explaining the sense in which his language was to be 
 taken, and denying that he had said he had been educating his 
 party with the view of bringing about a much greater reduction 
 of the franchise than his opponents had proposed. In February, 
 1868, by the retirement of the Earl of Derby, Mr. Disraeli 
 became Prime Minister.* 
 
 In the previous November Parliament had been summoned to 
 
 * There was, of course, but one possible Conservative Premier, Mr. Disraeli 
 he who had served the Conservative party for more than twenty years, 
 who had led it to victory, and who had long been the ruling spirit of 
 the Cabinet. To have reconstructed the Ministry without ' Vivian Grey ' as its 
 chief, would have been to enact in politics a well-known play under proverbial 
 disadvantages. The Press generally congratulated Mr. Disraeli upon his elevation,
 
 THE WEI OEM AND IEISH CHUECH QUESTIONS. 357 
 
 meet chiefly in connection with the Abyssinian Expedition. 
 The war was undertaken for the deliverance of Mr. Cameron, her 
 Majesty's Consul at Massowah, Mr. Kassam, and others, who were 
 held captive by King Theodore. The Queen's Speech, in addition 
 to this matter, also dealt with the Fenian conspiracy, which had 
 assumed the form of organised violence and assassination. In the 
 debate on the Address Mr. Gladstone began his speech by expres- 
 sing sympathy with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the pain- 
 ful circumstances under which he was then placed Mrs. Disraeli, 
 who was suffering from illness, being in a precarious state. He 
 should now refrain from asking an explanation of statements 
 made by Mr. Disraeli during the recess. With regard to the 
 Abyssinian campaign, the Executive alone were responsible for 
 the expedition hitherto, Parliament being entirely uncommitted 
 upon the subject. There was a clear casus belli between our 
 Government and the King of Abyssinia; but Mr. Gladstone warned 
 the Ministry that the House would require to be convinced that 
 the objects of the Expedition were attainable, that a war could 
 be carried on with an enemy who might choose to run rather 
 than to fight ; also, how it was proposed to carry on the Expedi- 
 tion to an issue ; and what were to be its limits. The House 
 would, moreover, insist upon a distinct disclaimer, not only of 
 territorial aggrandisement, but of all desire to contract new poli- 
 tical responsibilities. As to the expenses of the war, he urged 
 the Government to confide in the courage of Parliament, and 
 
 though the comments passed upon the Prime Minister were in many instances 
 mingled with raillery and sarcasm. From a clever article which appeared in the 
 Pall Mall Gazette, placing in juxtaposition the rival claims of Mr. Gladstone and 
 Mr. Disraeli we take the following extracts: 'One of the most grievous and 
 constant puzzles of King David was the prosperity of the wicked and the scornful ; 
 and the same tremendous moral enigma has come down to our own days. In this 
 respect the earth is in its older times what it was in its youth. Even so recently 
 as last week the riddle once more presented itself in its most impressive shape. 
 Like the Psalmist, the Liberal leader may well protest that verily he has cleansed 
 his heart in vain and washed his hands in innocency ; all day long he has been 
 plagued by Whig lords, and chastened every morning by Radical manufacturers ; 
 as blamelessly as any curate he has written about Ecce Homo, and he has never 
 made a speech, even in the smallest country town, without calling out with David, 
 How foolish am I, and how ignorant ! For all this, what does he see ? The scorner 
 who shot out the lip and shook the head at him across the table of the House of 
 Commons last session has now more than heart could wish ; his eyes, speaking in an 
 Oriental manner, stand out with fatness, he speaketh loftily, and pride compasseth 
 him about as with a chain. . . . That the writer of frivolous stories about 
 Vivian Grey and Coningsby should grasp the sceptre before the writer of beautiful 
 and serious things about Ecce Homo the man who is epigrammatic, flashy, arro- 
 gant, before the man who never perpetrated an epigram in his life, is always fervid, 
 and would as soon die as admit that he had a shade more brain than his footman 
 the Radical corrupted into a Tory before the Tory purified and elevated into a 
 Radical is not this enough to make an honest man rend his mantle, and shave 
 his head, and sit down among the ashes inconsolable ? Let us play the too-under- 
 rated part of Bildad the Shuhite fora space, while our chiefs thus have unwelcome 
 leisure to scrape themselves with potsheeds, and to meditate upon the evil way of 
 the world.'
 
 858 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 not to make them an addition to the debt of the country. The 
 right hon. gentleman concurred in the hopes expressed in the 
 Speech of the speedy termination of the Italian difficulty, and of 
 the suppression of the Fenian outrages ; but he pressed for a 
 settlement of the Eeform question and of the Irish Land question, 
 and trusted that the rumour was incorrect which assigned to the 
 Irish Church Commission the function of drawing up plans for 
 its re-organisation. Mr. Disraeli, speaking under the influence 
 of emotion, said he was much touched by the manner in which 
 Mr. Gladstone had referred to his domestic affliction, and by the 
 way in which the House had received that allusion. He admitted 
 that the House was quite unpledged to the Abyssinian expedi- 
 tion ; and, with regard to Irish questions, said that the Govern- 
 ment hoped to be able to introduce a bill dealing with the sub- 
 ject of the land. They were also giving their earnest attention 
 to the Church question. Some days later a vote of 2,000,000 
 was agreed to for the Abyssinian expedition, but not until after 
 much discussion ; and on the 28th of November the House of 
 Commons voted an additional penny in the income-tax to defray 
 the further expenses of the expedition. The payment, out of 
 Indian revenues, of the Indian troops engaged in the war was 
 also sanctioned. The main purposes for which Parliament was 
 called together having been thus attained, the two Houses 
 adjourned on the 7th of December until the 13th of February 
 following. 
 
 The work of Eeform was completed in the session of 1868 by 
 the passing of the Scotch and Irish Eeform Bills, a Boundary 
 Bill for England and Wales, an Election Petitions and Corrupt 
 Practices Prevention Bill, and the Eegistration of Voters Bill. 
 The object of the last-named measure was to accelerate the elec- 
 tions, and to enable Parliament to meet before the end of 1868, 
 The Scotch Eeform Bill was introduced to assimilate the franchise 
 of Scotland with that of England. It also proposed to increase 
 the number of the House by giving seven additional representa- 
 tives to Scotland. Two of these members were to be given to 
 the universities, three to counties, and one to Glasgow. The 
 debates record several important Ministerial defeats. Mr. Baxter 
 carried against Government a proposition to disfranchise seve? 
 English boroughs with a population of less than 5,000 each. Mr. 
 M'Laren and Mr. Bouverie likewise carried amendments agains.t 
 them, which led to considerable modifications in the bill. Th& 
 ( Irish Eeform Bill proposed to fix the borough franchise at 4, 
 'occupiers below that rental not paying rates in Ireland. There 
 was also a limited scheme for redistribution of seats, but this was 
 afterwards abandoned by the Government.
 
 THE BEFOEM AND IEISH CHUBCH QUESTIONS. 359 
 
 Early in the session the adoption by the House of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Compulsory Church Kates Abolition Bill led to the settle- 
 ment of a long-agitated question. By this measure all legal 
 proceedings for the recovery of Church rates were to be henceforth 
 abolished, except in cases of rates already made, or where money 
 had been borrowed on the security of the rates ; but it permitted 
 voluntary assessments to be made, and all agreements to make 
 such payments, on the faith of which any expenditure had been 
 incurred, would be enforcible in the same manner as contracts of 
 a like character in any court of law or equity. The bill was 
 opposed by a section of the Conservative party, but Lord Cran- 
 Lorne demanded what that party would gain if it adhered to 
 the principle of ' no surrender.' Though it was with the deepest 
 feeling of reluctance that he gave up anything which the Church 
 possessed, he thought it wiser to accept the terms that were then 
 offered, as he was distinctly of opinion that they might go further 
 and fare worse. The bill, with certain amendments, eventually 
 passed through both Houses, and became law. 
 
 But the question which overshadowed all others this session 
 was that involving the fate of the Irish Church Establishment. 
 Before discussing this subject, however, with its momentous legis- 
 lative and other results, some reference must be made to a matter 
 of considerable importance, arising out of and connected with the 
 financial schemes of the Government. These schemes having 
 been subjected to severe hostile criticism, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer elaborately defended them. The nature of the charges 
 will be gathered from Mr. Gladstone's reply to the Ministerial 
 apology. 'We left the income-tax,' said Mr. Gladstone, 'at 4d. in 
 the pound. The expenditure of 1859-60 was arranged by the 
 Tory Government. It was early in July that, on coming into 
 office, I had to meet a deficit of, I think, four and a half 
 millions, in a year of which all the arrangements had been made, 
 and of which between three and four months had actually gone.' 
 After dealing at length with the army, navy, and civil service 
 charges, the right hon. gentleman went on to observe that, 
 according to his calculation, the Liberal party had saved about 
 1,800,000 between 1862 and 1865, while the Tory Government 
 exceeded the estimates in two years by 1,145,000, besides the 
 cost of the Abyssinian war. Financial legislation in the years 
 1862-65 gave the country reduction of taxation to the extent of 
 2,276,000 annually. 'From thence it follows that the policy 
 of the Liberal party has been to reduce the public charges, and 
 to keep the expenditure within the estimates, and, as a result, 
 to diminish the taxation of the country and the national debt ; 
 that the policy of the Tory Government, since they took office in
 
 3fiO WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 1866, has been to increase the public charges, and to allow the 
 departments to spend more than their estimates, and, as a result, 
 to create deficits, and to render the reduction of taxation impos- 
 sible. Which policy will the country prefer ? ' The Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, Mr. Ward Hunt, in replying to these financial 
 charges, was unable directly to impugn their accuracy, but pleaded 
 that the extra expenditure was accounted for by increased pay to 
 the army, by the furnishing of breechloaders, and by the arming 
 of fortifications. 
 
 On the 16th of March, towards the close of the debate on Mr. 
 Maguire's motion, that the House resolve itself into a committee 
 to take the condition of Ireland into immediate consideration, 
 Mr. Gladstone struck the first blow in the struggle that was to 
 end in the disestablishment of the Irish Church. He complained 
 that the Ministerial programme failed to realise the grave fact 
 that we had reached a crisis in the Irish question. Ireland had 
 an account with this country which had endured for centuries, 
 and we had not done enough to place ourselves in the right. He 
 dealt fully with the Government policy as affecting six questions 
 deemed paramount, viz., Parliamentary reform, the repeal of the 
 Ecclesiastical Titles Act, railways, education, the land, and the 
 Church. Coming to religious equality, he affirmed that it must 
 be established, difficult as the operation might be ; but he con- 
 demned the principle of levelling up. As to the appeals which 
 had been made urging the Irish people to loyalty and to union, 
 Mr. Gladstone said that was his object too; but with regard to the 
 means the differences were still profound, and it was idle, it was 
 mocking, to use words unless they could sustain them by corres- 
 ponding substances. They must give the unreserved devotion of 
 their efforts ; and after warning Mr. Disraeli that, unless he had 
 something more satisfactory to say on the subject of justice to 
 Ireland than his colleagues, this question would immediately press 
 for settlement, he concluded as follows: ' If we are prudent men, 
 I hope we shall endeavour as far as in us lies to make some pro- 
 vision for a contingent, a doubtful, and probably a dangerous 
 future. If we be chivalrous men, I trust we shall endeavour to 
 wipe away all those stains which the civilised world has for ages 
 seen, or seemed to see, on the shield of England in her treatment 
 of Ireland. If we be compassionate men, I hope we shall now, 
 once for all, listen to the tale of woe which comes from her, and 
 the reality of which, if not its justice, is testified by the continu- 
 ous migration of her people, that we shall endeavour to 
 
 "Raze out the written troubles from her brain, 
 Pluck from her memory the rooted sorrow." 
 
 But, above all, if we be just men, we shall go forward in the
 
 THE EEFOEM AND IEISH CHUECH QUESTIONS. 361 
 
 name of truth and right, bearing this in mind that, when thq 
 case is proved, and the hour is come, justice delayed is justice 
 denied.' 
 
 This speech excited feelings of consternation amongst the 
 Ministerialists. Mr. Disraeli bewailed his own unhappy fate at the 
 commencement of his career of Prime Minister, at finding himself 
 face to face with the imperious necessity of settling out of hand 
 an account seven centuries old. He complained that all the 
 elements of the Irish crisis had existed while.Mr. Gladstone was 
 in office, but no attempt had been made to deal with them. The 
 spirit of the age was not, he asserted, opposed to endowments, as 
 had been laid down by Mr. Bright -who, with the aid of the 
 philosophers, had now converted Mr. Gladstone to the same 
 opinion. For himself, he was personally in favour of ecclesias- 
 tical endowments, and strongly objected to the destruction of the 
 Irish Church. Mr. Maguire, being urged thereto by Mr. Glad 
 stone, withdrew his motion. 
 
 But, with the express declarations of the leader of the Opposi- 
 tion, the Irish Church question had moved forward an enormous 
 stage. To go back now was impossible, and to stand still was 
 equally impossible. Mr. Gladstone's address became the basis of 
 action for the Liberal party, and the country speedily took up 
 the cry of disestablishment. The right hon. gentleman himself, 
 not shrinking from following up the policy he had indicated, 
 with all convenient speed, laid upon the table of the House of 
 Commons the following resolutions upon the Irish Church, which 
 he intended to move in committee of the whole House: *1. That 
 in the opinion of this House it is necessary that the Established 
 Church of Ireland should cease to exist as an establishment, due 
 regard being had to all personal interests and to all individual 
 rights of property. 2. That, subject to the foregoing consi- 
 derations, it is expedient to prevent the creation of new 
 personal interests by the exercise of any public patronage, and 
 to confine the operations of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of 
 Ireland to objects of immediate necessity, or involving individual 
 rights, pending the final decision of Parliament. 3, That an 
 humble address be presented to her Majesty, humbly to pray that, 
 with a view to the purposes aforesaid, her Majesty will be gra- 
 ciously pleased to place at the disposal of Parliament her interest 
 in the temporalities, in archbishoprics, bishoprics, and other 
 ecclesiastical dignities and benefices in Ireland and in the custody 
 thereof.' A few days later Lord Stanley gave notice that he 
 should propose the following amendment on the motion for going 
 into committee on the Irish Church Establishment : ' That this 
 House, while admitting that considerable modifications in the
 
 362 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 temporalities of the United Church in Ireland may, after pending 
 inquiry, appear to be expedient, is of opinion that any proposition 
 tending to the disestablishment or disendowment of that Church 
 might be reserved for the decision of a new Parliament.' This 
 amendment which was warmly approved by the Ministerialists 
 Lord Stanley explained, would be taken at the first stage of the 
 discussion, on the motion that the Speaker leave the chair. 
 
 The Government thus joined battle with Mr. Gladstone, and 
 on the 30th of March the conflict began. The titles of the Acts 
 relating to the Church Establishment, the 5th article of the Act 
 of Union, and the coronation oath of the Sovereign, having been 
 read from the table, Mr. Gladstone commenced his address in 
 a House crowded with eager listeners to his indictment. The 
 extracts from the existing laws, he remarked, would serve to- 
 remind the House that they were about to enter upon a solemn 
 duty. Having indicated his method of procedure, he proposed 
 if the House should declare its opinion that the Irish Establish- 
 ment should cease to exist that the cessation should be effected 
 in a manner worthy of the nation, affording ample consideration 
 and satisfaction to every proprietary and vested right. The 
 residue, after satisfying every just claim, should be treated as an 
 Irish fund, applicable to the exclusive benefit of Ireland. Both 
 the Liberal party and the Conservative party were justified hitherto 
 in not taking up the subject, for previous to this time no state 
 of public feeling or opinion would have enabled this great question 
 to be opened on the wide basis which it required. He had heard 
 a great deal not only of apostasy, but of sudden apostasy ; yet a 
 change which extended over a quarter of a century could hardly 
 be called a sudden change. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone then briefly recapitulated his personal history 
 on this question, which we have practically dealt with in a 
 previous chapter. As to the actualities of the matter, he appre- 
 hended there would be no desire to deprive the Protestant com- 
 munity of the fabrics, provided they wished to apply them to 
 religious purposes ; and the same principle would be applied to 
 the residences of the clergy. The proprietors of advowsons would 
 also have a strict claim to compensation. Of the money value 
 of the endowments, not less than three-fifths, possibly two-thirds, 
 would remain in the hands of the Anglican communion in Ire- 
 land. He denied that the disendowment of the Irish Church 
 would be dangerous to the English Establishment. What was 
 dangerous to the latter was to hold her in communion with a 
 state of things politically dangerous and socially unjust. The 
 existence of the Irish Church was not necessary for the main- 
 tenance of Protestantism in Ireland. Though the census of 1861
 
 THE KEFOEM AND IRISH CHURCH QUESTIONS. 363 
 
 showed a small proportionate increase of Protestants, the rate of 
 conversion was so small that it would take 1,500 or 2,000 year* 
 to effect an entire conversion, if it went on at the same rate. 
 The final arrangements in this matter might be left to a reformed 
 Parliament, but he proposed that they should prevent by legisla- 
 tion this session the growing of a new crop of vested interests. 
 There had been a connection between this country and Ireland 
 for 700 years, but it had been marked by a succession of storms 
 and temporary calms. He called upon the House to settle its 
 account with the sister island by removing the whole cause of 
 dispute. Mr. Gladstone thus eloquently concluded his address : 
 
 * There are many who think that to lay hands upon the national Church Estab- 
 lishment of a country is a profane and unhallowed act. I respect that feeling. 
 I sympathise with it. I sympathise with it while I think it my duty to overcome 
 and repress it. But if it be an error, it is an error entitled to respect. There is some- 
 thing in the idea of a national establishment of religion, of a solemn appropria- 
 tion of a part of the Commonwealth for conferring upon all who are ready to 
 receive it what we know to be an inestimable benefit ; of saving that portion of the 
 inheritance from private selfishness, in order to extract from it, if we can, pure and 
 unmixed advantages of the highest order for the population at large. There is 
 something in this so attractive that it is an image that must always command the 
 homage of the many. It is somewhat like the kingly ghost in Hamlet, of which 
 one of the characters of Shakspeare says : 
 
 " We do it wrongf being so majestical, 
 To offer it the show of violence ; 
 For it is, as the air, invulnerable, 
 And our vain blows malicious mockery." 
 
 But, sir, this is to view a religious establishment upon one side, only upon what 
 I may call the ethereal side. It has likewise a side of earth ; and here I cannot do 
 better than quote some lines written by the present Archbishop of Dublin, at a 
 time when his genius was devoted to the muses. He said, in speaking of mankind : 
 
 " We who did our lineage high 
 Draw from beyond the starry sky, 
 Are yet upon the other side, 
 To earth and to its dust allied." 
 
 And so the Church Establishment, regarded in its theory and in its aim, is beauti- 
 ful and attractive. Yet what is it but an appropriation of public property, an 
 appropriation of the fruits of labour and of skill to certain purposes, and unless 
 these purposes are fulfilled, that appropriation cannot be justified. Therefore, sir, 
 I cannot but feel that we must set aside fears which thrust themselves upon the 
 imagination, and act upon the sober dictates of our judgment. I think it has 
 been shown that the cause for action is strong not for precipitate action, not for 
 action beyond our powers, but for such action as the opportunities of the times 
 and the condition of Parliament, if there be but a ready will, will amply and easily 
 admit of. If I am asked as to my expectations of the issue of this struggle, I 
 begin by frankly avowing that I, for one, would not have entered into it unless I 
 believed that the final hour was about to sound 
 
 " Venit Eumma dlrs et inelucf abile fatum." 
 
 And I hope that the noble lord will forgive me if I say that before Friday last I 
 thought th?.t the thread of the remaining life of the Irish Established Church was 
 short, but that since Friday last, when at half-past four o'clock in the afternoon 
 the noble lord stood at that table, I have regarded it as being shorter still. The 
 issue is not in our hands. What we had and have to do is to consider well and 
 deeply before we take the first step in an engagement such as this ; but having 
 entered into the controversy, there and then to acquit ourselves like men, and to
 
 364 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 use every effort to remove what still remains of the scandals and calamities in the 
 relations which exist between England and Ireland, and to make our best efforts 
 at least to fill up with the cement of human concord the noble fabric of the 
 Fritish Empire.' 
 
 Lord Stanley, in moving his amendment, admitted that not 
 one educated man in a hundred would maintain that the Irish 
 Church was all that it should be, or that there were no scandals 
 in it ; . but Mr. Gladstone's resolutions merely came to this that 
 something must be done, without saying what it was. If the 
 resolutions were carried, there would be no effective legislation 
 this year. He strongly condemned a sudden change of view like 
 the present, and declared that action now was impossible. Lord 
 Cranborne condemned the amendment as ambiguous ; it indicated 
 either no policy at all, or a policy which the Ministry were afraid 
 to avow. He did not pretend to predict the probable course of 
 the right hon. gentleman at the head of the Government. He 
 should as soon undertake to tell the House which way the weather- 
 cock would point to-morrow. Such a system of management 
 was unworthy of the House of Commons, and degrading to the 
 functions of the Executive. While ready to meet the resolutions 
 with a plain, straightforward negative, he refused to support an 
 amendment, the object of which was merely to gain time and to 
 enable the Government to keep the cards in their hands for 
 another year to shuffle as they pleased. Mr. Gathorne Hardy 
 delivered a thoroughly Conservative and * no-surrender ' speech, 
 and Mr. Bright justified disestablishment on the ground that the 
 Irish Church had been, both as a missionary church and a poli- 
 tical institution, a deplorable failure. The present condition of 
 Ireland was anarchy subdued by force. Disestablishment was 
 really not more serious than Free Trade, Eeform, and other 
 changes which the Conservative party had once resisted, and had 
 since found to be mere hobgoblins. 
 
 Mr. Lowe spoke with his accustomed force and sarcasm. He 
 denounced the tortuous course of the Government, which had 
 lowered the House and lowered the estimation in which our 
 public men should be held. On the general question, he re- 
 minded members who attempted to link together the Irish and 
 the English Church of the tyrant Mezentius, who bound a dead 
 body to a living one. The Irish Church had an establishment 
 altogether superfluous and monstrous. In the course of a caustic 
 attack upon Mr. Disraeli and his policy, Mr. Lowe said, ' We 
 now find that the Government, instead of initiating measures, 
 throw out, like the cuttle-fish of which we read in Victor Hugo's 
 novel, all sorts of tentacula for the purpose of catching up some- 
 thing which it may appropriate and make its own.' In conclu- 
 sion, he observed, ' The Irish Church is founded on injustice ; it is
 
 THE EEFOEM AND IRISH CHUECH QUESTIONS. 365 
 
 founded on the dominant rights of the few over the many, and 
 shall not stand. You call it a missionary church. If so, its 
 mission is unfulfilled. As a missionary church it has failed 
 utterly ; like some exotic brought from a far country, with infi- 
 nite pains and useless trouble, it is kept alive with difficulty and 
 expense in an ungrateful climate and an ungenial soil. The 
 curse of barrenness is upon it ; it has no leaves ; it bears no blos- 
 soms ; it yields no fruit. Cut it down ; why cumbereth it the 
 ground ?' 
 
 Mr. Disraeli's reply was not so noticeable from an argumenta- 
 tive as from a personal point of view. Alter defending the 
 Government policy with regard to Lord Stanley's amendment, he 
 made a bitter and pungent attack upon his present colleague, 
 the Marquis of Salisbury, and upon Mr. Lowe. Of the former, 
 he said that the noble lord was at no time wanting in imputing 
 to the Government unworthy motives, and when he saw the 
 amendment he believed immediately that they were about to 
 betray their trust. ' I do not quarrel with the invective of the 
 noble lord. The noble lord is a man of great talent, and he has 
 vigour in his language. There is great vigour in his language, 
 and no want of vindictiveness. I admit that now, speaking as 
 a critic, and not perhaps as an impartial one, I must say I think 
 it wants finish. Considering that the noble lord has studied the 
 subject, and that he has written anonymous articles against me 
 before and since I was his colleague I do not know whether he 
 wrote them when I was his colleague I think it might have 
 been accomplished more ad unguem.' Has the Foreign Secretary 
 committed these encounters with the Prime Minister to the 
 waters of Lethe ? Happy waters ! that can thus drown in obli- 
 vion the strongest political antagonisms. 
 
 Turning upon Mr. Lowe, Mr. Disraeli observed, ' When the 
 bark is heard from this side, the right hon. member for Calne 
 emerges, I will not say from his cave, but, perhaps, from a more 
 cynical habitation. He joins immediately in the chorus of 
 reciprocal malignity 
 
 " And hails with horrid melody the moon." 
 
 The right hon. gentleman is a very remarkable man. He is a 
 learned man, though he despises history. He can chop logic like 
 Dean Aldrich ; but what is more remarkable than his learning 
 and his logic, is that power of spontaneous aversion which par- 
 ticularly characterises him. There is nothing that he likes and 
 almost everything that he hates. He hates the working classes 
 of England. He hates the Roman Catholics of Ireland ; he hates
 
 866 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the Protestants of Ireland. He hates her Majesty's Ministers. 
 And until the right hon. gentleman the member for South Lanca- 
 shire placed his hand upon the ark, he seemed almost to hate 
 the right hon. gentleman the member for South Lancashire. But 
 now all is changed. Now we have the hour and the man. But 
 I believe the clock goes wrong, and the man is mistaken.' Mr. 
 Disraeli then proceeded to affirm that he had never attacked any 
 one in his life. Here the loud cries of ' Oh I oh ! ' and ' Peel ' 
 were so overwhelming that the orator adroitly added, ' unless I 
 was first assailed.' But this also was followed by cries of dissent. 
 The Prime Minister concluded by saying that under the guise ot 
 Liberalism, and under the pretence of legislating in the spirit of 
 the age, Mr. Gladstone and his friends were, as he believed, about 
 to seize upon the supreme authority of the realm. As long as, 
 by the favour of the Queen, he stood there, he would oppose to 
 the utmost of his ability the attempt they were making. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone replied that there were portions of Mr. Disraeli's 
 speech of which, with every effort on his part, he failed to discern 
 the relevancy; and there were others which appeared due to the 
 influence of a heated imagination. For himself, he did not con- 
 ceal his intention to separate Church from State in Ireland, and 
 he asked the expiring Parliament to pronounce an opinion which 
 would clear the way for its successor. The House then went to 
 a division, when the numbers were For Lord Stanley's amend- 
 ment, 270; against, 331 majority against the Government, 61. 
 On the second division for going into committee, there appeared 
 For the motion, 328 ; against, 272 majority for Mr. Glad- 
 stone's motion, 56. An analysis shows that, including pairs, tb.e 
 first division gave in favour of Mr. Gladstone's policy a total of 
 343 members ; for the Government, 282. This only left 33 mem- 
 bers to be accounted for out of the whole House, and they were 
 thus distributed : Tellers, 4 ; Speaker, 1 ; absent, 22 ; seats 
 racant, 2 ; boroughs disfranchised, 4. Of the 22 members absent, 
 17 were Liberals, amongst whom was Sir Koundell Palmer, who 
 was opposed to Mr. Gladstone's Irish Church policy. The following 
 Liberals voted against Mr. Gladstone, viz., Mr. E. Antrobus, Mr. 
 J. I. Briscoe, Lord Cremorne, Sir J. Matheson, Mr. Herries Max- 
 well, Mr. E. Saunderson, and Mr. James Wyld. The following 
 Conservatives voted with Mr. Gladstone, viz., Lord Bingham, 
 Mr. H. A. Butler-Johnstone, Mr. K. A. Earle, Sir J. M'Kenna, 
 and Mr. G. Morris. In the second division, the Conservative 
 vote was increased by two, owing to the fact that two Liberal 
 members strayed into the wrong lobby. Not only was Mr. Glad- 
 stone's majority much larger than had been anticipated by either 
 political party, but it was almost twice as great a majority as
 
 THE EEFOEM AND IEISH CHUECH QUESTIONS. 367 
 
 that which in 1835 voted for the more limited policy involved 
 in the appropriation clause. 
 
 The Liberal party was at length united in such a degree as had 
 never, perhaps, previously been known ; and great meetings were 
 shortly held in London and the provinces to express sympathy 
 tvith the agitation thus set on foot for the disestablishment of 
 the Irish Church. Two important demonstrations one in favour 
 of and the other against the Establishment were held in St. 
 James's Hall. Meantime the Government entered into negotia- 
 tions with the Irish Roman Catholic prelates, but these negotia- 
 tions were afterwards definitively abandoned. The political war- 
 fare which now ensued was not always carried on with legitimate 
 weapons. A striking example of this was found in certain charges 
 brought against Mr. Gladstone charges which the right hon. 
 gentleman himself thus stated : ' First, that when at Rome I 
 made arrangements with the Pope to destroy the Church Estab- 
 lishment in Ireland, with some other like matters, being myself 
 a Roman Catholic at heart. Second, that during and since the 
 Government of Sir Robert Peel I have resisted, and till now 
 prevented, the preferment of Dr. Wynter. Third, that I have 
 publicly condemned all support to the clergy in the three kingdoms 
 from Church or public funds. Fourth, that when at Balmoral I 
 refused to attend her Majesty at Crathie Church. Fifth, that I 
 received the thanks of the Pope for my proceedings respecting the 
 Irish Church. Sixth, that I am a member of a High Church 
 Ritualistic congregation.' ' These statements, one and all,' wrote 
 Mr. Gladstone, ' are untrue in letter and in spirit, from the 
 beginning to the end.' 
 
 During the discussion on Mr. Gladstone's resolutions in the 
 House of Commons, the Earl of Derby drew attention in the 
 Upper House to what the noble earl described as their unconsti- 
 tutional character, in so far as they asked her Majesty to place at 
 the disposal of Parliament certain temporalities which had only 
 been discussed in the Lower House. The leading Opposition 
 peers severely criticised his lordship's course of proceeding, and 
 the debate terminated without any definite result. In the Com- 
 mons, after a long discussion, Mr. Gladstone's first resolution was 
 carried on the 30th of April. The right hon. gentleman, in sum- 
 ming up the debate, justified his mode of procedure, and declared 
 with reference to Lord Derby's speech that he would not take the 
 word of command from the House of Lords. He urged the House 
 to accept the resolution, not as a panacea, but as part of a policy 
 which would add strength and glory to the empire. Mr. Disraeli 
 reiterated his objections to disestablishment, after which the 
 House divided, when the numbers were For the resolution,
 
 308 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 330 ; against, 265 majority against the Government, 65. This 
 increased majority caused the Premier to state that the relations 
 between the Government and the House were now altered, and it 
 became necessary for the Ministry to consider their position. On 
 the 4th of May Ministerial explanations were tendered. Mr. 
 Disraeli said he had waited upon the Queen, and informed her 
 that the proper constitutional course to take would be to dissolve 
 Parliament and appeal to the country ; at the same time, he offered 
 the resignation of Ministers, which, however, he qualified by the 
 advice that if the Government could conduct public business 
 with the co-operation of the House until the close of the session, 
 it would be better to delay the dissolution until the autumn. Mr. 
 Gladstone strongly protested against this course, and Mr. Lowe 
 complained that no concession had been made by her Majesty to 
 the two great divisions. Mr. Bright was still more emphatic in 
 his censure, and maintained that it was merely for the sake .of 
 prolonging his own term of office that Mr. Disraeli had made this 
 outrageous demand on the indulgence of Parliament. The 
 Government had no right to a dissolution, and they had no claim 
 to remain in office when they could carry nothing of their own 
 but a sixpenny income-tax. 
 
 The discussion was resumed upon the following day, and at 
 length Mr. Disraeli said that the power held by the Government 
 to dissolve Parliament related entirely to the Irish Church 
 question, and that if any other difficulty arose it would be the 
 duty of Ministers again to repair to the Sovereign. The second 
 and third Irish Church resolutions having been carried in 
 committee, a discussion arose respecting the Maynooth and other 
 grants. The Premier having made some observations upon the 
 divisions in the Liberal party as to these grants, a passage of 
 arms arose between himself and Mr. Bright. The hon. member 
 for Birmingham said, ' The Prime Minister the other night, with 
 a mixture of pompousness and sometimes of servility, talked at 
 large oi the interviews which he had had with his Sovereign. I 
 venture to say that a Minister who deceives his Sovereign is as 
 guilty as the conspirator who would dethrone her. I don't 
 charge the right hon. gentleman with deceiving his Sovereign. 
 But if he has not changed the opinions which he held twenty-five 
 years ago, and which in the main he said only a few weeks ago 
 were right, then I fear he has not stated all it was his duty to state 
 in the interview he had with his Sovereign.' The Minister who 
 put his Sovereign into the front of a great struggle like this was 
 guilty of a very high crime and great misdemeanour against his 
 Sovereign and against his country. Mr. Gladstone said or' Mr. 
 Disraeli's language that he had never beard such from #, Ilinia
 
 THE REFORM AND IRISH CHURCH QUESTIONS. 369 
 
 Minister before. Mr, Disraeli retorted with vigour, and, having 
 charged Mr. Bright with indulging in stale invective, challenged 
 him to bring his charges to the vote of the House. This exciting 
 scene terminated by the passing of Mr. Gladstone's resolution. 
 As finally reported to the House, the resolutions were four in 
 number. Three we have already given, and the fourth ran as 
 follows : * That when legislative effect shall have been given to 
 the first resolution of this committee, respecting the Established 
 Church of Ireland, it is right and necessary that the grant to 
 Maynooth and the Regium Donum be discontinued, due regard 
 being had to all personal interests.' Her Majesty, having replied 
 to the address that she would not suffer her interests to stand in 
 the way of any measures contemplated by Parliament, on the 
 14th of May Mr. Gladstone obtained leave to bring in a bill to 
 prevent for a limited time new appointments in the Irish Church, 
 and to restrain for the same period the proceedings of the Eccle- 
 siastical Commissioners for Ireland. On the 22nd, after a lengthy 
 discussion, the Suspensory Bill was read a second time, the 
 numbers in its favour being 312 ; against, 258 majority, 54. 
 The bill passed the Commons, but upon the motion for its second 
 reading in the House of Lords it was defeated by a large majority 
 a result by no means unexpected. 
 
 This great question was now remitted for settlement to the 
 constituencies. The Opposition had cleared the ground for action, 
 and felt that the decision of the Lords on the Suspensory Bill 
 would have little or no effect upon the country as to the general 
 question of the disestablishment of the Irish Church. On the 
 31st of July, the last Parliament elected under the Reform Bill 
 of 1832 was prorogued with a view to its dissolution in the 
 middle of November ; it was understood that the new Parliament 
 would be summoned in time to permit a crucial debate to take 
 place upon the question of the Irish Church in which the fate 
 of the Government was involved before the close of the year. 
 
 Early in August Mr. Gladstone began his electoral campaign 
 in South-west Lancashire. Addressing a meeting at St. Helen's, 
 he said he spoke in literal truth and not in mere sarcasm, when 
 he affirmed of the Irish Church, ' You must not take away its 
 abuses, because if you take them away there will be nothing left.' 
 It was idle to draw a comparison between the Church of Ireland 
 and the Church of England, for the latter entered into the 
 natural life and purpose of the country. Mr. Gladstone also 
 delivered addresses at Liverpool, Warrington, Wigan, Ormskirk, 
 and other places. The right hon. gentleman's address, in which 
 the policy of the Liberal party was duly set forth, appeared on 
 the 9th of October. After referring to the defeat of Lord Russell's 
 
 B B
 
 370 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Ministry, and the enormous addition to the public expenditure 
 made by Mr. Disraeli's Government, Mr. Gladstone defended the 
 removal of the Irish Establishment as the discharge of a debt of 
 civil justice, and the blotting out of a national, almost a world- 
 wide reproach. They should proceed with all due regard to exist- 
 ing interests, but a considerable property would probably remain 
 at the disposal of the State. The mode of its application could 
 only be suggested to Parliament by those who, as a Government, 
 might have means and authority to examine into the wants of 
 Ireland. These funds, however, should not be applied to the 
 teaching of religion in any other form. He confidently asked 
 the electors for their approval of the policy of the Opposition upon 
 this great question. Election speeches followed each other in 
 rapid succession, and the country could scarcely keep pace with 
 Mr. Gladstone's extraordinary eloquence. 
 
 On the llth of November Parliament was dissolved, and writs 
 were issued for a new one, returnable on the 10th of December 
 The election for South-west Lancashire naturally absorbed the 
 largest share of the public attention, as it was well known that 
 no effort would be spared to defeat Mr. Gladstone. The 
 nomination took place on the 22nd of November, the hustings 
 being erected in front of St. George's Hall, Liverpool. The 
 weather was bitterly cold, but several thousand persons were 
 present. The usual electioneering noises were prevalent, and 
 while Mr. Gladstone was speaking he was regaled with a choral 
 performance of ' God save the Queen.' Placards of a satirical 
 kind were exhibited, the Conservatives being especially happy in 
 their inscriptions. Some of these, according to the daily journals, 
 provoked laughter from Mr. Gladstone himself. Amongst the 
 most amusing ' hits * were ' Time table to Greenwich,' and ' Bright's 
 disease and Lowe fever.' Yet good-humour prevailed during 
 the proceedings. Mr. Gladstone, who spoke for forty minutes, 
 referred to the elections which had already taken place, where the 
 Ministerial candidates had been scattered right and left. He 
 reviewed the acts of the Government, and repeated his charges 
 of extravagance. He also maintained that some of the provisions 
 of the Keform Act must be amended. Alluding to the abortive 
 Ministerial propositions brought forward by Lord Mayo in the 
 preceding March, the right hon. gentleman declared that the 
 Cabinet were without a policy, and there was no guarantee that 
 they would take any well-defined course. He denied that the 
 Liberal policy was calculated to injure the cause of Protestantism, 
 and pointed to the elections in Scotland, a thoroughly Protestant 
 part of the kingdom, as a proof that the people had no faith in 
 the * No Popery ' cry. Mr. Gladstone then referred to the Liberal
 
 THE REFORM AND IRISH CHURCH QUESTIONS. All 
 
 victories in the North of Ireland, and appealed to the electors of 
 South-west Lancashire to permit him to speak the words of truth 
 and justice in the House of Commons in the name and with the 
 authority of that important constituency. 
 
 There was a great preponderance of feeling in favour of Mr. 
 Gladstone at the hustings ; but on the following day he was 
 defeated at the poll, the numbers being Cross (C.), 7,729 ; 
 Turner (C.), 7,676 ; Gladstone (L.), 7,415 ; and Grenfell (L.), 
 6,939. The leader of the Opposition issued the following brief 
 address to the electors : * Gentlemen, I return my most cordial 
 thanks to the 7,415 electors who supported me at the poll, and 
 to the numerous and zealous friends who have so ably acted on 
 my behalf. It is to me a matter of lively satisfaction, which 1 
 can never lose, that I received a large majority of votes within 
 the district of Liverpool.' The right hon. gentleman, however, 
 was not without a seat in the House, having been already elected 
 for Greenwich. The Liberals of that borough, as a precautionary 
 measure against a possible contingency elsewhere, determined 
 upon putting Mr. Gladstone in nomination, together with Mr. 
 Alderman Salomons. Both were returned by large majorities, the 
 numbers being Mr. Alderman Salomons (L.), 6,645 ; Mr. Glad- 
 stone (L.), 6,551 ; Sir H. W. Parker (C.), 4,661 ; and LordMahon 
 (C.), 4,342. 
 
 Although the Liberals sustained several serious single defeats 
 during the elections notably, those of Mr. Gladstone in South- 
 west Lancashire, the Marquis of Hartington in North Lanca- 
 shire, and Mr. J. Stuart Mill in Westminster there was an enor- 
 mous preponderance of Liberal feeling manifested throughout the 
 country. The Liberal majority was placed by the daily journals 
 at 115. The Conservatives were, of course, strong in the English 
 counties ; but in the boroughs they could only return 94 mem- 
 bers, as against 214 Liberal representatives. In Scotland the 
 Liberal majority was still more marked. The Liberals took all 
 the burghs, while the Conservatives only secured seven seats in 
 the counties, as against twenty-three by their opponents. Ireland 
 also gave a majority for the Liberals, both in counties and 
 boroughs. Since 1832 no such party majority had been known. 
 An analysis distinguishing the three kingdoms shows that in this 
 remarkable election of 1868 the total Liberal vote in England 
 and Wales was 1,231,450; the Conservative vote, 824,057 
 majority, 407,393. The total Liberal vote in Scotland, with three 
 elections undecided (which ultimately added a slight further gain 
 to the Liberals), was 123,410; the Conservative vote, 23,391 
 majority, 100,019. The total Liberal vote in Ireland was 53,379 ; 
 the Conservative vote, 36,082 majority, 17,297. The gross 
 
 BB 2
 
 372 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 Liberal vote was thus 1 ,408,239 ; and the gross Conservative vote, 
 883,530, leaving a majority in favour of the former of 524,709. 
 Another test also demonstrated the strength of the Liberals. The 92 
 constituencies gained by them throughout the elections contained 
 a population of 6,611,950 ; while the 69 won by the Conservatives 
 contained only a population of 5,177,534, leaving a balance on 
 the side of the Liberals of 1,434,416. There were no fewer than 
 227 out of the whole number of members returned who had no 
 seat in the previous Parliament, being upwards of one-third of the 
 entire House of Commons. 
 
 The national verdict being thus strongly in favour of Mr. 
 Gladstone's policy, Mr. Disraeli did not adopt the usual course of 
 waiting for its endorsement by the new Parliament ; but, in a 
 statement addressed to his supporters, announced that Ministers 
 had tendered their resignations to her Majesty. Having briefly 
 reviewed in this circular the circumstances under which the 
 general election was conducted, and the question at issue, the 
 Premier said it was clear that the existing Administration could 
 not expect to command the confidence of the newly-elected House 
 of Commons ; but he added that the members of the Government 
 would continue to offer an uncompromising resistance to the dis- 
 establishment and disendowment of the Irish Church. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, who was naturally the only Liberal statesman 
 to whom her Majesty could have recourse, received the Eoyal 
 summons on the 4th of December. In obedience to the Queen's 
 commands, he undertook to form a Ministry. On the 9th the 
 new Government was completed, and on the following day the 
 Premier issued a brief address to his constituents. Contrary to 
 original expectation, the new Cabinet included Mr. Bright as 
 President of the Board of Trade. Referring to this matter in a 
 speech at Birmingham, the hon. member said that he had never 
 aspired to the dignity of office ; and when the question was put 
 to him whether he would step into the position in which he now 
 found himself, the answer which came from his heart was that of 
 the Shunamite woman to the prophet, ' I dwell among mine own 
 people.' Happily, he trusted that the time had come when in 
 this country an honest man might enter the service of the Crown, 
 and at the same time not feel it in any degree necessary to 
 dissociate himself from his own people. 
 
 The new Premier and the various members of the Ministry 
 were unopposed on presenting themselves for re-election to their 
 respective constituencies. Speaking at Greenwich, Mr. Gladstone 
 said that in view of the recent manifestation throughout the 
 country, it was not unnatural that the Disraeli Government 
 should have melted away before the Parliament which they had
 
 THE REFORM AND IEISH CHUECH QUESTIONS. 373 
 
 called into existence without looking that Parliament in the 
 face, and without asking from it the judgment they had under- 
 taken to challenge melted away, in the words of our greatest 
 poet, * like a mockery king of snow.' Keferring to the question 
 of the Ballot, Mr. Gladstone said that the acts of intimidation 
 which had characterised many of the recent contests had led him 
 to the belief that, whether by open voting or whatsoever means, 
 the liberty of the elector must be secured. It would also be 
 the duty of the Liberal Government forthwith to remedy the 
 grievances inflicted by the rate-paying clauses of the Eeform 
 Act. Touching upon education, the relations between capital 
 and labour, and the public expenditure, he observed that no 
 Administration could be expected at once to deal with every 
 great public question, but he should be much disappointed if 
 there was not an immediate reduction in the estimates. With 
 regard to the Irish Church, he denied that there was any analogy 
 whatever between that Church and the Established Church of 
 England, while the former had been condemned by the voice of 
 the people in the three kingdoms. ' We confide (said the Premier) 
 in the traditions we have received of our fathers ; we confide in 
 the soundness both of the religious and of the civil principles 
 that prevail ; we confide in the sacredness of that cause of 
 iustice in which we are engaged, and with that confidence and 
 persuasion we are prepared to go forward.' 
 
 A new Liberal Government able in many of its own consti- 
 tuent elements, and supported by the overwhelming vote of the 
 people was thus installed before the close of the year. The 
 task before it was arduous, for although it owed its formation 
 ostensibly to the national desire for the settlement of one great 
 question, there were other questions looming in the distance 
 which might prove a source of difficulty and danger. However, 
 for the special work it was pledged to accomplish, no Government 
 could have been more fully strengthened and equipped than that 
 which had Mr. Gladstone for its chief.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEALISM. 
 
 The difficulties of Disestablishment Attacks upon Mr. Gladstone's Measure The- 
 1'remier's Speech on unfolding his Scheme Details of the Bill The Regium 
 Donum and the Maynootli Grant Financial Results of the Operations Character 
 of the Premier's Address Debates upon the Bill Speeches of Mr. Disraeli, Mr. 
 Bright, Mr. Gathorne Hardy, and others Mr. Gladstone's Reply Second Read- 
 ing of the Bill carried by an overwhelming Majority Its subsequent Stages 
 Reception in the Lords a memorable Division The Measure passes Its- 
 Character described The Irish Land Bill introduced Mr. Gladstone's compre- 
 hensive Speech Details of the Scheme Nature of the Government Proposals 
 They are attacked by Dr. Ball and Mr. Disraeli Singular Division on the second 
 Heading The Bill passes both Houses Elementary Education Bill introduced 
 Another important Measure carried Massacre of English Travellers by Greek 
 Brigands Proceedings in Parliament The Franco-German War Position of 
 England Publication of the proposed Franco-Prussian Treaty Mr. Gladstone 
 on English Neutrality Legislative Changes in 1870 Release of the Fenian 
 Prisoners. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Mr. Gladstone was thus powerfully sustained by the 
 country in his resolve to disestablish the Irish Church, there 
 were many persons who doubted the successful issue of his policy. 
 The magnitude of the task before the new Premier was such as 
 might well appal any statesman. It is one thing to pass an 
 abstract resolution declaring disestablishment advisable and neces- 
 sary ; it is another to cope with the details and difficulties which 
 an actual measure involves. This great line of public policy and 
 action had certainly been approved by the constituencies with 
 unmistakable clearness ; but Mr. Gladstone himself did not dis- 
 guise the fact that the labour before the Government was of a 
 most arduous and intricate character. A large section of the 
 Conservative party still believed it to be impossible of achieve- 
 ment, and their view was shared by nearly the whole of the 
 clergy. The undertaking was, perhaps, the greatest and the most 
 difficult to which any statesman of modern times had committed 
 himself ; but, fortunately for Mr, Grladstone, the Liberal party 
 never wavered in their allegiance to him ; and he was enabled to 
 construct, and carry through with few serious alterations, the 
 measure to which he and his Cabinet stood pledged. 
 
 The spirit in which these disestablishment proposals were 
 received by the warmest defenders of the Irish Church, may be
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEAL1SM. 375 
 
 gathered from the reports of the public meetings and of the 
 various Synods held at this period. At one of the latter, the 
 measure was denounced as ' highly offensive to Almighty God.' 
 Speaking at Cork, Lord Bandon said that compromise was 
 utterly impracticable, as the plunder of the Church was only 
 preparatory to the plunder of the land. He had no security for 
 his property for to-morrow. The Bishop of Ossory described the 
 bill as ' framed in a spirit of inveterate hostility to the Church.' 
 The Earl of Carrick maintained that it was ' the greatest national 
 sin ever committed.' Lord de Vesci alluded to it as 'a perilous 
 weakening of the foundations of property ; ' while the Archdeacon 
 of Ossory, addressing the same meeting as his lordship, exhorted 
 his hearers to ' trust in God and keep their powder dry.' The 
 Archdeacon, however, was careful to explain that in thus using 
 a memorable phrase of Oliver Cromwell's he made no reference 
 to ' carnal weapons.' In the sittings of Convocation, Archdeacon 
 Denison deplored ' the great national sin ' into which the country 
 seemed to be plunging. Dr. Jebb asked the assembly to express 
 its 'utter detestation of a most ungodly, wicked, and abominable 
 measure ; ' while Archdeacon Moore insisted that at all hazards 
 the Queen must interfere to prevent ' this dreadful thing- ' 
 ' better jeopardise her crown than destroy the Church/ 
 
 But the language of many of the Orange laity was still more 
 extraordinary. At a meeting- held in Exeter Hall, the rejection 
 of the bill by the Peers, and the prompt dismissal of the Ministry 
 by her Majesty, were demanded. The speeches delivered were of 
 a most violent character, the Government being- spoken of as 
 ' traitors,* ' robbers/ and ' political brigands/ while the statements 
 made by the Liberal press and Liberal speakers were characterised 
 as lies. A Conservative member of Parliament said that there 
 were thousands of Protestants in his part of the country who 
 thought Mr. Gladstone was a ' traitor to his Queen, his country, 
 and his God,' and the righteous retribution which he (the member) 
 would visit upon the right hon. gentleman was ' perpetual exclu- 
 sion from power for having dared to put his hand on the ark of 
 God.' Another speaker described the Cabinet as ' a Cabinet of 
 brigands.' All Orangemen, of course, were not so violent as those 
 whose utterances have been cited ; and we have only introduced 
 these examples as showing the calumnies heaped upon Mr. Glad- 
 stone for undertaking what he deemed to be an act of simple 
 justice towards Ireland and the too long neglected Irish people. 
 
 On the 1st of March, Mr. Gladstone unfolded his scheme in 
 the House of Commons. For three hours the orator fixed the 
 attention of a densely-crowded chamber while he described the 
 Ministerial method of dealing with the Irish Church. As Mr.
 
 876 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Disraeli afterwards said, there was not a single redundant word 
 in this remarkable speech. The heads of the Acts relating to 
 the Established Church of Ireland and Maynooth, and the first 
 resolution of the previous session, having been read, Mr. Gladstone 
 moved for leave to introduce a bill 'to put an end to the 
 Established Church in Ireland, to make provision in respect to 
 the temporalities thereof, and of the Royal College of Maynooth.' 
 Commencing by a brief review of the previous stages of the 
 question, and answering in the outset some of the principal 
 objections to the Government policy, the speaker recalled the 
 attention of the House to the pledges given by those who had 
 taken up the subject. The bill for putting an immediate end to 
 the Establishment and the public endowment of the Irish 
 Church would be a thorough but at the same time a liberal and 
 indulgent measure, prompt in its operation, and final in every 
 respect. Dividing his analysis of the bill into three parts its 
 immediate effect, its effect at a certain time fixed (but not 
 unalterably) at January 1, 1871, and its operation when the 
 process of winding up the affairs of the Irish Church was brought 
 to a close Mr. Gladstone observed that the bill provided, on 
 the first head, that the present Ecclesiastical Commission should 
 be at once wound up, and a new commission appointed for ten 
 years, in which the property of the Irish Church, subject to life 
 interests, should be vested from the time of the passing of the 
 bill. Therefore, technically and legally, there would be an 
 immediate disendowment of the Irish Church ; but disestablish- 
 ment would be postponed until the 1st of January, 1871. The 
 union between the Churches of England and Ireland would be 
 dissolved at that date, and all ecclesiastical corporations would 
 be abolished. The Ecclesiastical Courts would cease, and the 
 Ecclesiastical Laws would no longer be binding as laws ; except 
 that they would be understood to exist as the terms of the 
 voluntary contract between clergy and laity, until they were 
 altered by the governing body of the disestablished Church. 
 With regard to the interval between the passing of the Act and 
 the date of January 1st, 1871, and during the reorganisation of 
 the Church, it was proposed that appointments should be made 
 to spiritual offices, but that they should not carry with them the 
 freehold or confer vested interests. In the same provisional and 
 temporary manner, appointments would be made to vacant 
 bishoprics, but only on the prayer of the bishops to consecrate a 
 particular person to a vacancy ; and these appointments would 
 carry with them no vested interests, and no rights of peerage. 
 Crown livings vacant during the same period would be filled 
 up on similar principles
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OP LIBEEALISM. 377 
 
 Tn ordur to assist the reorganisation of the Church, and to 
 favoar the creation of a body which could negotiate on behalf of 
 the Church \vith the Commissioners, the Convention Act, which 
 prevented the assembling of the clergy and laity of the Church, 
 would be repealed ; and power would be taken to the Queen in 
 council to recognise any governing body which the clergy and 
 laity of the disestablished Church might agree on, and which 
 actually represented both ; and that body would be incorporated. 
 Mr. Gladstone assumed that by January 1, 1871, or some other 
 date to be incorporated in the bill, this governing body would 
 have been constituted ; and he then proceeded to explain the com- 
 plicated details of the arrangements for dealing with the Church 
 and its property in a disestablished condition. In this long and 
 lucid explanation he first dealt with vested interests. A vested 
 interest he defined to be the title of an incumbent including 
 in this term bishops and dignitaries as well as beneficed clergy 
 to receive a certain annuity out of the property of the Church 
 (fees, pew-rents, &c., being put out of the question), in considera- 
 tion of the performance of a certain duty. The Commissioners 
 would ascertain the amount of each incumbent's income, deduct- 
 ing what he paid for curates ; and, so long as he continued to 
 discharge his duties, that income would be paid him ; but he 
 might apply to have this commuted into an annuity for life. It 
 was not proposed to interfere compulsorily with the position of 
 the incumbent in relation to his freehold or the incidents of his 
 landlordship, with three exceptions that his title to the tithe 
 rent-charge would be vested immediately in the Commissioners ; 
 that the freehold of churches wholly in ruins would be taken 
 from the incumbent ; and that the peerage rights of the Irish 
 bishops would cease at once. Mr. Gladstone next observed that 
 the compensation to curates would be of two kinds : those whom 
 he described as * transitory curates ' would be dealt with on a 
 principle borrowed from the Civil Service Superannuation Act, 
 and would be dismissed with a gratuity ; but permanent curates, 
 viz., those who had been employed in the same parish from 
 January 1, 1869, to January 1, 1871 or had left their employ- 
 ment not from their own free-will or misconduct would be 
 entitled to compensation on the same principle as the incumbents. 
 This compensation would be paid by the incumbents. It was 
 not proposed to touch private endowments, and these would be 
 the only marketable property conveyed to the Church. The 
 Premier, however, limited the term to money contributed from 
 private sources since the year 1660, and pointed out that it 
 would net include churches and glebe houses. As to churches, 
 wherever the t governing body ' made an application, accompanied
 
 378 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 by a declaration that they meant either to maintain the church 
 for public worship or to remove it to some more convenient posi- 
 tion, it would be handed over to them ; but in the case of St. 
 Patrick's Cathedral, and about a dozen other churches partaking 
 c f the character of national memorials, the Commissioners would 
 be empowered to allot a moderate sum for their maintenance. 
 Those churches which were not in use, and which were not capable 
 of being restored for purposes of worship, would be handed over to 
 the Board of Works, with an allocation of funds sufficient for 
 their maintenance. Touching upon the very difficult point of 
 glebe houses, Mr. Gladstone announced that he had seen reason to 
 modify his views of the previous year. They were not marketable 
 property, for, though an expenditure upon them of 1,200,000 
 could be traced distinctly, their annual value was only 18,600, 
 and there was a quarter of a million of building charges upon 
 them which the State would have to pay on coming into posses- 
 sion. It was therefore proposed to hand over the glebe houses to 
 the governing body on their paying the building charges, and 
 they would be allowed to purchase a certain amount of glebe land 
 round the houses on paying a fair valuation. The burial grounds 
 adjacent to churches would go with the churches, all existing 
 rights being preserved, and other burial grounds would be handed 
 over to the guardians of the poor. 
 
 The next question was one of peculiar difficulty. Mr. 
 Gladstone reminded hon. members that it was at all times part 
 of the views of those who proposed the resolutions advocating 
 disestablishment, that with this Act should come the final 
 cessation of all relations between the State and the Presbyterian 
 clergy in Ireland, and between the State and the College of 
 Maynooth. The Regium, Donum and the Maynooth Grant 
 amounted together to about 70,000, and the Premier announced 
 that the Presbyterian ministers, recipients of the Regium 
 Donum, would be compensated on the same principles as the 
 incumbents of the disestablished Church ; while in regard both 
 to the grant to Maynooth and the grants to Presbyterian colleges 
 in order to give ample time for the necessary arrangements, and 
 to avoid the sudden shock and disappointment to individuals 
 there would be a valuation of all the interests in these grants 
 at 14 years' purchase of the capital amount annually voted. In 
 propounding an elaborate schema for the final extinction of the 
 tithe rent charge in 45 years, Mr. Gladstone said landlords 
 would be allowed, if they chos, to purchase it at 22 years' 
 purchase, and if they did not ao ?ept the offer, they would come 
 under another and a general operation. There would be a 
 compulsory sale to them of the t* the rent charge, at a rate which
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 379 
 
 would yield 4 per cent. ; and, on the other side, they would be 
 credited with a loan at 3 per cent., payable in instalments in 
 45 years. The power of purchase would remain in the hands of 
 i he tenants for three years after the passing of the Act, and it 
 was also proposed that the tenants should have a right of pre- 
 emption of all lands sold by the commission, and that three-fourths 
 of the purchase money might be left on the security of the land. 
 Mr. Gladstone thus detailed the financial results of these 
 operations : The tithe rent charge would yield 9,000,000 ; 
 lands and perpetuity rents, 6,250,000 ; money, 750,000 total, 
 16,000,000; the present value of the property of the Irish 
 Church. Of this, the bill would dispose of 8,650,000, viz., vested 
 interests of incumbents, 4,900,000; curates, 800,000; lay 
 compensation, 900,000 ; private endowments, 500,000 ; build- 
 ing charges, 250,000 ; commutation of the Maynooth Grant 
 and the JRegium Donum, 1,100,000 ; and expenses of the com- 
 mission, 200,000. Consequently, there would remain a surplus 
 of between 7,000,000 and 8,000,000 ; and the question arose, 
 said the Premier, amid consideiable excitement, < What shall we 
 do with it ? ' He held it to be indispensable, under the circum- 
 stances, that the purposes to which the surplus was applied should 
 be Irish. Further, they should not be religious, although they 
 must be final, and open the door to no new controversy. After 
 discussing various suggestions, some of which he dismissed as 
 impossible, and others as radically wrong, the speaker announced, 
 quoting the preamble of the bill, that the Government had con- 
 cluded to apply the surplus to the relief of unavoidable calami- 
 ties and suffering, not provided for by the Poor Law. The sum 
 of 185,000 would be allocated for lunatic asylums ; 20,000 
 a-year would be awarded to idiot asylums ; 30,000 to training 
 schools for the deaf, dumb, and blind; 15,000 for the training 
 of nurses ; 10,000 for reformatories ; and 51,000 to county 
 infirmaries in all, 31 1,000 a-year. Mr. Gladstone claimed that 
 by the provision of all these requirements they would be able to 
 combine very great reforms ; and they would also be in a better 
 condition for inviting the Irish landlord to accede to a change in 
 the county cess, as they were able to offer by this plan a consider- 
 able diminution in its burden. The plan for disposing of the 
 residue he believed to be a good and solid plan, full of public 
 advantage. After touching upon possible errors in his statement, 
 and announcing that he should be happy to welcome suggestions 
 from any quarter, Mr. Gladstone referred to the great transition 
 which the Government were asking the clergymen of the Church 
 of Ireland to undergo, and to the privileges which the laity were 
 called upon to abate. He concluded with a peroration which
 
 380 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 inasmuch as it must always be regarded as one of the right hon. 
 gentleman's happiest efforts we shall place before the reader in 
 its entirety : 
 
 ' I do not know in what country so great a change, so great a transition, has 
 been proposed for the ministers of a religious Communion who have enjoyed for 
 many ages the preferred position of an Established Church. I can well understand 
 that to many in the Irish Establishment such a change appears to be nothing less 
 than ruin and destruction ; from the height on which they now stand the future is 
 to them an abyss, and their fears recall the words used in King Lear, when Edgar 
 endeavours to persuade Glo'ster that he has fallen over the cliffs of Dover, and 
 says: 
 
 " Ten masts at each make not the altitude 
 
 Which thou hast perpendicularly fallen ; 
 
 Thy life's a miracle ! 
 
 And yet but a little while after the old man is relieved from his delusion, and finds 
 he has not fallen at all. So I trust that when, instead of the fictitious and 
 adventitious aid on which we have too long taught the Irish Establishment to lean, 
 it should come to place its trust in its own resources, in its own great mission, in 
 all that it can draw from the energy of its ministers and its members, and the 
 high hopes and promises of the gospel that it teaches, it will find that it has 
 entered upon a new era of existence an era bright with hope and potent for good. 
 At any rate, I think the day has certainly come when an end is finally to be put to 
 that union, not between the Church and religious association, but between the 
 Establishment and the State, which was commenced under circumstances little 
 auspicious, and has endured to be a source of unhappiness to Ireland and of dis- 
 credit and scandal to England. There is more to say. This measure is in every 
 sense a great measure great in its principles, great in the multitude of its dry, 
 technical, but interesting detail, and great as a testing measure ; for it will show for 
 one and all of us of what metal we are made. Upon us all it brings a great 
 responsibility great and foremost upon those who occupy this bench. We are 
 especially chargeable, nay, deeply guilty, if we have either dishonestly, as some 
 think, or even prematurely or unwisely challenged so gigantic an issue. I know 
 well the punishments that follow rashness in public affairs, and that ought to fall 
 upon those men, those Phaetons of politics, who, with hands unequal to the task, 
 attempt to guide the chariot of the sun. But the responsibility, though heavy, 
 does not exclusively press upon us ; it presses upon every man who has to take part in 
 the discussion and decision upon this bill. Every man approaches the discussion 
 under the most solemn obligations to raise the level of his vision and expand its 
 scope in proportion with the greatness of the matter in hand. The working of 
 our constitutional government itself is upon its trial, for I do not believe there 
 ever was a time when the wheels of legislative machinery were set in motion 
 under conditions of peace and order and constitutional rgularity to deal with a 
 question greater or more profound. And more especially, sir, is the credit and 
 fame of this great assembly involved ; this assembly which has inherited through 
 many ages the accumulated honours of brilliant triumphs, of peaceful but 
 courageous legislation, is now called upon to address itself to a task which would, 
 indeed, have demanded all the best energies of the very best among your fathers 
 and your ancestors. I believe it will prove to be worthy of the task. Should it 
 fail, even the fame of the House of Commons will suffer disparagement ; should 
 it succeed, even that fame, I venture to say, will receive no smaU, no insensible 
 addition. I must not ask gentlemen opposite to concur in this view, emboldened 
 as I am by the kindness they have shown me in listening with patience to a state- 
 ment which could not have been other than tedious ; but I pray them to bear 
 with me for a moment while, for myself and my colleagues, I say we are sanguine 
 of issue. We believe, and for my part I am deeply convinced, that when the final 
 consummation shall arrive, and when the words are spoken that shall give the 
 force of law to the work embodied in this measure the work of peace and justice 
 those words will be echoed upon every shore where the name of Ireland or 
 the name of Great Britain has been heard, and the answer to them will come back 
 in the approving verdict of civilised mankind.' 
 
 The scheme so admirably and luminously expounded was
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 381 
 
 received with vehement demonstrations of approval by the sup- 
 porters of the Ministry. The exposition which had been looked 
 forward to with some misgiving was admitted to be a complete 
 triumph. The Conservatives, who were naturally opposed to the 
 details of the measure, agreed with their opponents in admiring 
 the excellence of the arrangement, the masterly marshalling of 
 facts, and the lucidity of detail which characterised Mr. Glad- 
 stone's statement.* 
 
 Mr. Disraeli did not oppose the introduction of the bill, but 
 demanded a period of three weeks in which to consider it. Mr. 
 Gladstone ultimately agreed that the second reading should not 
 be taken for sixteen days. On the 18th, accordingly, on the 
 order for the second reading of the bill, the leader of the Opposi- 
 tion moved its rejection. His speech on that occasion was 
 described by the Times as ' flimsiness relieved with spangles the 
 definition of a columbine's skirt.' He began in the philosophical 
 vein, ' and while we freely acknowledge (observed the journal just 
 quoted) that Mr. Disraeli's fun is exquisite, his philosophy is 
 simply detestable. Then he became historical and didactic, and 
 his historical paradoxes, which were acceptable enough in his earlier 
 political novels, fell flat when reproduced as serious arguments 
 
 * From amongst the many tributes paid to Mr. Gladstone's eloquence on this 
 occasion, we cannot refrain from quoting one which appeared in the Daily- 
 Telegraph, and which well interpreted the general sentiment of those who listened 
 to the ex-Premier's oration on that ' night of justice ' a night never to be forgot- 
 ten : ' We shall not hesitate to say that Mr. Gladstone never before, amidst all the- 
 triumphs that mark his long course of honour and success, displayed more- 
 vigorous grasp of his subject, more luminous clearness in its development,, 
 earnestness more lofty, or eloquence more appropriate and refined than in the 
 memorable deliverance of last evening. Less than the most complete mastery 
 of the complex scheme, from its mightiest principle to its minutest item* 
 would have brought down that remarkable exhibition of intellect from the 
 high level of an historical oration to a cold and weary evolution of clauses 
 and calculations. But with that consummate skill which in old days made 
 a fine art of finance and taught us all the romance of the revenue, Mr. 
 Gladstone made his statistics ornamental, and deftly wove the stiffest 
 strings of figures into the web of his exposition. Scarcely even so much o.& 
 glancing at his notes, he advanced with an oratorical step, which positively never 
 once faltered from exordium to peroration of his amazing task; omitting nothing, 
 slurring nothing, confusing nothing ; but pouring from his prodigious faculty of 
 thought, memory, and speech an explanation so lucid that none of all the many 
 points which he made was obscure to any of his listeners when he had finished. 
 And, charged as the speech necessarily was with hard and stern matter of fact and 
 figure, the intense earnestness, the sincere satisfaction of the speaker at the act of 
 concord and justice he was inaugurating, gave such elasticity and play to his 
 genius, that nowhere was the clause so dry or the calculation so involved, but 
 some gentle phrase of respect, some high invocation of principle, some bright illu- 
 mination of the theme from actual life, some graceful compliment to his hearers, 
 lightened the passage of these mountains of statistics, and kept the House spell- 
 bound by that rich and energetic voice. This praise may seem extravagant ; but 
 though Mr. Gladstone has done many things of marvellous iptellectual and 
 oratorical force, his exposition last evening of the measure from which will 
 assuredly date the pacification and happiness of Ireland, was a Parliamentary 
 achievement unparalleled even by himself.'
 
 382 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTOME. 
 
 to arrest the attention and sway the judgment of the House of 
 Commons.' He objected to disestablishment because he was in 
 favour of the union of Church and State, by which he understood 
 an arrangement which armed the State with the highest influ- 
 ence, and prevented the Church from sinking into a sacerdotal 
 corporation. Mr. Disraeli dwelt with much earnestness on the 
 possible evil consequences of divorcing authority from religion, 
 and warned the House against establishing an independent 
 religious power in the country, which might be stronger than the 
 civil power, and not always in agreement with it. As to disen- 
 dowment, if a State seized on the property of a Church without 
 assigning a reason, he held it to be spoliation ; but with a reason, 
 valid or not, it was a confiscation. The title of the Irish Church 
 was stronger than that of any other landlord, and no valid reason 
 had been assigned for depriving her of her property. Amid great 
 amusement, Mr. Disraeli sketched a hypothetical case of the exten- 
 sion of the Government principle to private property one set of 
 landless Irish gentry demanding the confiscation of the estates of 
 their more fortunate fellow-countrymen, from no motive but 
 jealousy ; he also referred to corporate property, as though the 
 unendowed London hospitals were to demand the confiscation of 
 the revenues of Gruy's, St. Bartholomew's, and St. Thomas's. The 
 right hon. gentleman then criticised, minutely and sarcastically, 
 the various details of the measure, and, in concluding an address 
 of two hours' duration, declared that England could not afford 
 another Revolution. 
 
 As Mr. Disraeli, however, had himself effected a greater 
 revolution when he ' dished the Whigs ' upon the question of 
 Reform, his declaration failed to excite any emotion approaching 
 to terror. His address did not rise to the level of his previous 
 great speeches, and it was manifest that the Opposition felt 
 their position had not been put in its strongest tight until the 
 addresses of Dr. Ball and Mr. (rathorne Hardy had been delivered. 
 The former, after a lengthened examination of the bill, predicted 
 that it would produce general discontent and a severe shock to 
 the rights of property, which would bear fruits in an agitation 
 on the land question, and would be the precedent for more serious 
 organic changes. 
 
 Mr. Bright dealt with the question on broad and general 
 principles. Alluding to Mr. Disraeli's contention that the 
 establishment was a protector of freedom of religion and 
 toleration, he remarked that Mr. Disraeli seemed to read a 
 different hisjx>ry from anybody else, or that he made his own, 
 and, like Voltaire, made it better without facts than with them. 
 Mr. Bright maintained that the Establishment had failed in
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM 383 
 
 every way, and demanded, * Do you think it will be a misappro- 
 priation of the surplus funds of this great Establishment to apply 
 them to some objects such as those described in the bill ? Do 
 you not think that from the charitable dealing with these matters 
 even a sweeter incense may arise than when these vast funds are 
 applied to maintain three times the number of clergy that can be 
 of the slightest use to the Church with which they are connected ? 
 We can do but little, it is true. We cannot relume the 
 extinguished lamp of reason. We cannot make the deaf to hear. 
 We cannot make the dumb to speak. It is not given to us- 
 
 " From the thick film to purge the visual ray, 
 And on the sightless eyeballs pour the day." 
 
 But at least we can lessen the load of affliction, and we can make 
 life more tolerable to vast numbers who suffer. ... I see this 
 measure giving tranquillity to our people, greater strength to the 
 realm, and adding a new lustre and a new dignity to the Crown. 
 I dare claim for this bill the support of all good and thoughtful 
 people within the bounds of the British Empire, and I cannot 
 doubt that, in its early and great results, it will have the blessing 
 of the Supreme, for I believe it to be founded on those principles 
 of justice and mercy which are the glorious attributes of His 
 eternal reign.' This noble and dignified peroration, which would 
 have seemed daring almost coming from any other lips, exercised 
 a very powerful and impressive effect upon the House. The 
 speech to which it formed a fitting conclusion was justly 
 characterised as ' a magnificent oration.' 
 
 Sir Roundell Palmer opposed the Government measure, assign- 
 ing for so doing his sense of an imperious and overwhelming 
 necessity. He assented to disestablishment, but there was no 
 precedent for disendowment. He admitted, however, that the bill 
 must pass, and urged the Irish Church not to take Mr. Disraeli's 
 advice to hold back and refuse to co-operate in its re-organisa- 
 tion. Mr. Lowe made a smart attack upon Mr. Disraeli, and 
 after defending the bill, pointed out that the Irish Church had 
 had many opportunities of reconciling itself with the Irish people, 
 but had neglected them all. Its fall had Ifeen a matter of 
 certainty for years ; ' and,' concluded the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, ' the present state of things in Ireland is no longer 
 unalterable. We can alter it, and we will.' Mr. Hardy, who gave 
 Mr. Gladstone full credit for having redeemed his pledges to sweep 
 away all that he had once deemed precious, said he could discover 
 no reason for this attack on the Irish Church but jealousy, such 
 as animated Haman. He denied that the Church was a badge 
 of conquest also that it had done anything to deserve destruo-
 
 384 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 tion. l The Irish question ' was not the creation of the Church, 
 hut of the English State. He maintained that the Act of Union 
 was violated by the destruction of the Church, and that it would 
 be necessary to alter the Coronation Oath. Having examined the 
 provisions of the measure, Mr. Hardy said that, believing to the 
 best of his judgment, and to the best of the light of his con- 
 science, that the bill was alike wrong in the sight of God and 
 against the interests of his country, he did not hesitate to 
 denounce and oppose the sacrilegious measure. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone replied, eliciting loud cheers when he remarked 
 of the latter portion of Mr. Hardy's speech that it showed his fit- 
 ness for the task which Burke disclaimed, viz., 'to draw an indict- 
 ment against a whole nation.' But even in his libellous picture 
 of the Irish people, serious evils were admitted for which Mr. 
 Hardy had no remedy. The Government had one, which of 
 necessity they proposed piecemeal. The Premier maintained that 
 Sir Roundell Palmer, in giving up Establishment, had abandoned 
 the worthier part of the whole argument. He also showed that 
 the bill would in no way touch the Royal supremacy. After 
 briefly reviewing the course of the debate, he said that the charges 
 brought against the Government only proved that they had fairly 
 fulfilled their pledge. ' As the clock points rapidly towards the 
 dawn,' said the speaker in conclusion, ' so are rapidly flowing out 
 the years, the months, the days, that remain to the existence of 
 the Irish Established Church. . . . Not now are we opening 
 this great question. Opened, perhaps, it was when the Parliament 
 which expired last year pronounced upon it that emphatic judg- 
 ment which can never be recalled. Opened it was, further, when 
 in the months of autumn the discussions which were held in every 
 quarter of the country turned mainly on the subject of the Irish 
 Church. Prosecuted another stage it was, when the completed 
 elections discovered to us a manifestation of the national verdict 
 more emphatic than, with the rarest exceptions, has been wit- 
 nessed during the whole of our Parliamentary history. The good 
 cause was further advanced towards its triumphant issue when 
 the silent acknowledgment of the late Government that they 
 declined to contest the question was given by their retirement 
 from office, and their choosing a less responsible position, from 
 which to carry on a more desultory warfare against the policy 
 which they had in the previous session unsuccessfully attempted 
 to resist. Another blow will soon be struck in the same good 
 cause, and I will not intercept it one single moment more.' 
 
 The division was then taken . The ' Ides of March ' had, indeed, 
 proved disastrous for the Irish Church. Great excitement pre- 
 vailed in the House, and through all its approaches. When the
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 385 
 
 numbers were announced, it was found that there appeared 
 For the second reading of the Government bill, 368 ; against, 250 
 majority, 118. This majority was overwhelming and decisive; 
 it was larger than had been expected on either side. There were 
 actually present in the House, including tellers, 622 members 
 a number exceeded upon only one or two previous occasions. 
 The division conclusively demonstrated the progress of public 
 opinion upon the question of disestablishment, the majority being 
 almost double that of the previous year. The composition of the 
 House was thus accounted for : Ayes, 368 ; Noes, 250 ; tellers, 
 4; Speaker, 1 ; Conservative seats vacant, 8 ; Liberal seats vacant, 
 6 ; and absentees, 21. Lord Elcho, Sir Eoundell Palmer, and 
 Mr. Briscoe (Liberals) voted with the Noes. Six Conservatives 
 voted with Mr. Gladstone, while of the absentees eight were 
 Liberals and thirteen Conservatives. On both sides the Whips 
 exercised the greatest vigilance, and the number of members 
 whose absence could not be accounted for was exceptionally small. 
 
 The enormous support which Mr. Gladstone thus received for 
 his proposals fortunately attended the progress of the Irish Church 
 Bill through its remaining stages. The progress of the bill through 
 committee was exceedingly slow, but at length exactly three 
 months from its introduction in the Commons the third reading- 
 came on. The motion was strenuously opposed, Mr. Disraeli 
 declaring that the parsing of the measure would lead to the 
 ascendancy of the Papal power in Ireland, with a consequent 
 reaction in the country. Mr. Gladstone made a final and eloquent 
 defence of his scheme. He maintained that he was only carrying: 
 into effect the views of Mr. Pitt and other supporters of religious 
 equality in Ireland. The measure was neither unjust, illiberal, 
 nor harsh ; neither would it permanently cripple Protestantism 
 in Ireland. 'The Church,' said Mr. Gladstone, 'may have much 
 to regret in respect to temporal splendour, yet the day is to- come 
 when it will be said of her, as of the temple of Jerusalem, that 
 "the glory of the latter house is greater than that of the former ; " 
 and when the most loyal and faithful of her children will learn 
 not to forget that at length the Parliament of England took 
 courage, and the Irish Church was disestablished and disendowed/ 
 The Government had again a large majority, the numbers beicc* 
 For the third reading, 361 ; against, 247 majority, 114. The 
 Premier, however, was still subjected to coarse vituperation out 
 of doors, and even certain English Protestant journals published 
 unfounded reports concerning the Premier's alleged relations with 
 the Church of Eome reports only intended to embarrass the 
 author of disestablishment at a critical moment. 
 
 The Irish Church Bill led to many animated discussions in 
 
 cc
 
 3b6 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the House of Lords. At one time it was feared that it would 
 be thrown out upon the second reading. The Earl of Derby and 
 Lord Cairns argued with great eloquence against the measure, 
 but it found a supporter of equal intellectual power on the 
 episcopal bench. The Bishop of St. David's whose known 
 learning and character had great weight with the country 
 stigmatised as heathenish the vain and superstitious notion that 
 church property was in any sense divine that material offerings 
 might be accepted by the Most High as supplying some want of 
 the Divine nature. Miss Burdett Coutts's market at Spitalfields 
 was as religious a work as Mr. Gruinness's restoration of 
 Dublin Cathedral. He was as eager as any one for Protestant 
 ascendancy, but ascendancy of a religious, moral, and intellectual 
 character, the ascendancy of truth and reason over error. Of 
 that ascendancy he did not believe the Irish Church to be a 
 pillar. He had no fear of, because no belief in, the power of the 
 Pope. Everywhere he saw it on the decline, and a serious blow 
 would be dealt at it in Ireland by removing a grievance which 
 gave the priesthood an artificial hold on the sentiment of the 
 people. The Bishop of Peterborough strongly attacked the bill, 
 and Lord Derby denounced it as a scheme the political folly of 
 which was only equalled by its moral turpitude. Lords Westbury 
 and Cairns also made fierce onslaughts upon the measure (though 
 the former voted for it), but the peers did not follow Lord 
 Derby's advice to reject the bill at once. There appeared for 
 the second reading, 179 ; against, 146 majority for the bill, 
 33. This was the largest division in the House of Lords within 
 living memory, no fewer than 325 peers having taken part in it. 
 Eighteen also paired. Amongst Conservatives who voted with 
 the Ministry were the Marquises of Bath and Salisbury, the 
 Earls of Carnarvon, Devon, and Nelson, and Lords Wharncliffe, 
 Lytton, Calthorpe, and Abinger. The votes of the episcopal 
 bench attracted considerable attention. Neither of the English 
 Archbishops voted, but the Archbishop of Dublin voted against 
 the bill, which was supported by the solitary vote of Dr. Thirlwall, 
 Bishop of St. David's. The Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Wilberforce), 
 though present, did not vote. Thirteen English and two Irish 
 Bishops pronounced against the bill, while there were many 
 absentees, including the Bishops of Carlisle, Exeter, Manchester, 
 Salisbury, and Winchester. Lord Clancarty alone signed a 
 protest against the bill, as being, in his lordship's judgment, 
 ' directly at variance with the obligations imposed upon the 
 Sovereign by the coronation oath.' 
 
 The debate which took place on the second reading fully 
 sustained the reputation of the House of Lords for eloquence, if
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEALISM 387 
 
 it did not indeed enhance it. The bill passed this second stage 
 owing to a feeling on the part of many peers, that a measure 
 which was thus supported by the country and a great majority of 
 the Lower House ought not to be lightly thrown out. The ques- 
 tion now arose, What would be done in committee? Various 
 amendments were carried of an important nature, to some of 
 which the Government could not agree. The bill eventually 
 passed the Lords by 121 to 114, under a protest signed by Lord 
 Derby and forty-three temporal and two spiritual peers. The 
 Lords' amendments were considered by the Commons, and ths 
 chief of them were disagreed with. They were then sent back 
 to the Lords, and an animated debate ensued in the Upper House. 
 Lord Grey complained that the Lords were humiliated and 
 degraded, and Lord Salisbury said their lordships were called upon 
 to yield to the arrogant will of a single man. The Earl of Win- 
 chilsea compared Mr. Gladstone to Jack Cade, and after hinting 
 at the coming of an Oliver Cromwell, declared that he was ready 
 for the block sooner than surrender. A conference upon contested 
 points afterwards took place between Lord Granville and Lord 
 Cairns, and a compromise was arrived at. This compromise was 
 accepted by the Commons, and on the 26th of July the Irish 
 Church Bill received the Koyal assent. 
 
 Thus passed this remarkable measure, which excited more angry 
 controversy than any measure since the great Keform Bill of 1832. 
 ' It was carried through its various stages in the face of a united 
 and powerful Opposition, mainly by the resolute will and 
 unflinching energy of the Prime Minister, who, throughout the 
 long and arduous discussions, in which he took the leading part, 
 displayed, in full measure, those qualities of acuteness, force of 
 reasoning, and thorough mastery of his subject, for which he had 
 long been conspicuous, but which were never more signally 
 exhibited than on this occasion. Upon the whole, whatever may 
 be thought of its merits or demerits, it can hardly be disputed 
 that the Act for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, intro- 
 duced and carried into a law within somewhat less than five 
 months, was the most remarkable legislative achievement of 
 modern times.' * The Government had manifestly every right to 
 claim, as they did in the Queen's Speech at the close of the ses- 
 sion, that this great measure might be remembered hereafter as 
 a conclusive proof of the paramount anxiety of Parliament to 
 pay reasonable regard, in legislating for each of the three king- 
 doms, to the special circumstances by which it might be distin- 
 guished, and to deal on principles of impartial justice with all 
 interests and all portions of the nation. 
 
 * Annual Register, 1869. 
 
 CC2
 
 388 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Having settled the Irish Church grievance, however, Mr. Glad- 
 stone did not rest there. This was undoubtedly the great senti- 
 mental difficulty in the way of a reconciliation between the two 
 peoples, but there was an equally important question behind 
 that of the land. Not even the Ministry which had disestablished 
 the Irish Church could expect to retain office unless it went further 
 in the direction of popular progress indicated by the sympathies 
 of both divisions of the United Kingdom. Accordingly, at the 
 opening of the session of 1870, and in the course of the debate 
 on the Address, the Premier stated that the duty of the Govern- 
 ment in regard to the condition of Ireland was absolutely para- 
 mount and primary. With regard to Fenianism, he believed it 
 would receive its death-blow from the passing of good and just 
 laws for removing the evils accompanying the tenure and cultiva- 
 tion of land in Ireland. 
 
 On the 15th of February the Irish. Land Bill was brought 
 forward in a crowded House, the galleries being filled with distin- 
 guished strangers. In the outset, Mr. Gladstone alluded to the 
 predictions of the opponents of the Irish Church Bill twelve months 
 before, that it was the land and not the Church which lay at the 
 root of Irish grievances. He therefore trusted that the Opposition 
 would approach the question with a due sense of its importance. 
 The necessity for closing and sealing up the controversy was 
 admitted by all fair-minded and moderate men on both sides. 
 Acknowledging the valuable assistance rendered by the recent 
 literature on this great problem, he proceeded to dissipate some 
 of the misapprehensions which prevailed as to the condition of 
 Ireland, such as the notion that the Irish were a Celtic race, prone 
 to disorder ; that the land laws were the same in Ireland as in 
 England, and ought therefore to produce the same results in both 
 countries ; that Ireland had been prospering for the last twenty 
 years, and that the people had no occasion to exhibit feelings of 
 discontent. On the contrary, with regard to this last item, the 
 speaker demonstrated that the rate of wages had not risen within 
 the last ten years, that the number of persons receiving poor 
 relief had increased, the cost of subsistence had risen, and some of 
 the most imprudent and violent interferences with the fixed usages 
 of the country had occurred. Moreover, the course of legislation 
 for the past fifty years, though intended in a beneficial spirit, had 
 possibly been detrimental to the interests of the occupiers. The 
 Act of 1793 giving the franchise to Eoman Catholics had induced 
 the creation of 40s. freeholds, and the abolition of the franchise in 
 1829 vastly extended the mischief, and, perhaps, under the cir- 
 cumstances of Ireland, the still greater mischief of mere yearly 
 tenancy. The Encumbered Estates Act, which had since passed
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 389 
 
 into the Act for Dealing with the Sale of Landed Estates, by not 
 protecting the improvements of the tenants, had operated as an 
 extensive confiscation. Parliament also, during the previous! half 
 century, had completely changed the conditions of eviction against 
 the tenants. Speaking broadly, Mr. Gladstone asserted that after 
 we had been legislating for a century in favour of Ireland, it was 
 a matter of doubt whether, as far as the law was concerned, the 
 condition of the occupier was better than before the repeal of the 
 Penal Laws. The present bill would reverse the presumption of 
 law in favour of yearly tenancies, and would not leave owners and 
 occupiers full freedom of contract. 
 
 The great evil to be dealt with was insecurity of tenure as 
 pointed out years before by the Devon Commission which para- 
 lysed the occupier's industry, and vitiated his relations with his 
 landlord, with the State, and with society at large. The Pre- 
 mier, having glanced at the various remedies which had been 
 suggested, pronounced emphatically against perpetuity of tenure. 
 He held that to convert the landlords into mere recipients of 
 rent-charge, to divorce them from their responsibilities, and to 
 relieve them of their duties, would not be for the public good, 
 would cramp the development of the agricultural resources of Ire- 
 land, and must ultimately reproduce the evils now complained 
 of. Insecurity of tenure manifested itself in four modes in the 
 withdrawal of privileges hitherto enjoyed by the tenant, in the 
 lavish and pitiless use of notices to quit, in evictions, and in the 
 raising of rents where the increased value of farms had been caused 
 by the tenants' improvements. The remedy for these serious evils 
 might be extracted from the experience of Ulster without any 
 shock to the foundations of property. The rental of eight coun- 
 ties where stability or security of tenure prevailed was, in 1779, 
 990,000 ; in 1 809 it was 2,830,000. The rest of Ireland, minus 
 Ulster, had in 1779, according to Arthur Young, a rental of 
 5,000,000, and in 1869 that rental was 9,200,000. Further 
 details were adduced, showing that while the rent of England and 
 Scotland, where there was more security of tenure, had tripled and 
 sextupled within the last ninety years, in Ireland it had only 
 doubled ; and while in Ulster it had tripled, in the other provinces 
 it had not doubled. Coming to the provisions of the bill, Mr. 
 Gladstone divided them under two heads, viz., the acquisition and 
 the occupation of land. Touching the first, Ireland would come 
 under the operation of the two bills to be introduced for facilitat- 
 ing the transfer of land .and the distribution of the real estate of. 
 intestates, but all the provisions specially affecting Ireland were 
 contained in the present bill. It proposed to increase the power of 
 limited owners with regard to the sale and lease of land, and assist-
 
 890 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 ance would be given by treasury loans, through the Irish Board 
 of Works, to tenants desiring to purchase the cultivated lands 
 they then occupied, either by private contract or through the 
 machinery of the Landed Estates Court. This assistance would 
 only be given as a rule to tenants purchasing their own holdings ; 
 but where a landlord would only sell in gross, and the tenant* 
 combined to buy four-fifths, assistance would be given to persons 
 outside the estate to purchase the other fifth. Provision would 
 be made for .loans for the reclamation and purchase of waste lands,, 
 and for assisting landlords to pay compensation to tenants giving 
 up their holdings of their own free will. 
 
 Dealing with the second division of the bill that relating to the 
 occupation of land Mr. Gladstone explained the nature of the 
 judicial machinery for carrying out the provisions of the measure. 
 This would be of two kinds either a court of arbitration or the 
 civil bill court from which latter there would be an appeal to 
 the Judges of Assize ; and under a clause described as ' the equi- 
 ties clause,' the courts would be able to take into consideration, 
 not merely the legal aspects of each case, but all the circumstances 
 bearing equitably upon it. There were four main provisions in 
 the bill, corresponding to the four descriptions of Irish holdings, 
 viz., those held under the Ul^tei custom, those held under analo- 
 gous customs in other parts of the country not having the same 
 traditionary authority, yearly tenancies which enjoyed no kind of 
 protection from custom, and tenancies under lease. The bill would 
 take the Ulster custom as it existed, and give it at once the force 
 of law, and it would legalise the other customs subject to the 
 following restrictions : That the tenant, should only claim when 
 disturbed by the act of his landlord, but that he should not benefit 
 if evicted for non-payment of rent or for sub-letting ; that all 
 arrears of rent and damages might be pleaded as a set-off by the 
 landlord, and that the custom might be barred by a lease for thirty- 
 one years. For tenants at will, the bill established a scale of 
 damages which the courts subject to the same conditions as in 
 tenancies under customs would be able to award to evicted ten- 
 ants, viz., in holdings under 10 a sum not exceeding seven years' 
 rent ; in holdings between 10 and 50 a sum not exceeding five 
 years' rent ; between 50 and 100 not exceeding three years" 
 rent ; and over 100 two years' rent. This scale, however, did not 
 include compensation for reclamation of land and permanent build- 
 ings, which would be awarded separately. In holdings over 50 
 the landlord might exempt himself from this scale by giving a. 
 lease for thirty-one years, and in holdings over 100 the parties, 
 might contract themselves out of it. The Judges would be required 
 in applying this scale to have regard to the injury done to the
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEALISM. 391 
 
 tenants by eviction and the improvements they had effected. 
 Asking, amidst some laughter, * What is an improvement ? ' Mr. 
 Gladstone defined it in the first place as an addition to the letting 
 value of the land ; and secondly, it must be suitable to the nature 
 of the holding. The bill would reverse the present presumption 
 of law ; it would presume all improvements to be the property of 
 the tenant, and it would be for the landlord to prove the contrary. 
 Retrospective improvements would be included, but only so far 
 back as twenty years, except in the case of permanent buildings 
 and reclamation of lands ; but no claim could be made by a tenant 
 contrary to the terms of his lease. The courts would take into 
 consideration the length of time the tenant had enjoyed the im- 
 provement ; and no claim could be advanced for tenants' improve- 
 ments made for a valuable consideration, or where the landlord 
 had contracted to perform them, and had not failed in his engage- 
 ment. As to the holdings under lease, any owner might exempt 
 his lands from the custom, always excepting the Ulster custom, 
 which would be legalised, and from the scale of damages, by giving 
 to his tenants a lease for thirty-one years provided that the lease 
 were approved by the court, and gave the tenant at the close of 
 it a right of compensation for manures, permanent buildings, and 
 reclamation of land. In explaining several miscellaneous and sub- 
 ordinate, yet important provisions, Mr. Gladstone said that evic- 
 tion for non-payment of rent would not, as a general rule, be 
 deemed a disturbance by the landlord ; but where it followed on 
 inability to pay an excessive and flagrantly unjust rent, the court 
 would be allowed to take that circumstance into consideration. 
 In future, notices to quit would be for twelvemonths dating from 
 the last sale day in the current year, and to make them a more 
 expensive amusement, they must all bear a half-crown stamp. In 
 every new tenancy over 4, the county cess would be divided 
 between owner and occupier, the occupier below that amount being 
 relieved altogether. 
 
 In concluding his statement, Mr. Gladstone said the Govern- 
 ment had toiled hard in the construction of their scheme, but 
 they were far from believing it to be perfect ; and they invited, 
 in imreserved good faith, the co-operation of all parties and of 
 all members of the House. They desired that the measure should 
 become a great gift to Ireland, and put an end to the grievances 
 and sufferings which had so long accompanied the tenure of land 
 in that country. They had not knowingly proceeded in any 
 spirit of partisanship ; and as they had afforded the occupier 
 improved security of tenure, so they had afforded the landlord 
 improved security for his rent, and improved security for the 
 better cultivation of his land. With regard to the Irish labourer,
 
 S32 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the only great boon and it was a great boon which it was in 
 the power of the Legislature to give to him, was to increase the 
 demand for his labour, and, by imparting a stimulus to the 
 agriculture of the country, to insure its requiring more strong 
 arms to carry it on, and thereby to bring more bidders into the 
 market for those arms, and raise the natural and legitimate price 
 of their labour. Though the general effect of the measure would 
 be to impose the possibility of an immediate loss upon the 
 landlord, he would not ultimately be a loser. He (the speaker) 
 believed there was a huge fund of national wealth in the soil of 
 Ireland as yet undeveloped ; he trusted, in conclusion, that this 
 bill would be accepted by both landlord and tenant because i : 
 was just: 
 
 ' If I atn asked what I hope to effect by this bill, I certainly hope we shall effect a 
 great change in Ireland ; but I hope also, and confidently believe, that this change 
 will be accomplished by gentle means. Every line of the measure has been studied 
 v.-ith the keenest desire that it shall import as little as possible of shock or violent 
 alteration into any single arrangement now existing between landlord and tenant 
 in Ireland. There is, no doubt, much to be undone ; there is no doubt much to bo 
 improved ; but what we desire is that the work of this bill should be like the work 
 of nature herself, when on the face of a desolated land she restores what has been 
 laid waste by the wild and savage hand of man. Its operations, we believe, will 
 be quiet and gradual. We wish to alarm none ; we wish to injure no one. What 
 we wish is that where there has been despondency there shall be hope ; where there 
 has been mistrust there shall be confidence ; where there has been alienation and 
 hate there shall, however gradually, be woven the ties of a strong attachment 
 between man and man. This we know cannot be done in a day. The measure has 
 reference to evils which have been long at work ; their roots strike far back into 
 bygone centuries, and it is against the ordinance of Providence, as it is against the 
 interest of man, that immediate reparation should in such cases be possible ; for one 
 of the main restraints of misdoing would be removed, if the consequences of mis- 
 doing could in a moment receive a remedy. For such reparation and such effects 
 it is that we look from this bill, and we reckon on them not less surely and not less 
 confidently because we know they must be gradual and slow ; and because we are 
 likewise aware that if it be poisoned by the malignant agency of angry or of bitter 
 passions, it cannot do its proper work. In order that there may be a hope of its 
 entire success, it must be passed, not as a triumph of party over party, or class 
 over class ; not as the lifting up of an ensign to record the downfall of that which 
 has once been great and powerful, but as a common work of common love and 
 goodwill to the common good of our common country. "With such objects, and in 
 such a spirit as that, this House will address itself to the work, and sustain the feeble 
 efforts of the Government. And my hope, at least, is high and ardent that we shall 
 live to see our work prosper in our hand, and that in that Ireland, which we desire 
 to unite to England and Scotland by the only enduring ties those of free-will and 
 free affection peace, order, and a settled and cheerful industry will diffuse their 
 blessings from year to year, and from day to day, over a smiling land.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's proposals, while they ensured for the tenant 
 security of holding, confiscated not a single valuable right of the 
 Irish landowner. The latter required to be taught the lesson 
 that he would receive the largest amount of rent when he was 
 most liberal in his arrangements with his tenantry. The bill was 
 simple, and was founded on the belief that free contract lies ' at 
 the root of every healthy condition of society/ The tenant was 
 secured against oppression on the part of his landlord, and the
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEALISM. 393 
 
 landlord was secured legally against loss or detriment to his 
 property. 
 
 The second reading was fixed for the 7th of March, and on 
 that day a long debate began upon the principles and details of 
 the measure. Dr. Ball, in a powerful speech, held that, as 
 regarded Ulster tenant-right, the bill perpetuated and fixed a 
 custom which varied with every estate, which was in itself an 
 evil, making, as it were, a distinct law for every separate holding ; 
 as regarded compensation, it was fixed too high, the maximum 
 amounting to one-third the fee-simple. He did not, however, 
 object to the principle ; but, as regarded future tenancies, he 
 thought the bill utterly bad. Amongst succeeding speakers was 
 Sir Roundell Palmer, who described the bill as large and import- 
 ant, but not revolutionary, yet, at the same time, ' a humiliating 
 necessity.' 
 
 Mr. Disraeli glanced through the various objections taken to 
 the measure, and then warmly attacked Mr. Horsman (who had 
 spoken strongly in favour of the bill) as ' a superior person.' When 
 Secretary to the Irish Lord Lieutenant, Mr. Horsman had excused 
 himself for not bringing in bills on the ground that his office was 
 a complete sinecure ; ' and we,' said Mr. Disraeli, ' knowing what 
 a superior person he was, did not put an uncharitable construction 
 on his conduct, but said, " This is a part of some profound policy, 
 which will end in the regeneration of Ireland and in the consoli- 
 dation of her Majesty's United Kingdom." ' He (Mr. Disraeli) 
 believed that, without giving any final or general opinion upon 
 the merits of the bill, ' a more complicated, a more clumsy, or 
 a more heterogeneous measure was never yet brought before the 
 attention of Parliament.' After ridiculing the tribunals proposed 
 by the scheme, his sketch of their difficulties being received with 
 great laughter, Mr. Disraeli said, ' Do not let us vote upon this sub- 
 ject as if we had received threatening letters as if we expected 
 to meet Rory of the Hills when we go into the lobby. No ; let 
 us decide upon all those great subjects which will be brought 
 under our consideration in committee as becomes members of the 
 House of Commons.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had little to reply to besides invective in closing 
 the debate. Upon all the leading principles of the measure he 
 remained fixed in his opinion nothing had been brought forward 
 calculated to affect the Government positions. On the general 
 question he observed, ( It is our desire to be just, but to be just 
 we must be just to all. The oppression of a majority is detestable 
 and odious the oppresion of a minority is only by one degree 
 less detestable and less odious. The face of justice is like the 
 face of the god Janus. It is like the face of those lions, the
 
 S94 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 work of Landseer, which keep watch and ward around the record 
 of our country's greatness. She presents the tranquil and majestic 
 countenance towards every point of the compass and every quarter 
 of the globe. That rare, that noble, that imperial virtue has this 
 above all other qualities, that she is no respecter of persons, and 
 she will not take advantage of a favourable moment to oppress 
 the wealthy for the sake of flattering the poor, any more than she 
 will condescend to oppress the poor for the sake of pampering 
 the luxuries of the rich.' 
 
 There was no intention on the part of the Opposition to divide 
 against the second reading of the bill, but a division was forced 
 by a few members with this extraordinary result For the second 
 reading, 442 ; against, 11. Mr. Disraeli and many of his influ- 
 ential supporters went into the lobby with Mr. Gladstone, and 
 the eleven members who desired to record their opposition to this 
 measure of pacification were the following : Sir W. Bagge, Mr. 
 Callan, Mr. D'Arcy, Mr. E. Dease, Mr. Digby, Sir J. Gray, the 
 Eight Hon. J. W. Henley, Mr. Heron, Mr. J. Lowther, Sir P. 
 O'Brien, and Mr. Sherlock ; tellers, Mr. Bryan and Col. White. 
 Before the bill went into committee, Mr. Chichester Fortescue's 
 measure for securing the safety of life and property in Ireland 
 was rapidly pushed forward, in consequence of daring outrages 
 which had occurred in county Mayo. The amendments to the 
 Land Bill, of which notice was given, were no fewer than three 
 hundred in number. Mr. Disraeli moved in committee that the 
 compensation for eviction should be limited by the insertion of the 
 words ' in respect of unexhausted improvements made by him, or 
 'any predecessor in title, and of interruption in the completion of 
 any course of husbandry suited to the holding.' Mr. Gladstone 
 opposed this amendment as an undisguised attempt to overthrow 
 one of the cardinal principles of the bill, and it was defeated by 
 296 votes to 220. The House thus decided that on the long 
 disputed question of the tenure of Irish land, Ireland had been 
 right, and England wrong. The principle of tenant-right was 
 afterwards affirmed by a large majority. After many prolonged 
 discussions, the bill was read a third time on the 30th of May. 
 On being brought forward in the Lords, it excited considerable 
 discussion, but after a three nights' debate, the second reading 
 was carried without a division. Struggles took place in com- 
 mittee, but eventually this important measure passed through 
 the Upper House with no serious alterations, and on the 1st 01 
 August it received the Royal assent. The second of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's great legislative acts of a remedial character on behalf of 
 Ireland was thus added to the statute-book, 
 
 Besides the Irish Land Question, several prominent topics
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OP UBEEALISM. 395 
 
 one of a domestic, others of a foreign character were discussed 
 during this session. It had long been admitted (referring now 
 to the former subject) that elementary education in this country 
 was in an unsatisfactory condition, and on the 17th of February 
 Mr. Forster introduced the Government bill providing for elemen- 
 tary education in England and Wales. This measure was based 
 upon the principle of direct compulsion as regarded the atten- 
 dance of children, and to effect this, power was to be given to 
 each School Board to frame bye-laws compelling the attendance 
 at school of all children from five to twelve years of age within 
 their district. The Government having shown a decided agree- 
 ment on some points with the members of the Opposition, Mr. 
 Richard charged the Premier with having thrown the Noncon- 
 formists overboard. Mr. Forster became extremely unpopular for 
 a time with the latter body, and he was described by Mr. Eichard 
 as ' mounting the good steed Conservative, and charging into the 
 ranks of his friends and riding them down rough-shod.' On the 
 order for the third reading, Mr. Dixon and Mr. Miall, speaking 
 on behalf of the Nonconformists, denounced the measure, and 
 attacked the Government for having roused the suspicion and 
 distrust of their own supporters, while they had secured the aid 
 of the Opposition. Mr. Miall said that the Premier had led one 
 section of the Liberal party through the Valley of Humiliation ; 
 but * once bit, twice shy,' he continued, ' and we can't stand this 
 sort of thing much longer.' Mr. Gladstone was roused by this 
 speech, and a sharp passage of arms occurred. ' I hope,' said the 
 Premier, replying to Mr. Miall, ' that my hon. friend will not con- 
 tinue his support to the Government one moment longer than he 
 deems it consistent with his sense of duty and right. For God's 
 sake, sir, let him withdraw it the moment he thinks it better for 
 the cause he has at heart that he should do so. So long as my 
 hon. friend thinks fit to give us his support we will co-operate 
 with my hon. friend for every purpose we have in common ; but 
 when we think his opinions and demands exacting, when we think 
 he looks too much to the section of the community he adorns, and 
 too little to the interests of the people at large, we must then 
 recollect that we are the Government of the Queen, and that those 
 who have assumed the high responsibility of administering the 
 affairs of this Empire must endeavour to forget the parts in the 
 whole, and must, in the great measures they introduce into the 
 House, propose to themselves no meaner or narrower object no 
 other object than the welfare of the Empire at large.' This second 
 important measure of a memorable session eventually passed both 
 Houses, and became law. 
 
 In April, the country was startled by the report of the seizure
 
 396 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 and massacre of a party of English travellers by Greek brigands. 
 It seems that the party consisted of Lord and Lady Muncaster, 
 Mr. F. G. Vyner, ]\Ir. and Mrs. Edward Lloyd and child, Mr. 
 Edward Herbert, Secretary to the British Legation, and Count 
 Albert de Boyl, Secretary to the Italian Legation, with their 
 suites. Having visited Marathon, under the protection of an 
 armed escort, they had reached Eaphini on their return to Athens, 
 when they were stopped and overpowered by a party of brigands. 
 After rough usage, the ladies were released, and Lord Muncaster 
 was also allowed to proceed to Athens for the purpose of securing 
 the consent of the Greek G-overnment to the terms of the release 
 submitted by the brigands. They demanded 50,000, which 
 was afterwards reduced to 25,000, in money, a free pardon, and 
 the release of certain brigands already in custody. The Greek 
 G-overnment, thinking little of the threats to murder the captives 
 if these demands were not complied with, despatched a body of 
 troops to liberate them by force. The British Minister at Athens 
 endeavoured to procure the release of the captives, even on the 
 terms demanded by the brigands. The amnesty was the greatest 
 difficulty in the way. Seeing the active efforts which were being 
 made, the brigands took their captives further into the interior, 
 and in a few days murdered them in cold blood. Mr. Herbert 
 and Count de Boyl were shot on the 21st, and Mr. Vyner and 
 Mr. Lloyd on the 22nd. It was stated that from the time of 
 their capture until their melancholy death, the party sustained 
 each other with cheerful resignation and true manliness. The 
 brigands were pursued until the greater portion of them were 
 shot or secured, preparatory to being sent to Athens for trial and 
 execution. This terrible incident created a profound sensation 
 in England. It was formally brought under the attention of 
 the two Houses of Parliament, Sir Roundell Palmer being the 
 mover in the Commons. There was a general impression that, 
 from the outset, two parties had been playing their game of 
 ambition with the lives of our countrymen. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone acknowledged the gravity of the situation, but 
 pleaded the necessity for further information before taking de- 
 cided steps. This grievance and shocking tragedy, however, would 
 tend to an opening-up of circumstances connected with the condi- 
 tion of Greece, such as former times had probably never afforded 
 an adequate occasion of investigating. But he still cherished a 
 desire that some other method would be discovered of accounting 
 for these mischiefs than that of charging them upon the popular 
 institutions of the country. In consequence of Turkish domina- 
 tion in Greece, it was the class called upon to govern in that 
 country which was defective, far more than the class to be
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 397 
 
 governed. The first duty of the English Government would be to 
 ascertain the facts absolutely, and then comprehensively to con- 
 sider the obligations which arose. In the House of Lords the 
 Earl of Carnarvon whose cousin, Mr. Herbert, had been killed 
 demanded ' a full, clear, perfectly just trial of every single per- 
 son, no matter what his rank or class, against whom there could 
 be any fair suspicion of complicity with these foul murders.' 
 Ultimately, several brigands were executed, and the band imme- 
 diately implicated was nearly extirpated. The English Govern- 
 ment did not see their way to more active interference, and before 
 the close of the year, events of still greater magnitude than this 
 diabolical outrage absorbed the public attention. 
 
 In July, 1870, broke out the war between France and Prussia, 
 which resulted in the complete prostration of the former. Much 
 of the responsibility for the conflict was due to the precipita- 
 tion and the eagerness for war manifested by the French Emperor 
 and the French people. England could not view such a contest 
 without apprehension, chiefly on the score of Belgium whose 
 proximity to both combatants rendered her an object of great 
 solicitude. The English Grovermnent, however, speedily issued 
 a proclamation of neutrality, a policy obviously dictated by the 
 circumstances of the case. This policy was adhered to, but it 
 laid us open to the unreasonable strictures of the Grerman people. 
 We had been successful, with the aid of others, in procuring the 
 withdrawal of the nomination of the Prince of Hohenzollern to 
 the Spanish Crown by Prussia ; but diplomatic relations between 
 that country and France were already greatly strained, and the 
 alleged insults to M. Benedetti, at Ems, led to the hostile initia- 
 tive being taken by France. 
 
 The declaration of war produced great excitement in England, 
 and this excitement was intensified by the publication in the 
 Times of a draft treaty between Count Bismarck and M. Bene- 
 detti, the French Minister at Berlin. This proposed compact 
 between France and Prussia was regarded as a direct menace to 
 England by the former Power France looking forward to the 
 acquisition of Belgium for herself. The publication of the treaty 
 was due to Prince Bismarck, who hoped to procure thereby Eng- 
 land and Belgium as Grerman allies. Mr. Gladstone, in the House 
 of Commons, admitted that the Government had been taken by 
 surprise by this treaty, whose gravity had not, in the slightest 
 degree, been over-estimated. He awaited, however, declarations 
 from the French and Prussian Governments. France at first 
 denied the authenticity of the document, but this she after- 
 wards admitted. The moment was an anxious one for England, 
 but the Premier refrained from adopting a high-handed policy,
 
 398 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 although he asked Parliament for two millions of money and 
 twenty thousand additional men demands readily acceded to. 
 
 Immediately before the prorogation of Parliament, Mr. Disraeli 
 pressed the Government to make known its intentions, and Mr. 
 Gladstone's reply was criticised as unsatisfactory. He objected to 
 the idea of ' armed neutrality,' as inconsistent with that ' unequi- 
 vocal friendliness to both parties ' which England was anxious to 
 maintain. The Belgian difficulty received no exposition, but Mr. 
 Gladstone concluded by saying that the country had adequate 
 forces, and he believed that the Government would be able to 
 maintain such a dignified and friendly position as would cany 
 with it no suspicion, and would not, under the idea of securing 
 safety, introduce new elements of danger and disturbance. Eng- 
 land hoped, at some happy moment, to be, either alone or along 
 with others, the chosen bearer of a message of peace. In the 
 House of Lords, Earl Granville was more emphatic and explicit, 
 declaring that England meant to be true and faithful to all her 
 treaty engagements. A new and triple treaty was signed by 
 England, Prussia, and France, recording their determination to 
 maintain intact the independence and neutrality of Belgium, as 
 provided in the Quintuple Treaty of 1839. This new engagement 
 was to be binding for one year after the cessation of the Franco- 
 Prussian war, and then the signatories were to fall back upon the 
 Treaty of 1839. The general policy of the Government upon this 
 important question was endorsed by the country, though 
 complaints were made of the unnecessary reticence of the 
 Prime Minister, 
 
 We cannot dismiss this important session of 1870 without a 
 brief reference to certain legislative and other changes which were 
 effected. By an Order in Council it was directed that from the 
 31st of August next ensuing all entrance appointments to situa- 
 tions in all Civil Departments of the State, except the Foreign 
 Office and posts requiring professional knowledge, should be 
 filled by open competition. The Royal prerogative which asserted 
 that the General Commanding-in-Chief is the agent of the Crown 
 was abolished, and that distinguished personage was formally 
 declared to be a subordinate of the Minister of War. Some diffi- 
 culty was anticipated in this matter, but her Majesty frankly 
 and promptly surrendered her privileges, and all danger of a 
 collision with Parliament was thereby averted. A new Foreign 
 Enlistment Act was passed, which enabled the Government to 
 prohibit the building as well as the escape of Alabamas, but 
 compelled the Admiralty to release them on receipt of a bond to 
 the effect that they were not to be employed for any illegal work. 
 The disfranchisement of Bridgwater, Beverley, Sligo, and Cashel
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEALISM. 399 
 
 was decreed. An Act was passed removing the disabilities of 
 clergymen who abandon the clerical profession ; and an Act was 
 also passed modifying the Law of Married Women's Property. 
 Finally, the half-penny postage for newspapers was instituted, 
 while the half-penny card was also introduced. 
 
 The release of the Fenian prisoners was a matter which 
 attracted considerable attention. Mr. Gladstone wrote to the 
 Lord Mayor of Dublin, announcing the intention of the Govern- 
 ment to release the Fenian prisoners then undergoing sentences for 
 treason or treason-felony, on condition of their not remaining in, 
 or returning to, the United Kingdom. The Premier, alluding 
 to the enormity of their offences, said that the same principles 
 of justice which dictated their sentences would amply sanction 
 the prolongation of their imprisonment if the public security 
 demanded it. 'It is this last question, therefore, which has 
 formed the subject of careful examination by her Majesty's 
 Government, and they have been able to come to the conclusion 
 that, under the existing circumstances of the country, the release 
 of the prisoners, guarded by the condition which I have stated, 
 will be perfectly compatible with the paramount interests of 
 public safety, and, being so, will tend to strengthen the cause 
 of peace and loyalty in Ireland.' This decision on the part of 
 the Government was very generally approved by the press and 
 the country, though the condition placed upon the amnesty was 
 variously viewed, being severely condemned by one section of the 
 people, and regarded as a wise restriction by the great majority.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM (concluded) . 
 
 The Black Sea Treaty Mr. Disraeli on Foreign Affairs Reply of Mr. Gladstone 
 Debate on the Policy of the Government Marriage Grant to the Princess Louise 
 Alarming Condition of Ireland Mr. Gladstone's Defence of the Government 
 The Army Regulation Bill Abolition of Purchase Mr. Cardwell's Scheme 
 Debated in the Commons The Opposition defeated The Bill rejected in the 
 Lords The Premier abolishes Purchase by Royal Warrant The step severely 
 criticised Vote of Censure in the Lords Sir Roundell Palmer approves the 
 Royal Warrant The Ballot Bill Rejected by the Lords Other Questions dis- 
 cussed Mr. Miall's Motion for the Disestablishment of the Church of England 
 Opposed by Mr. Gladstone, and rejected Conclusion of the Treaty of Wash- 
 ington Miscellaneous Questions Mr. Lowe's Match Tax Mr. Brace's Licens- 
 ing Bill, &c. The Government and Epping Forest Mr. Gladstone on his Reli- 
 gion The Home Rule Agitation Speech of the Premier Waning Popularity 
 of the Ministry Mr. Gladstone's Address on Blackheath A striking Scene 
 Defence of the Government Policy The Constitution of the House of Lords A 
 new social Movement The Future of England Parliamentary History of th& 
 Year 1871 Legislative Achievements of the Gladstone Administration. 
 
 WHEN the session of 1871 opened, difficulties had already begun 
 to gather round the Gladstone Government, though it was destined 
 to accomplish other great reforms ere it fell before the treacherous 
 wave of public opinion. The most important question discussed 
 at an early period was that concerning the Black Sea Treaty. 
 Taking advantage of the altered circumstances of Europe, the 
 Emperor of Russia declined any longer to recognise the neutrali- 
 sation of the Black Sea, and withdrew from the naval convention, 
 at the same time restoring to the Sultan the full exercise of his 
 rights, and duly informing the other Powers concerned of hia 
 action. The Czar further declared that he had no wish to re-open 
 the Eastern Question, that he adhered to the principles of the 
 treaty as fixing the position of Turkey, and that he was ready to 
 enter into any understanding to this effect with the other Powers. 
 After much diplomatic negotiation, a conference of the Powers 
 was held in London, when the neutralisation of the Black Sea was 
 abrogated, and the Porte permitted to open the Dardanelles and 
 the Bosphorus to the vessels of war of friendly and allied Powers, 
 in case the Government of the Sultan should think it necessary 
 to do so in order to ensure the execution of the Treaty of 1856. 
 The European Commission of the Danube was also prolonged for
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 401 
 
 twelve years, and the works already made, or to tie made, on that 
 river neutralised, with, however, the reservation to the Porte of its 
 right to send ships of war into the river. 
 
 In the debate on the Address, Mr. Disraeli reviewed the state 
 of foreign affairs generally. He thought that England should 
 have made more of the guarantee to Prussia of her Saxon pro- 
 vinces, given us by the Treaty of Vienna, and also, as regarded 
 France, of the concession obtained from Prussia as to the Hohen- 
 zollern candidature. He was sarcastic at the expense of the 
 Government - upon our attenuated armaments, which rendered 
 ' armed neutrality ' on our part so difficult. After paying left- 
 handed compliments to Mr. Childers, Mr. Cardwell, and Mr. 
 Lowe upon their economy, the right hon. gentleman ridiculed 
 our proceedings in the matter of the Eussian Note, and expressed 
 his belief that there was a secret treaty between Germany and 
 Eussia. At the close of his amusing survey, while not prepared 
 to propose an amendment, Mr. Disraeli said that he did not think 
 the state of affairs to be devoid of peril, and all must admit the 
 position to be critical. Mr. Gladstone, in reply, maintained that 
 there was not a shadow of foundation for the accusations which 
 had been made. The Ministry had no knowledge of the coming 
 storm until it broke around them. With regard to the arma- 
 ments of the country, they had been greatly increased in efficiency 
 since the Conservatives went out of office in 1868; and the 
 Premier rallied the leader of the Opposition on the close resem- 
 blance between his conception of a ' bloated armament ' in 1861,. 
 and his conception of an 'attenuated armament' in 1871. As 
 to the binding character of the guarantee of Prussia's Saxon 
 provinces, given in 1815, Mr. Gladstone showed the fallacy of 
 this from the exposition of the Government of which his opponent 
 was a member, touching the character of a joint guarantee as 
 exemplified in the Luxemburg guarantee of 1868. He further 
 declared, respecting the Eussian Note, that neither Lord Claren- 
 don nor Lord Palmerston had ever believed that the neutralisa- 
 tion of the Black Sea could be more than temporary, assured the 
 House that England would not have had a single ally among the 
 neutral Powers if she had proposed simply to insist on this neutral- 
 isation when the Eussian Note appeared, Austria being entirely 
 opposed to that course ; and he denied that we had made any 
 sort of special appeal for help to Germany, having merely notified 
 our course to Germany as to other Powers. England had tradi- 
 tions and obligations which she would never abandon ; but he hoped 
 she would never be guilty of the folly of supposing that she could 
 improve her condition in the face of Europe by setting up 
 imaginary interests which she did not possess. He saw no special 
 
 D D
 
 40& WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 or near peril to England, whom he was desirous of making strong, 
 but he admitted the possibility that the neutral Powers might 
 find it necessary to express an opinion upon the terms of peace. 
 
 Some days later, Mr. Disraeli again returned to the subject of 
 the Black Sea Treaty, and strongly condemned the assembling of 
 a conference merely to register the humiliation of Great Britain. 
 Mr. Gladstone replied with some warmth to the taunt that 
 there was a foregone conclusion in his mind, when the conference 
 met, fatal to the honour of the country. He had never denied 
 that the neutralisation of the Black Sea was a vital part of the 
 Paris Treaty, but only that it was exclusively vital. He acknow- 
 ledged his error as to Lord Clarendon's view of the neutralisation 
 condition, but he still believed that Lord Palmerston, while 
 attaching great importance to it, did not think it was one which 
 could be permanently enforced. With regard to Mr. Disraeli's 
 condemnation of the Government policy, Mr. Gladstone said 
 that, with one great quarrel and controversy raging in Europe, 
 the right hon. gentleman would have recommended them to keep 
 open another, and not to take any means to arrive at an amicable 
 solution of the question. Such was the policy which his wisdom 
 and resources suggested to him. But the Government had been 
 desirous to keep together, if possible, in harmony and co-opera- 
 tion, the neutral influences in Europe, in the hope that in some 
 happy moment they might be able to contract that range of 
 misery and destruction which they had long seen extending. 
 
 Another debate shortly afterwards took place upon our foreign 
 relations, on a motion by Mr. Auberon Herbert, ' That this House 
 is of opinion that it is the duty of her Majesty's Government to 
 act in concert with othel- neutral Powers to obtain moderate 
 terms of peace, and to withhold all acquiescence in terms which 
 might impair the independence of France, or threaten the future 
 tranquillity of Europe.' Sir Kobert Peel vigorously assailed the 
 policy of the Government. It was one in which ' we ventured * 
 to do this, and ' we ventured ' to do that all through language 
 which he respectfully submitted to the House was not of the kind 
 which Lord Palmerston would have used. It was unworthy of a 
 great and powerful nation. Mr. -Gladstone denied that the atti- 
 tude of the Government had been one of selfish isolation. To 
 inquiries as to the possibility of concerted action with Russia, an 
 answer was received that it was impossible. Owing to the unto- 
 ward reception of this overture and the appearance of the Russian 
 Note, Lord Granville could not further develop the idea of media- 
 tion. He (Mr. Gladstone) admitted that an extorted peace was 
 one of the alternatives we had to fear, and that the greater mag- 
 nanimity shown by the victor the better would it, be, not only for
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEALISM. 403 
 
 France and Europe, but for the interests of Germany. Neither 
 of the belligerents desired intervention ; on the contrary, they 
 rather thought the premature offer of our good offices might be 
 prejudicial. ' England had no cause to be discontented with her 
 position in Europe ; but he warned the House not to set too high 
 a value on the sole influence of England, for the strength of 
 neutrals' action was that they should be all represented. Hi 
 reiterated his statement that the conditions of peace were a matter 
 of watchful concern to the neutrals, and added that it would be 
 a noble addition to the great deeds of this country, if it should 
 be able to mitigate the necessarily severe conditions of peace so 
 as to make them conducive to a permanent settlement.' Express- 
 ing himself satisfied with Mr. Gladstone's statement respecting 
 the position of England, Mr. Herbert withdrew his motion. 
 
 Before dealing with the great question of the session the aboli- 
 tion of Purchase in the Army several other topics of interest 
 claim attention. The proposed grant to the Princess Louise on 
 her marriage roused the opposition of some members of the House, 
 who affirmed that they represented the sentiments of a consider- 
 able number of the people. In view of this opposition, Mr. Glad 
 stone's speech on moving the grant was fuller and more argu- 
 mentative than had usually been the case on such occasions. The 
 resolution provided an annuity of 6,000 to her Royal Highness, 
 and a grant of 30,000. The Premier stated that the Queen, in 
 marrying her daughter to one of her own subjects, had followed 
 her womanly and motherly instincts, and she had been supported 
 by the advice of her responsible Ministers. Having defended the 
 moderate nature of the provision, and passed a high eulogium 
 upon the economical management of the Royal household, Mr. 
 Gladstone affirmed that the Civil List, when settled at the com- 
 mencement of her Majesty's reign, did not contemplate provisions 
 of this nature, nor was it convenient that it should. Although 
 the Crown Lands now produced an income only about equal to 
 the Civil List, if they were managed in the same manner as a 
 private estate, they would put the Sovereign in possession of the 
 largest income in the country. But there was a still higher ground 
 than this why the proposition should be supported, viz., the poli- 
 tical importance which attached to supporting the dignity of the 
 Crown in a becoming manner. The speaker also dwelt upon the 
 value of a stable dynasty, and on the unwisdom of making pecu- 
 niary calculations of a minute nature upon such occasions. When 
 the resolution for the marriage portion came to be reported, it was 
 opposed by Mr. P. A. Taylor, supported by Mr. Disraeli, and 
 carried by the singular majority of 350 votes against 1. 
 
 The condition of affairs in Ireland, and especially the spread 
 
 DD2
 
 404 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTOXK. 
 
 of an agrarian conspiracy in Westmeath, compelled the Govern- 
 ment to move for a committee to inquire into the unlawful com- 
 bination and confederacy existing in Westmeath and adjoining- 
 parts of Meath and King's County. Lord Hartington, Chief 
 Secretary for Ireland, in moving for the committee, admitted 
 that it was with feelings of painful dismay that he did so, but 
 he proceeded to explain that the lawless condition of things 
 indicated in a certain quarter was no criterion of the general 
 condition of Ireland. Crime had subsided in the country, and the 
 constabulary reports exhibited a marked improvement. West- 
 meath and the parts immediately adjacent, however, formed a 
 terrible exception to the general rule, and the state of things 
 having become intolerable, a committee was required to secure a 
 thorough investigation of the case, and to satisfy the House that 
 when the Government asked for any further powers their demand 
 was justified by necessity. Mr. Disraeli was severely sarcastic 
 at the expense of the Government, which had expressed its dis- 
 may at Ribandism. Referring to past legislation for Ireland, be 
 observed that the Chief Secretary should have come forward and 
 said, c It is true that murder is perpetrated with impunity ; it is 
 true that life is not secure, and that property has no enjoyment 
 and scarcely any existence ; but this is nothing when in the 
 enjoyment of abstract political justice and by the labours of two 
 years we have achieved that for Ireland ; massacres, incendiarism, 
 and assassinations .are things scarcely to be noticed by a Minister, 
 and are rather to be referred to the inquiry of a committee.' 
 The right hon. gentleman added that the people of England, 
 being persuaded with regard to Irish politics that Mr. Gladstone 
 was in possession of the philosopher's stone, had returned him to 
 the House with an immense majority, with the express object of 
 seeming the tranquillity and content of Ireland. Neither time, 
 labour, nor devotion had been begrudged him ; ' under his influ- 
 ence, and at his instance, we have legalised confiscation, 
 consecrated sacrilege, and condoned high treason; we have 
 destroyed churches, we have shaken property to its foundation 
 and have emptied gaols ; and now he cannot govern the country, 
 without coming to a Parliamentary committee ! The right hon. 
 gentleman, after all his heroic exploits, and at the head of his 
 great majority, is making Government ridiculous.' Mr. Hardy 
 also bitterly denounced the policy of the Government. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, having administered a rebuke to Mr. Hardy for 
 his heated language in describing murder as ' stalking abroad,' 
 and the Government as ' becoming contemptible,' announced that 
 the Ministry could not, consistently with their sense of public 
 duty, withdraw the motion for a committee. He was glad that
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 405 
 
 Mr. Disraeli, who had formerly told the House deliberately from 
 his place that the consequences of disestablishment would be more 
 formidable and destructive than those of foreign conquest, had 
 now got down to expressions so moderate and judicial as that the 
 Government had ' legalised confiscation and consecrated sacrilege.' 
 Ministers asked the House to assist them in the elucidation and 
 establishment of facts, but the committee was also necessary from 
 the fact that they desired to prove not only acts that were done 
 but acts that were not done, and to show how the system of ter- 
 rorism was applied to all the transactions of private life. Much 
 valuable information could be obtained, but only on the condition 
 that those giving it were protected against its publicity. Turn- 
 ing upon Mr. Disraeli, the Premier made an effective point by 
 remarking upon his rival's admission that in the year 1852 he did 
 not adopt the means which he believed most suitable for the pro- 
 tection of life and property in three counties of Ireland, because 
 the Government was weak. ' If the defences of the Government 
 are weak, and the number of troops insufficient, is a Government 
 to make it an apology for departing from the first principles of 
 duty that they sit upon this bench, that they want to sit upon 
 this bench, and therefore cannot propose measures which, in their 
 opinion, principle justifies, and the safety of thecountry demands ?' 
 Mr. Gladstone concluded by observing that, acting upon the 
 immediate elementary obligations of a Government, at all hazards 
 to secure personal peace and freedom in the transactions of life, 
 they submitted their proposal to the House, and were confident 
 it would receive the approval of its reflective and deliberate 
 judgment. 
 
 During the debate, Mr. Osborne, in a humorous speech, 
 described the Cabinet as consisting chiefly of * Whig marionettes.' 
 Alluding to the changes which had taken place in its composition, 
 he said the Cabinet had been lately whitewashed that is, its 
 members had been shuffled, and they had come back in the old 
 military position of 'As you were.' In his principle of selection,. 
 the First Minister, if he had a choice, was in favour of Whig 
 marionettes of the most approved pattern, while he himself held 
 the official wire. He could not help thinking, when he looked 
 through the long and dreary list of gentlemen who bowed to the 
 presiding genius, there was written over the doors of the Cabinet, 
 * No Irish need apply.' The Solicitor-General for Ireland replied 
 to this speech in a similar vein. Alluding to Mr. Osborne's 
 complaint that the Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant had been 
 transferred to the treadmill of the Board of Trade, he observed, 
 *I apprehend that the hon. gentleman would be very glad to 
 work upon that treadmill himself, and I take the liberty of
 
 40(J WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 saying confidentially that in less than eighteen months he would 
 not only become a silent but a grateful member of the Govern- 
 ment.' With regard to Mr. Osborne's feeling of satisfaction that 
 be had an Irish seat in the House, Mr. Dowse said, ' The hon. 
 member is an Irishman pro re nata ; he is an Irishman for the 
 present, and will continue one until the next general election. 
 Having said so much for the hon. member, I promise him, if he 
 gives me another opportunity, to be more liberal in my acknow- 
 ledgments of his efforts for throwing light on the subject of 
 debate.' The Solicitor-General concluded by adducing arguments 
 in support of the policy of the Government. At the close of 
 the debate, the motion for a select committee was carried by a 
 large majority. The appointment of this committee was fully 
 justified by subsequent events. 
 
 We now come to the Army Regulation Bill of the Government, 
 which was introduced by Mr. Cardwell. The country having pro- 
 nounced in favour of the abolition of the purchase system, this 
 was the chief feature of the measure introduced by the Secretary 
 at War. In moving the usual army estimates, the Minister 
 explained the nature of the new scheme of army re-organisation. 
 He stated that the Government, agreeing with Lord Derby that it 
 would be cheapest to pay for our military labour, would not recom- 
 mend compulsory service, but there would be clauses in the bill 
 enabling the Government to raise any number of men upon neces- 
 sity. After considering the various methods as to how our forces 
 were to be raised, the Ministry had decided to propose the aboli- 
 tion of the purchase system. The necessity of accepting a system 
 of retirement and promotion by selection as distinguished by 
 seniority followed this decision, as well as the payment of a large 
 sum of money by way of compensation, which he calculated would 
 range from 7,400,000 to 8,400,000. The bill fixed a day after 
 which no pecuniary interest would be taken by any one in any 
 new commission ; but no officer would be the worse in a pecuniary 
 sense by the abolition of purchase. A commission would be 
 appointed to ascertain the over-regulation price in every regiment, 
 and with money from the Consolidated Fund would stand in the 
 place of a purchaser to the officer who wished to sell out, to retire 
 on half-pay, &c. The number allowed to retire each year would 
 Ixj limited to the average of the last five years. As to first com- 
 missions, they would be given without purchase to the general 
 public by competitive examination, to subalterns of militia regi- 
 ments after two years' good service, and, as before, to non-com- 
 missioned officers. These were the leading features of a measure 
 whose minor details were explained with great minuteness by Mr. 
 Cardwell.
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 407 
 
 It was not to be expected that so great a change in the consti- 
 tution of the army could be effected without opposition. Accord- 
 ingly, on the motion for the second reading of the bill, Colonel 
 Loyd-Lindsay proposed a resolution declaring that the expendi- 
 ture necessary for the national defences did not at present justify 
 any vote of public money for the extinction of purchase. The 
 resolution was influentially supported, and many arguments were 
 adduced in favour of the retention of the existing system. During 
 the debate Sir J. Pakington severely criticised the measure, which 
 he described as ' a costly party project and a sop to democracy,' 
 and attacked Mr. Trevelyan for circulating ' trash,' which by dint 
 of continual repetition had come to be believed. Mr. Trevelyan, 
 who had, perhaps, done more than any other man to ' educate ' 
 his country upon this question, replied with spirit, and quoted the 
 case of Havelock, who declared that he was sick for years in wait- 
 ing for his promotion ; ' that three sots and two fools had pur- 
 chased over him, and that if he had no family to support he would 
 not serve another hour.' The hon. member for the Border Burghs 
 warned the Opposition that if the defeat of the bill brought on a 
 dissolution, ' Abolition of Purchase ' would be an excellent hust- 
 ings' cry. Mr. Disraeli was in favour of moulding the bill in com- 
 mittee, and urged Col. Loyd-Lindsay to withdraw his motion. Mr. 
 Gladstone, however, announced that Government would insist 
 upon the amendment being negatived. The speech of Mr. Dis- 
 raeli he regarded as a landmark in the history of this question, 
 as it admitted that this was the first proposition which had ever 
 attempted to weld into one harmonious whole the three great 
 arms intended for the defence of the country. The bill contained 
 so much of the programme of the Government as needed legisla- 
 tion. Its product would answer to the standard of our require- 
 ments, which demanded a small army highly trained, and a large 
 army of reserve ready at any moment. With regard to the reserves, 
 they should not be drawn from the militia, but should consist of 
 seasoned men, regularly trained, corresponding to the German 
 Landwehr. He hoped that Mr. Disraeli's declaration against pur- 
 chase would have its full weight, and he proceeded to justify Mr. 
 Cardwell's decision to sweep away the whole system by paying off 
 over-regulation as well as regulation prices. He opposed the idea 
 of an increase ot pay when purchase was abolished, a cry which 
 had no reason on its side. The best security for the emolument!* 
 of the officers, and for a fair system of retirement, was the neces- 
 sity on the part of the country of attracting the best men into its 
 army. Dealing with the idea that, after purchase had been abol- 
 ished, almost everything would remain as it was, Mr. Gladstone 
 said that if the purchase system was to be abolished at this great
 
 408 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 cost he would almost call it this vast cost the reason why it 
 was to be abolished was that the whole position of the officers of 
 the army might be fully and freely considered, and might be sub- 
 jected to review in all respects where it should seem susceptible 
 of improvement. The idea was to have the very best men and the 
 very best officers ; but they were not to go into the army by com- 
 pulsion, they were to go into it by free choice. The Government 
 would go into committee expecting, even inviting, criticism, and 
 would look for a spirit of co-operation in all those who were desir- 
 ous of adjusting the clauses of the bill. They had an object of the 
 highest and purest patriotism, viz., to secure that in the future, 
 if possible even more than in the past, the British army should 
 be and remain worthy of the British nation. 
 
 The amendment was negatived, and the bill read a second 
 time. On going into committee, Mr. Mundella moved a resolu- 
 tion to the effect i That this House, whilst approving the abolition 
 of purchase in the army, is of opinion that the army may be put 
 in a state of efficiency without increasing the ordinary military 
 estimates of last year.' He asked why they should not have 
 more organisation, instead of the cry of more men and more 
 money. When the American war was at its worst, and everybody 
 was crying out for t more men,' the poet Lowell wrote : 
 
 ' More men ! More men that's where we fail, 
 Weak things grow weaker yet by lengthening ; 
 What is the use of adding to the tail, 
 When its the head's in want of strengthening ? ' 
 
 The motion was seconded by Mr. Pease, who inveighed strongly 
 against the increase of army expenditure, and appealed to the 
 Prime Minister to reconsider the retrograde step he was now 
 taking ; it was unsound, economically ; politically an error. 
 It was also an immoral proceeding, internationally, for this 
 country to set the example of a large military expenditure. Mr. 
 Gladstone said he understood the motion to mean that between 
 2,750,000 and 3,000,000 ought to be taken off the estimates 
 before the House, and that this might be done without impairing 
 the efficiency of the army. He was not prepared to accede to 
 that proposition. The speeches of the two hon. members were 
 rather in favour of retrenchment generally, than in support of 
 the particular motion before the House. Now, after allowing 
 for the increase which had arisen this year in the military 
 expenditure, the total defensive expenditure for the year would 
 exhibit a sum to the credit of the Government estimates of 
 between 600,000 and 800,000. At the same time, he would 
 not have it supposed that the prolonged scale of military expen- 
 diture, which the circumstances and exigencies of the time
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEALISM. 409 
 
 required, would become the normal measure of the military 
 expenditure of the country. After going through the various 
 charges, Mr. Gladstone said that his hon. friends need not appre- 
 hend for a moment that the Government were more disposed 
 than they had heretofore shown themselves to encourage unneces- 
 sary alarm, that they were less sensible of the duty and the value 
 of endeavouring to retrench public expenditure, or that they were 
 less disposed, and, so far as depended upon them, less determined 
 to apply that principle, according to the varying exigencies of 
 the time, with a firm and steady hand during the period, whether 
 it were long or short, that they might have the honour to 
 administer the affairs of the country. In the end, Mr. Mundella's 
 motion was defeated by 294 to 91. 
 
 There still remained before the Government the great task of 
 abolishing Purchase in the Army. Their labours were facilitated 
 by a recent report of a Royal commission, to the effect that the 
 practice of bargaining for commissions was inseparable from the 
 permission to buy them ; but there was one great obstacle to the 
 proposed abolition in the fact that an expenditure of several mil- 
 lions would be immediately necessary. This part of the Govern- 
 ment scheme was warmly opposed by the military members of 
 the House, and an amendment against it was moved by Colonel 
 Loyd-Lindsay. That officer, however, withdrew his motion at the 
 request of Mr. Disraeli ; but the clauses of the bill continued to 
 be discussed with great persistency and at undue length. After 
 several months had elapsed, leaving little prospect of the bill 
 being passed in its entirety, the Government were driven to state 
 that they would only insist on the purchase clauses, and the 
 transfer of power over the Militia and Volunteers from the Lords- 
 Lieutenant to the Crown. Mr. Disraeli sharply criticised the 
 policy of the Government, stating that he had only approved the 
 abolition of purchase a? a means towards the re-organisation of the 
 army, which had now been abandoned. Mr. Gladstone replied 
 that the abolition of purchase had always been the chief feature 
 of the Government scheme, and that they must and would clear 
 the ground for re-organisation by abolishing it, as well as the 
 privilege of the Lords-Lieutenant. The bill accordingly passed 
 through committee. Besides securing the leading points just 
 indicated, it restored to the State the government of the army, 
 enabled Parliament to fix from year to year the number of the 
 militia, authorised Government to insist on six months' continuous 
 training as the condition of entering that force, and rendered 
 volunteers when under training in the camps subject to the Mutiny 
 Act. 
 
 Much speculation arose upon the probable reception of the
 
 410 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 measure by the House of Lords, and at a meeting of Conserva- 
 tive peers held at the Carlton Club attended only by a section 
 of the party, however it was resolved to oppose the bill. On its 
 being brought forward, the Duke of Richmond moved that the 
 House should not pass the second reading until it had before it a 
 comprehensive plan. Lord Sandhurst defended the bill, but the 
 great majority of the speeches delivered were antagonistic to it. 
 Lord Salisbury said it was the duty of the House to protect the 
 country against rash and imperfect legislation, and he exhorted 
 i heir lordships not to abandon the army to the influence of com- 
 bined senility and corruption. The bill was urged forward by the 
 Prime Mnister to redeem the barrenness of a useless session. 
 Lord Granville besought the House to pause ere it placed itself 
 in collision with the Commons. Eventually the bill was rejected 
 by 155 to 130 ; but as regarded actual peers of the realm the 
 Government had a majority of one. The measure was defeated by 
 the Scotch and Irish representative peers, 29 of whom voted or 
 paired with the Opposition, and only three for the Government. 
 This decision was distasteful to the country, and it was gene- 
 rally felt that the question could not be suffered thus to remain 
 shelved. It was reserved, however, for the Prime Minister to dis- 
 cover a way out of the difficulty which was as extraordinary and 
 unexpected as it was effectual. On the 20th of July, in answer- 
 ing a question addressed to him by Sir George Grey, Mr. Glad- 
 stone announced that the Government had resolved to advise her 
 Majesty to take the decisive step of cancelling the Royal warrant 
 under which purchase was legal. That advice was accepted by 
 her Majesty, and a new warrant had been framed in terms con- 
 formable with the law. It was consequently his duty, on the 
 part of the Government, to state that, after the 1st of November 
 ensuing, purchase in the army would no longer exist. When 
 the cheers which followed this announcement had subsided, Mr. 
 Gladstone went on to say that, under the altered circumstances 
 of the case, it was not for them to indicate what course the House 
 of Lords should pursue. In considering this matter, the Govern- 
 ment had had no other object in view but simplicity, despatch, 
 the observance of constitutional usage, and the speedy termina- 
 tion of a state of suspense which they thought most injurious 
 he would not say dangerous to the army, and calculated to delay 
 the progress of a measure that was likely, in their judgment, to- 
 do full justice to the fair pecuniary claims of the officers, and the 
 loss of which might make it difficult to find means of doing 
 justice to those claims. It would not be becoming or appropriate 
 to forecast what course Ministers should take in case they were 
 to fail in prosecuting the bill to its legitimate conclusion. But
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 4H 
 
 one thing it was his duty to state on the pg,rt of the Government, 
 viz., that they would use the best means in their power, mindful 
 of the honourable pledges they had given, to secure at the hands 
 of Parliament just and liberal terms for the officers of the army. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli described this exercise of prerogative as a very 
 high-handed course he would not say then illegal course, as he 
 reserved that point for future consideration. He was checked by 
 the Speaker for denouncing the Ministerial policy as ' part of an 
 avowed and a shameful conspiracy against the undoubted pri- 
 vileges of the other House of Parliament.' Having withdrawn 
 these words, he went on to maintain that no Minister acted in a 
 wise manner who, on finding himself baffled in passing a measure 
 which he believed to be of importance, came forward and told the 
 House that he would defy the opinion of Parliament, and who 
 appealed to the prerogative of the Crown to assist him in the 
 difficulties which he had himself created. 
 
 When the Koyal warrant came on for discussion in the Lords, 
 the Duke of Richmond moved to add the following words : ' That 
 this House, in assenting to the second reading of this bill, desires 
 to express its opinion that the interposition of the Executive 
 during the progress of a measure submitted to Parliament by her 
 Majesty's Government, in order to attain by the exercise of the 
 prerogative, and without the aid of Parliament, the principal 
 object included in that measure, is calculated to depreciate and 
 neutralise the independent action of the Legislature, and is 
 strongly to be condemned : and this House assents to the second 
 reading of this bill only in order to secure the officers of her 
 Majesty's army compensation to which they are entitled, con- 
 sequent on the abolition of purchase in the army.' Lord Salis- 
 bury delivered another bitter speech, and said that although Lord 
 Grranville had been made the most reluctant instrument of insult- 
 ing the order to which he belonged, their lordships knew the 
 dictator under whom he served. The noble marquis asked whether 
 it was worth while to retain their power by uniformly acting 
 against their convictions. Lord Eomilly stated that he joined 
 with considerable pain the Opposition peers upon this question ; 
 but the Duke of Somerset (who had frequently opposed the 
 measures of the GrovernmentJ said that purchase must go, and 
 no other course than that which they had adopted was really open 
 to the Ministry. After speeches from Lord Russell, Lord Cairns, 
 and the Lord Chancellor, the vote of censure was carried by a 
 majority of 80. The bill itself passed without a division. When 
 the measure came to be discussed in the Commons, after its return 
 from the Lords, there was a wide difference of opinion upon the 
 legal aspects of the question between Sir R. Collier, the Attorney-
 
 412 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 General, and Sir J. D. Coleridge, the Solicitor-General. This 
 divergence caused Mr. Harcourt to ask, amidst laughter from 
 both sides of the House, which horse the Government intended to 
 win with the Attorney-General on ' Statute,' or the Solicitor- 
 General on Prerogative' ? Mr. Harcourt nevertheless cordially 
 supported the issue of the warrant ; it was the statute, he held, not 
 the Royal warrant, which would make purchase illegal. Mr. Faw- 
 cett spoke strongly against the resort to prerogative, and said that 
 if this act had been done by a Tory Ministry, it would have been 
 passionately denounced by Mr. Gladstone amid the applause of 
 the whole Liberal party. The Premier, in defending his policy, 
 said that to have proceeded by warrant in the outset would have 
 assumed that the House of Commons of its own authority could 
 compensate persons who had habitually broken the law. As to 
 the argument that the consideration for which the House had 
 agreed to pay a large sum of money had disappeared from the 
 bill, and that purchase might be revived as it had been abolished, 
 the Lords were responsible for this, and he was content to trust 
 to the vigilance of the House of Commons to prevent any such 
 act. With regard to the question whether he had advised the 
 Crown to issue the warrant on statute or by prerogative, Mr. Glad- 
 stone replied that he had advised her Majesty that she was in 
 possession of a legal power, and that an adequate necessity 
 existed for exercising it. Although there were precedents for it, 
 he did not deny that it was a grave proceeding ; but the great 
 justification for it was the impossibility of otherwise putting a 
 stop to the flagrant and crying evil of over-regulation prices. As 
 to the censure of the House of Lords, while he did not under- 
 value it, he appealed to the public opinion of the country for his 
 exculpation. 
 
 The absence of Sir Roundell Palmer from these debates having 
 been frequently commented upon, on the last day of the session 
 a letter was read from that eminent Liberal lawyer approving of 
 the issue of the Royal warrant. Such a warrant was within the 
 undoubted power of the Crown; and after recapitulating the 
 existing circumstances, Sir Roundell Palmer said he thought the 
 issue of the warrant was the least objectionable course which the 
 Government could pursue. The measure passed; and greatly 
 diversified as were the opinions of the people upon the method 
 by which the abolition of purchase was secured, all were agreed 
 in a short time as to the substantial wisdom of the Act itself. 
 
 Another measure which was discussed this session with great 
 asperity was the Ballot Bill. A considerable section of the 
 Conservative party resolved to obstruct the passage of the 
 measure with every available weapon in their power. Mr.
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LEBEEALISM. 413 
 
 Gladstone, who supported the bill, said it must and should pass 
 the Commons before the session was concluded ; and the Opposi- 
 tion, in order to defeat his purpose, delivered portentous speeches 
 against the measure, whose relevancy it was sometimes impossible 
 to discover. For nearly six weeks this warfare continued, but at 
 length the bill was carried, though a skeleton only of the original 
 scheme. In the Lords the bill met with scant courtesy, being 
 rejected by 97 votes to 48. Many Liberal peers stayed away, and 
 others voted against the measure on the ground of the late period 
 of the session. A second question of importance, that of 
 University Tests, was settled during the session. Mr. Gladstone 
 introduced a bill substantially the same as that which the Lords 
 had rejected the previous year. On the question again being 
 remitted to the Upper House, Lord Salisbury carried an amend- 
 ment of a religious nature striking at the root of the bill. This 
 was disagreed with by the Commons, and ultimately the Lords 
 themselves disavowed it by 128 to 89, and the bill, as it finally 
 left the Commons, was agreed to, and received the Royal assent. 
 The result of his measure was that all lay students of whatever 
 religious creeds were in future to be admitted to the Universities 
 on equal terms. 
 
 On two other important questions Mr. Gladstone was heard 
 this session, and his utterances attracted great attention. Mr. 
 Jacob Bright's bill for conceding the Parliamentary franchise to 
 female householders, if single women, was rejected by 220 to 151 ; 
 but the Premier caused considerable sensation by admitting that, 
 if the ballot were once established, women might be admitted to 
 the franchise without detriment. A long debate also took place 
 upon Mr. Miall's motion, ' That it is expedient, at the earliest 
 practicable period, to apply the policy initiated by the dis- 
 establishment of the Irish Church to the other churches established 
 by law in the United Kingdom.' Mr. Disraeli, in the course of 
 the debate, expressed his confident belief that the great majority, 
 both in the House and in the country, was decidedly in favour of 
 the Church. The Nonconformists had, for the moment, allied 
 themselves with the revolutionary philosophers, but their prin- 
 ciples were opposed to the real feeling of the country, and he 
 believed that even now a plebiscite would be in favour of the 
 Church. He should oppose the motion in the interests of civil 
 and religious liberty, and more for the sake of the State than of 
 the Church. Mr. Gladstone announced emphatically that the 
 Government were hostile to the motion, and did not at all profess 
 to limit their opposition to the present occasion. The Church of 
 England was not a foreign church ; it was the growth of the 
 history and traditions of the country. The disestablishment of
 
 414 WILLIAM EWATST GLADSTONE. 
 
 the Irish Church had been one of the largest tasks to which a 
 Legislature could address itself. ' But,' added the Premier, ' the 
 question of the Irish Church sinks into insignificance I mean 
 material insignificance beside the question of the English Church. 
 It is not the number of its members or the millions of its revenue ; 
 it is the mode in which it has been from a period shortly after the 
 Christian era, and has never for 1,300 years ceased to be, the 
 Church of the country, having been at every period ingrained 
 with the hearts and the feelings of the great mass of the people, 
 and having intertwined itself with the local habits and feelings, 
 so that I do not believe there lives the man who could either 
 divine the amount and character of the work my hon. friend 
 would have to undertake were he doomed to be responsible for 
 the execution of his own propositions, or who could in the least 
 degree define or anticipate the consequences by which it would 
 be attended.' If Mr. Miall sought to convert the majority of the 
 House of Commons to his opinions, he must begin, concluded the 
 right hon. gentleman, by undertaking the preliminary work of 
 converting to those opinions the majority of the people of Eng- 
 land. The motion was rejected by 374 votes to 89. 
 
 A threatened rupture between Great Britain and the United 
 States was averted by the conclusion of the Treaty of Washington 
 in the month of May. The British Commissioners were Lord de 
 Grey (afterwards created Marquis of Eipon for his services), Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, Professor Bernard, Sir Edward Thornton, and 
 Sir John Macdonald. After having sat thirty-seven times, the 
 High Joint Commissioners at New York signed a treaty pro- 
 viding for the establishment of two boards of arbitration one to 
 consider the Alabama and similar claims, which would be recog- 
 nised as national, and settled on the principle of responsibility 
 for depredations where Government had not exercised the utmost 
 possible diligence and precaution to prevent the fitting out of 
 privateers ; the other would consider miscellaneous claims on both 
 sides, confined principally to those arising out of the Civil War. 
 No claims arising out of the Fenian invasion of Canada would be 
 admitted. All legitimate cotton claims would be considered, except 
 those of British subjects domiciled in the South. The San Juan 
 boundary question, it was ultimately arranged, should be arbi- 
 trated upon by the Emperor of Germany. American vessels were 
 to navigate the St. Lawrence free, and the Canadian canals on 
 payment of the regular tolls. The treaty was ratified towards 
 the close of May. 
 
 On miscellaneous questions the Government were responsible 
 for various failures, and they likewise sustained several severe 
 checks. Conspicuous amongst the former was the budget intro-
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISE. -115 
 
 duced by Mr. Lowe on the 20th of April. In consequence of 
 the abolition of purchase, the army estimates were much swollen, 
 and there was a great excess of estimated expenditure over 
 revenue. The Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to make 
 up this deficiency in various ways, and amongst his propositions 
 Avas a tax on matches, bearing the box label ' Ex luce lucellumj 
 from which he expected 550,000. The match-tax speedily 
 became one of the most unpopular taxes ever proposed ; it was 
 the butt of the comic and the bete noire of the serious papers, 
 and was condemned by the country generally. The trade rose 
 in arms against it, and it was shown that the proposed duty 
 would vary from 100 to 400 per cent., even more on the whole- 
 sale price. Thus the duty upon 625 worth of the commonest 
 matches would be 3,000. The match trade would be virtually 
 extinguished by such an imposition. Unable to withstand the 
 dissatisfaction created by his proposal, Mr. Lowe abandoned the 
 tax. Several other propositions in the budget were either modi- 
 fied or withdrawn, and an increased income-tax was imposed. 
 Mr. Bruce's Licensing Bill also excited great opposition. Its 
 two broad principles, as defined by its author, were that the 
 public had a right to a sufficient number of respectably conducted 
 houses ; and that all vested interests should be carefully considered. 
 There were certain restrictive clauses, however, in the measure 
 which led to hostile demonstrations on the part of the trade, and 
 in the end Mr. Bruce abandoned the chief features of his scheme, 
 and declined to pledge himself to re-introduce the bill in the 
 following session. Mr. Goschen introduced two bills on the subject 
 of local taxation, designed to provide a uniform system of local 
 government throughout England and Wales (the metropolis 
 excepted), and to secure uniformity of rating. The bills did not 
 come to a second reading. The Government further suffered a 
 defeat on a matter of the greatest interest and importance to the 
 poorer classes of London. Having proposed a commission to 
 settle the rights of the Crown with regard to Epping Forest, Mr. 
 Cowper-Temple brought forward a motion virtually against the 
 Ministry, as it proposed to secure the preservation of the un- 
 enclosed portions of the forest as an open space for the enjoyment 
 of the people of the metropolis. The resolution was opposed by 
 Mr. Gladstone, who stated that the Government had secured one 
 thousand acres of the forest as a recreation ground for the people. 
 Mr. Cowper-Temple's motion, notwithstanding, was carried by a 
 large majority. The loss of the ' Captain ' and the ' Megaera ' led 
 to grave reflections upon alleged Admiralty mismanagement, but 
 Mr. Goschen, who succeeded Mr. Childers as First Lord, elabo- 
 rately defended the conduct of the Board. The session, which, in
 
 413 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 spite of its failures, had been far from barren, terminated on the 
 21st of August. 
 
 During the following recess, Mr. Gladstone's energy was as 
 sleepless as ever. In addition to various public appearances which 
 he made, he was once more called upon to defend himself on the 
 score of his religion. The affection with which he was viewed by 
 a large section of the community seemed to be counterbalanced by 
 the animosity of a smaller if more active section. Writing from 
 Balmoral to Mr. Whalley, in answer to a question which the hon. 
 member for Peterborough had put on behalf of his constituents, 
 the Premier said, 'I quite agree with those of your constituents 
 on whose behalf you address me, in thinking that the question 
 " whether the Prime Minister of this country is a member of the 
 Church of Rome," and being such, not only declines to avow it, 
 but gives through a long life all the external signs of belonging 
 to a different communion, is a " question of great political import- 
 ance," and this not only "in the present," but in any possible 
 condition of the " Liberal " or any other " party." For it involves 
 the question whether he is the basest creature in the kingdom 
 which he has a share in ruling ; and instant ejectment from his 
 office would be the smallest of the punishments he would deserve. 
 If I have said this much upon the present subject, it has been out 
 of personal respect to you. For I am entirely convinced that, 
 while the question you have put to me is in truth an insulting 
 one, you have put it only from having failed to notice its true 
 character ; since I have observed during my experience of many 
 years that, even when you undertake the most startling duties, 
 you perform them in "the gentlest and most considerate manner." ' 
 This last sentence was worthy of the Premier's rival in his best 
 mood. The hon. member for Peterborough was generally con- 
 demned for acting as the mouthpiece of an insufferable inquisition 
 into Mr. Gladstone's religious opinions. 
 
 The cry for Home Rule, and the unwarrantable conduct of 
 Irish juries in connection with certain trials for agrarian crime, 
 considerably disturbed the equanimity of the country during the 
 recess. The Prime Minister, however, delivered a speech in 
 connection with these matters which greatly allayed the public 
 excitement. In receiving the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen, 
 he took occasion to say that he did not quite know what was 
 meant by the cry of Home Rule. He was glad to know emphati- 
 cally that it did not mean the breaking up into fragments of the 
 United Kingdom. He and he hoped all those who heard him 
 intended that it should remain a United Kingdom. From 
 circumstances which he adduced, the Irish people were liable to 
 become more or less the victims frcm time to time of this or that
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 417 
 
 political delusion. * But,' he continued, ' there is nothing that 
 Ireland has asked and which this country and this Parliament 
 have refused. This Parliament has done for Ireland what it 
 would have scrupled to do for England and for Scotland. There 
 remains now a single grievance a grievance with regard to uni- 
 versity education, which is not so entirely free in Ireland as it 
 has now been made in England ; but that is an exceptional sub- 
 ject, and it is a subject on which I am bound to say Ireland has 
 made no united demand upon England ; still, I regard it as a 
 subject that calls for legislation, but there is no demand which 
 Ireland has made and which England has refused, and I shall be 
 very glad to see such a demand put into a practical shape, in which 
 we may make it the subject of rational and candid discussion.' 
 There were no Inequalities between England and Ireland, the 
 right hon. gentleman maintained, except such as were in favour 
 of the latter. He admitted, nevertheless, that the circumstances 
 under which Ireland was too long governed were hostile, nay,, 
 almost fatal to her growth. They ought rather to be pleased 
 with what she had done than to complain of her. But if the 
 doctrines of Home Rule were to be established in Ireland, they 
 would be equally entitled to it in Scotland, and still more so in 
 Wales, where the people spoke hardly anything but their own 
 Celtic tongue. ' Can any sensible man, can any rational man, 
 suppose that at this time of day, in this condition of the world, 
 we are going to disintegrate the great capital institutions of this 
 country, for the purpose of making ourselves ridiculous in the 
 sight of all mankind, and crippling any power we possess for 
 bestowing benefits through legislation on the country to which 
 we belong ? ' With regard to past measures for Ireland, he would 
 not admit that she was not going to be conciliated. But there 
 was a still higher law to remember than that of conciliation. 
 ' We desire to conciliate Ireland, we desire to soothe her people 
 the wounded feelings and the painful recollections of her 
 people. We desire to attach her to this island in the silken 
 cords of love ; but there was a higher and a paramount aim in 
 the measures that Parliament has passed, and that was that it 
 should do its duty. It was to set itself right with the national 
 conscience, with the opinion of the world, and with the prin- 
 ciples of justice ; and when that is done, I say fearlessly that, 
 whether conciliation be at once realised or not, the position of 
 this country is firm and invulnerable.' 
 
 Dealing with the Army Regulation Bill, in a speech at Whitby,. 
 the Premier averred that that measure alone was sufficient ta 
 make and confer honour upon the session. The power of the 
 Crown was brought in, but it could not have been done without- 
 
 E
 
 418 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 With regard to the Ballot Bill, although it had been rejected, the 
 time had not been lost. When the measure was presented next 
 session at the door of the House of Lords, he believed it would be 
 with an authoritative knock which it would not have otherwise 
 possessed. After deprecating hasty legislation, Mr. Gladstone said 
 that ' no doubt many a clever fellow writing in a newspaper could 
 put his finger on many a blot on our legislation, and show how 
 it might have been done, and he had no doubt that he thought he 
 could have done it better himself.' Referring next to a magazine 
 article which appeared at the time, and which caused a strong 
 sensation, entitled the ' Battle of Dorking,' the Premier exhorted 
 his hearers not to be alarmed. The disposition to alarm sat worse 
 upon the English than upon any other people, because we were 
 accused abroad of being an arrogant and a self-assertive people ; 
 and nothing could be more injurious than for such a people to lash 
 themselves into a state of apprehension and panic, or to endea- 
 vour to persuade themselves that all mankind were in a con- 
 spiracy against them. He exhorted them to be on their guard 
 against alarmism. ' The power of this country is not declining,' he 
 observed in conclusion. * It is increasing increasing in itself, and 
 I believe increasing as compared with the power of the other 
 nations of Europe. It is only our pride, it is only our passions, it 
 is only our follies which can ever constitute a real danger to us. 
 If we can master these, no other foe can hurt us ; and many a 
 long year will make its round, and many a generation of men 
 will be gathered to its fathers, before the country in which we 
 are born, and which we deeply love, need forfeit or lose its place 
 among the nations of the world.' 
 
 There were signs during the year 1871 as indeed it has been 
 already indicated that the popularity of the Ministry was 
 declining. The Premier was too much in earnest for his Whig 
 supporters, whose political animation was well-nigh suspended by 
 the rapidity of his reforms. Rarely had the apathy of the country 
 to great legislative schemes been so nobly overcome as during 
 Mr. Gladstone's premiership, but a reaction began to set in. 
 Early in 1871, even a section of his own constituents drew up a 
 petition inviting him to resign his seat for Greenwich. This 
 snovement had a ridiculous but the only legitimate ending. The 
 Premier was heavily weighted, according to the popular view, by 
 such colleagues as Mr. Lowe and Mr. Ayrton men of great and 
 unquestioned ability, but whose reading of the public pulse was 
 not of the surest and most satisfactory description. The labours 
 of Hercules were thrown upon the shoulders of the First Minister, 
 and it was a little too much to make him responsible for the 
 erratic action of every subordinate. A meeting was called at the
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM. 419 
 
 Lecture Hall, Greenwich, in support of the requisition desiring 
 Mr. Gladstone to resign his seat ; but the Liberals repudiated all 
 connection with the movement, and the tables were turned in a 
 surprising manner upon the requisitionists. After a scene of con- 
 siderable violence, a vote of confidence was passed in Mr. Glad- 
 stone, and the proceedings closed with a volley of cheers for the 
 right hon. gentleman. 
 
 The chief event of the recess, however, was the Premier's great 
 speech on Blackheath. For two hours, on a bleak October day, 
 Mr. Gladstone addressed an open air audience, consisting of 
 some 20,000 persons. In his whole career he has, probably, 
 never made a more dramatic appearance. Standing before the 
 immense audience bareheaded, by the sheer force of his elo- 
 quence the right hon. gentleman subdued the opposition of 
 those who had come expressly to circumvent him.* He began 
 his speech by craving indulgence in respect to his discharge of 
 local duties, and observed that, though it might be a serious 
 
 * From a description of the scene which appeared in the Daily News we take the 
 following passage : ' The dense mass heaved, and there rose from it an audible 
 gasp as a burst of cheering was heard in. the offing. Nearer rolled the cheers, 
 mingled with some yells, but the silence of keen expectancy reigned before the 
 hustings. The door at the back of the booth opened, there was some confusion 
 among its occupants, and then here was Mr. Gladstone, standing at the right 
 hand of Mr. Angerstein. Then the throng broke the silence of expectancy. Peal 
 after peal of cheering rent the air. There was a waving forest of hats. The 
 cheering was spasmodic it was too loud to be sustained, and ever as it drooped 
 a little was audible the steady automaton-like hissing. But as yet there was little 
 or no hooting, only the bitter, persistent hissing in the lulls of the cheering. If Mr. 
 Angerstein natters himself that in the remarks he made introducing Mr. Gladstone 
 he was audible ten feet to his front, he simply labours under a delusion. The 
 noise that drowned his words was utterly indescribable. When this brief preface 
 was over, Mr. Gladstone stood forward bareheaded. There was something deeply 
 dramatic in the intense silence which fell upon the vast crowd when the renewed 
 burst of cheering, with which he was greeted, had subsided. But the first word he 
 spoke was the signal of a fearful tempest of din. From all around the skirts of the 
 crowd rose a something between, a groan and a howl. So fierce was it that for a little 
 space it might laugh to scorn the burst of cheering that strove to overmaster it. 
 The battle raged between the two sounds, and looking straight upon the excited 
 crowd stood Mr. Gladstone, calm, resolute, patient. It was fine to note the manly 
 British impulse of fair-play that gained him a hearing when the first ebullition had 
 exhausted itself, and the revulsion that followed so quickly and spontaneously, on 
 the realisation of the suggestion that it was mean to hoot a man down without 
 giving him a chance to speak for himself. After that Mr. Gladstone may be said 
 to have had it all his own way. Of course at intervals there were repetitions of the 
 interruptions. When he first broached the dockyard question there was long, loud, 
 and fervent groaning ; when he named Ireland a cry rose of " God save Ireland ! " 
 from the serried files of Hibernians that had rendezvoused on the left flank. But 
 long before he had finished he had so enthralled his audience, that impatient dis- 
 gust was expressed at the handful who still continued their abortive efforts at 
 interruption. When at length the two hours' oration was over, and the question 
 was put that substantially was, whether Mr. Gladstone had cleared away from the 
 judgment of his constituency the fog of prejudice and ill-feeling that unquestion- 
 ably encircled him and his Ministry, the affirmative reply was given in bursts of 
 all but unanimous cheering, than which none more earnest ever greeted a politi- 
 cal leader. ' Rarely has an English Premier ventured to throw himself thus 
 completely upon the sympathies of the great mass of the people. 
 
 EE 2
 
 420 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 misfortune to many whom it affected, the closing or restriction 
 of Government establishments might at the same time be a duty 
 to the nation. Three-fourths of the reduction in the number of 
 the dockyard labourers was due to their predecessors, and the 
 whole plan had been devised by a former Government. Touching 
 upon the abolition of purchase in the army, Mr. Gladstone said 
 he rejoiced to think that in a single session they had been able to 
 achieve a task so formidable. He had faith in the army, in spite 
 of all the writings of alarmists. The autumn manoeuvres had 
 demonstrated that, if it should please Providence to bring upon us 
 the necessity, never was the country more able to entrust its defence 
 to troops and to officers more worthy of their country, or more 
 certain to make that defence effectual. In defending the War 
 Minister, Mr. Gladstone said, ' There has been a fashion during 
 the present year to scoff at Mr. Cardwell. I can only say that, 
 when he is condemned, I, for my part, am glad to share the con- 
 demnation. But I venture to affirm that no man who ever 
 held the seals of office since the Secretaryship at War was estab- 
 lished, has done so much for the reform and the efficiency of the 
 army ; and I am quite sure that when he retires from the office, 
 he will leave behind a name entitled to the approval and the 
 gratitude of the country.' Dealing with the Education Act, the 
 speaker observed that a great and comprehensive measure of that 
 kind could hardly be perfect. ' Indulgence, equity, the sacrifice 
 of extreme opinions, must be asked for in every quarter. But I 
 ask those who are least satisfied with the Education Act this one 
 and simple question, whether it is not a great stride, and one 
 achieved upon a path of real progress ? I will not now attempt to 
 say more upon the question than this : On the one hand we shall 
 endeavour to adhere to that principle of the Act which aims at 
 the severance between the application of the State funds and 
 controverted matters in religion ; and on the other I must pause, 
 for my own part, and I believe my colleagues would feel them- 
 selves obliged to pause, before they could resolve to say to the 
 parent desirous to send his child to a school of his own persuasion, 
 compelled by public authority to send it to school, and unable 
 to pay the charge, If you attempt to send the child to a school 
 of your own persuasion, if you don't consent to send him to a 
 school the principles of which you disapprove namely, the rate 
 school we shall send you to prison. I don't think public opinion 
 would sustain us in such a course.' Alluding to the ballot, he 
 expressed his belief that his hearers were of opinion the Govern- 
 ment had made a good and wise choice in pressing that important 
 question upon the attention of Parliament. 
 
 It was scarcely possible, after the recent important differences
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEAUSM. 421 
 
 of opinion between the two Houses of Parliament, that Mr. Glad- 
 stone should avoid all reference to the functions and constitution 
 of the House of Lords. When he arrived at this stage of his 
 address, he was interrupted by a voice, * Leave the constitution of 
 the House of Lords alone ! ' Whereupon he proceeded to say : 
 
 ' I am not prepared to agree with my friend there, because the constitution of 
 the House of Lords has often been a subject of consideration amongst the wisest 
 and most sober-minded men; as, for example, when a proposal of which my friend 
 disapproves, perhaps was made a few years ago to make a moderate addition to 
 the House of Lords of peers holding their peerages for life. I am not going to dis- 
 cuss that particular measure ; I will only say, without entering into details that 
 would be highly interesting, but which the vast range of the subject makes im- 
 possible on the present occasion I will only say that I believe there are various 
 particulars in which the constitution of the House of Lords might, under favour- 
 able circumstances, be improved. And I am bound to say that, though I believe 
 there are some politicians bearing the name of Liberal who approve the proceed- 
 ings of the House of Lords with respect to the Ballot Bill at the close of last 
 session, I must own that I deeply lament that proceeding. I have a shrewd sus- 
 picion in my mind that a very large proportion of the people of England have a 
 sneaking kindness for the hereditary principle. My observation has not been of a 
 very brief period, and what I have observed is this, that wherever there is any- 
 thing to be done, or to be given, and there are two candidates for it who are 
 exactly alike alike in opinions, alike in character, alike in possessions, the one 
 being a commoner and the other a lord the Englishman is very apt indeed to 
 prefer the lord.' 
 
 In giving instances in support of his opinion, Mr. Gladstone 
 dealt with a new social movement which at that time was the 
 subject of much discussion. This movement was originated by 
 Mr. Scott Kussell, and its object was to improve the condition of 
 the working classes by an alliance of workmen with (chiefly) Con- 
 servative statesmen. The memorandum which formed its basis 
 was signed by Lords Salisbury, Carnarvon, Lichfield, Sandon, and 
 John Manners, and by Sir J. S. Pakington, Sir Stafford Northcote, 
 and Mr. Gathorne Hardy. Mr. Gladstone indulged in a little 
 pleasantry at the expense of this scheme, whose ultimate issues 
 did not satisfy its promoters. ' Here was one body on one side, 
 another body on the other side, and in the middle Mr. Scott Kus- 
 sell. Mr. Kussell comes in communication with both of these 
 bodies. He speaks first to the one and then to the other. You 
 have seen a clergyman in a large church when he gives out his 
 text ; he first of all looks to the people in one part of the church, 
 and says, "You will find it written so-and-so," and then to 
 the other side of the congregation, "You will find it so-and- 
 so." This is exactly, or almost exactly, what seems to have been 
 done by Mr. Scott Russell. The only difference is this that, 
 unfortunately, Mr. Scott Kussell gives a text out of one Testa- 
 ment to the people on this side, and a text out of the other Testa- 
 ment to the people on the other side.' As to the composition of 
 the body he had organised, he might have said, ' I have organised 
 a body of educated, intelligent, and independent men,' and per-
 
 422 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 haps that would have occurred in another country. But what 
 is the language he used ? He said, ' I have organised this body, 
 and what does it contain ? It contains peers, lords, baronets, and 
 one commoner one solitary commoner among peers, lords, and 
 baronets.' It was by these means that Mr. Scott Kussell thought 
 to make his prescription most acceptable to those for whom it 
 was intended. The right hon. gentleman, however, speaking of 
 the House of Lords, went on to acknowledge the admirable and 
 exemplary manner in which many of the peers performed their 
 duties. 
 
 Detailing the great advantages which had accrued from the 
 legislation of the past generation, including Free Trade, the 
 removal of twenty millions of taxation, a cheap press, and an 
 education bill, Mr. Gladstone enforced the lesson that Englishmen 
 must depend upon themselves for their future well-being and 
 improvement. After describing those who promised Utopian 
 benefits to the working man as quacks, deluded and beguiled by 
 a spurious philanthropy, the Premier thus concluded his long and 
 animated address : 
 
 ' How, in a country where wealth accumulates with such vast rapidity, are we 
 to check the growth of luxury and selfishness by a sound and healthy opinion ? 
 How are we to secure to labour its due honour I mean not only to the labour of 
 the hands, but to the labour of the man with any and all the faculties which God 
 has given him ? How are we to make ourselves believe, and how are we to bring 
 the country to believe, that in the sight of God and man labour is honourable and- 
 idleness is contemptible ? Depend upon it, gentlemen, I do but speak the serious 
 and solemn truth when I say that beneath the political questions which are found 
 on the surface lie those deeper and more searching questions that enter into the 
 breast and strike home to the conscience and mind of every man ; and it is upon 
 the solution of these questions that the well-being of England must depend. Gentle- 
 men, I use the words of a popular poet when I give vent to this sentiment of hope,, 
 with which for one I venture to look forward to tUe future of this country. He 
 says: 
 
 " The ancient virtue is not dead, and long may it endure, 
 
 May wealth iii England " 
 
 and I am sure he means by wealth that higher sense of it prosperity, and sound 
 prosperity 
 
 " May wealth in England never fail, nor pity for the poor." 
 
 May strength and the means of material prosperity never be wanting to us ; but it 
 is far more important that there shall not be wanting the disposition to use those 
 means aright. Gentlemen, I shall go from this meeting, having; given you.the best 
 account of my position in my feeble power, within the time arid under the circum- 
 stances of the day I shall go from this meeting strengthened by the comfort of 
 your kindness and your indulgence to resume my humble share in public labours. 
 No motive will more operate upon me in stimulating me to the discharge of duty 
 than the gratitude with which I look back upon the, I believe, unexampled cir- 
 cumstances under which you made me your representative. But I shall endeavour 
 I shall make it my hope to show that gratitude less by words of idle compli- 
 ment or hollow flattery than by a manful endeavour, according to the measure of 
 my gifts, humble as they may be, to render service to a Queen who lives in the 
 hearts of the people, and to a nation with respect to which I will say that through 
 all posterity, whether it be praised or whether it be blamed, whether it be- 
 acquitted or whether it be condemned, it will be acquitted 01 condemned upon
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBEEAL1SM. 423 
 
 this issue, of having made a good or bad use of the most splendid opportunities ; 
 of having turned to proper account, or failed to turn to account, the powers, the 
 energies, the faculties which rank the people of this little island as among the few 
 i;reat nations that have stamped their name and secured their fame among the 
 greatest nations of the world.' 
 
 The year 1871 was, in many respects, a memorable one. 
 When it opened, war was still raging between Prussia and 
 France, but a treaty of peace was signed in the month of May. 
 We have already seen how our own difficulties with the United 
 States were placed in the way of a satisfactory adjustment. 
 Towards the close of the year, the whole nation was moved with a 
 sense of gratitude to Almighty (rod for the recovery of the heir 
 to the Throne from a dangerous illness, and one to which for a 
 long period none but a fatal result was feared and anticipated. 
 
 The Parliamentary history of the year was not altogether 
 satisfactory, though there have been sessions since quite as barren 
 in acts of great and useful legislation. On the 1st of January, 
 the disestablishment of the Irish Church was finally completed. 
 With regard to extra-Parliamentary politics, in the autumn an 
 agitation -was commenced for the reform or the abolition of the 
 House of Lords, but it speedily subsided ; and Mr. Gladstone, as 
 we have seen, defended the Lords in his speech at Blackheath, 
 while admitting that the constitution of the House might be 
 improved. Sir Charles Dilke caused considerable sensation by 
 first attacking the Queen's administration of the Civil List in a 
 lecture delivered at Newcastle, and avowing himself a Eepublican 
 a few days later in a speech made at Bristol. Not, perhaps, as 
 the consequence of this, but owing rather to a special conjuncture 
 of circumstances, the country shortly afterwards testified its 
 loyalty to the Throne in an especially marked and enthusiastic 
 degree. Lastly, there was a continuance of the Home Rule 
 ngitation, while Mr. Dixon and a powerful body of Nonconformists 
 strongly attacked the clauses of the Education Bill which allowed 
 of aid to denominational schools one leading object sought 
 being the exclusion of religious teaching from day schools. 
 
 The Gladstone Administration had now passed its zenith, and 
 its decadence had already begun. There are some reforms which, 
 when they do not touch the mass of the people, are readily 
 acquiesced in ; but when a Ministry resolutely sets itself to the 
 reform of abuses in all directions, however laudable its objects, it 
 is sure to incur the hostility of individual interests. Mr. Bruce 
 alienated the whole of the brewing interests by his Licensing 
 Bill, and the Government acquired further unpopularity by the 
 disasters reflecting upon the Admiralty. Indignation was caused 
 when, upon the promotion of Sir M. Smith to the Privy Council, 
 the Attorney-General (Sir E. Collier) was gazetted as a Puisne
 
 24 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Judge of the Common Pleas, for the purpose of qualifying him 
 for an appointment to the Judicial Committee, which was soon 
 afterwards completed. Opponents of the abolition of purchase, 
 moreover, did not forget to enlarge upon what they described as 
 the straining of the Constitution by the issue of the Royal 
 warrant. Rightly or wrongly, these and other matters led to much 
 obloquy being cast upon the Government ; and the Premier to 
 whom personally little or no blame could attach for many of 
 these transactions found towards the close of the year that his 
 popularity was waning. A reaction had set in against so-called 
 ' heroic' legislation which really meant that Mr. Gladstone, who 
 in 1868 so clearly and unmistakably interpreted the public 
 sentiment, was now in advance of it. His earnestness and 
 enthusiasm were already beginning to be but ill-appreciated by 
 the very classes who had wafted him into power, and given him 
 such an enormous majority. 
 
 But, in looking back upon the legislative enactments of the 
 three sessions of 1869, 1870, and 1871, who can deny that they 
 warrant the designation which we have given to the present divi- 
 sion of this work ? That period which (to say nothing of minor 
 measures) witnessed the passing of the Irish Church Act, the 
 Endowed Schools Bill, the Bankruptcy Bill, the Habitual Crimi- 
 nals Bill, the Irish Land Act, the Elementary Education Act, the 
 Abolition of Purchase in the Army, the negotiation of the Wash- 
 ington Treaty, the passing of the University Tests Bill and of 
 the Trades Union Bill, and the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles 
 Act, may well be entitled to the appellation of the ' golden age of 
 Liberalism.' There have been few periods in the history of this 
 country we might venture almost to say there have been none 
 when measures of equal magnitude have been passed within 
 this limited space of time. ' The hour and the man' were both 
 designed for the task which had to be accomplished. Never was 
 there an age when a stronger zeal for reform was manifested 
 taking reform now not merely in a political and Parliamentary, 
 but in a social, religious, and national sense ; and never was there 
 a statesman more fully capable of meeting the needs of such an 
 age than Mr. Gladstone. They were the complement of each 
 other, and when Englishmen reflect upon the great legislative 
 achievements of the time, it is well for them also to remember 
 that the cry of justice to Ireland, and other demands for imperial 
 legislative reforms, owed their fulfilment to the untiring energy, 
 the dauntless will, and the high moral and political courage of 
 him whose name now occupies so conspicuous a position in our 
 political annals.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE ALABAMA CLAIMS THE BALLOT IRISH UNIVERSITV 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The Year 1872 Recovery of the Prince of Wales Growing Unpopularity of the 
 Government Debate on the Address The Premier on Mr. Disraeli's Survey of 
 the Ministerial Policy Debates on Sir Robert Collier's Appointment The 'Ewelme 
 Scandal ' The Government and the Public Parks Sir Charles Dilke's Motion 
 on the Civil list Opposed by Mr. Gladstone Extraordinary Scene in the House 
 The Ballot Bill The Measure carried The Alabama Claims Mr. Gladstone 
 on the Washington Treaty The Geneva Arbitration Award of the Arbitrators 
 Protest of Sir Alexander Cockburn Irish University Education Scheme of the 
 Government Great Speech by the Premier Details of the Measure The Bill in 
 Danger Debate on the Second Reading Speeches of Mr. Lowe, Mr. Disraeli, 
 and Mr. Gladstone Defeat of the Government Ministerial Interregnum Mr. 
 Disraeli declines to take office Mr. Gladstone on the Situation Resumes the 
 premiership Measures of the Session of 1873 Ministerial Changes. 
 
 THE new year dawned amid universal symptoms of rejoicing 
 on the part of the people. The Queen invited her subjects to 
 share in her gratitude for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, 
 and a thanksgiving service was held in St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 under circumstances of splendour and impressiveness. The 
 reception which the Sovereign and the Heir to the Throne met 
 with on their progress from Buckingham Palace testified to the 
 hold which the Royal family had upon the affections of the 
 people, whose demonstrations acquired a deeper fervour from the 
 recollection of the period of deep anxiety, now happily overpast. 
 National prosperity, too, was advancing in a marked degree, and 
 there seemed no reason to dread the introduction of discordant 
 elements into the life of the commonwealth. 
 
 The chief political feature of the period was the continued 
 unpopularity of the Government. Speculation was rife as to its 
 stability, and yet those who predicted its downfall during the 
 session of 1872 were unable to point to a combination powerful 
 enough to take its place. For that reason, the strongest 
 opponents of the Ministry, while anxious to damage its prestige 
 and to humiliate it in the eyes of the country, were not desirous 
 of witnessing its overthrow. By way of illustrating the divisions 
 and the spirit which existed, a Liberal journal observed that 
 * many would like to knock over Lord Hatherley, many to expel
 
 426 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Mr. Forster, many to rid the Government of Mr. Bruce, many 
 to hurt Mr. Lowe, most of all, perhaps, to humiliate Mr. Glad- 
 stone. But they all want to know how this can be done without 
 causing a dissolution or change of Grovernment. It is a spiteful 
 problem in maxima and minima, how to inflict on the Grovern- 
 ment the maximum of discredit with the minimum of immediate 
 result. The censors of the Government are like a dueller who 
 declares he does not want to kill his antagonist, but only to 
 " give him a lesson that he will remember to the day of his death." 
 That, however, is a very delicate feat to achieve when you are 
 playing with deadly weapons. You may wish to " wing " your 
 adversary, and send a ball just through his heart. And the great 
 question now is, Can the Government, even with the cordial help 
 of its many open enemies and insincere friends, manage to receive 
 the tokens of the accumulated dislikes of so many different 
 sections, and yet survive the session?' The Prime Minister, 
 looking round upon his lieutenants, could scarcely discover one 
 who was not credited, justly or unjustly, with having contributed 
 his share to the weight of opprobrium under which the Govern- 
 ment was labouring. But while not exempting the Ministry 
 from blame in several matters, every candid mind must confess 
 that much of the criticism passed upon it was groundless. 
 
 In the debate on the Address, Mr. Disraeli challenged the 
 policy of Ministers, remarking that they had adopted a new 
 system of vindicating their characters during the recess. ' We 
 really have had no time to forget anything. Her Majesty's 
 Ministers may be said during the last six months to have lived 
 in a blaze of apology.' After protesting against this new system, 
 the right hon. gentleman continued, 4 The notices of motion given 
 this evening will afford her Majesty's Government ample oppor- 
 tunities for defending their conduct, past or present. If it is 
 in the power of the Government to prove to the country that our 
 naval administration is such as befits a great naval power, they 
 will soon have an occasion of doing so ; and if they are desirous 
 of showing that one of the transcendental privileges of a strong 
 Government is to evade Acts of Parliament which they have 
 themselves passed, I believe, from what caught my ear this 
 evening, that that opportunity will also soon be furnished them.' 
 Attacking next the clauses of the Queen's Speech, Mr. Disraeli 
 observed, with regard to Ireland, that there had originally been a 
 reference to the 'third branch of the Upas tree,' but it had 
 slipped out at the last moment. The Ballot had been preferred 
 to such measures as the Mines Regulation Act and Sanitary 
 Legislation. He condemned the paragraph relating to the Wash- 
 ington Treaty as frigid and jejune, and utterly inadequate to the
 
 THE WASHINGTON TEEATY. 427 
 
 occasion. Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville, having full control 
 and supervision of the negotiations at Washington, were solely 
 responsible for the treaty, whose terms he proceeded to discuss, 
 objecting strongly to its retrospective clauses. He demanded from 
 the Government their grounds for stating that the treaty excluded 
 claims which were preposterous and wild, and which equalled a 
 tribute from a conquered people. He asked for the view of the 
 American Government upon our reading of the treaty. Her 
 Majesty's Ministers must be perfectly frank upon the question, 
 for it appeared to him that if they got rnto a Serbonian bog of 
 diplomacy upon this matter the consequences might be enormous 
 and fatal. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, undisturbed apparently by his rival's sarcasm, 
 at once said that the Government courted the most searching 
 inquiry into the case of the 'Megaera,' and into Sir Kobert 
 Collier's appointment. Every assistance would be given by the 
 Government to the taking of the judgment of the House upon 
 these questions. Having adverted to the recovery from illness 
 first of her Majesty and then of the Prince of Wales, the Premier 
 touched upon the Irish references in the Speech, and assured the 
 leader of the Opposition that he was mistaken in his assumption 
 as to the question of education in Ireland. He next justified the 
 precedence which had been given to the ballot ; and with regard 
 to the Alabama case, he said that it was the duty of Ministers 
 to state their case to the Government of the United States, and 
 especially to the people of this country, in the mildest terms 
 possible consistent with an appreciation of the momentous 
 importance of the question. The paragraph relating to the treaty 
 was in his opinion, therefore, quite adequate to the emergency. 
 Mr. Disraeli's historical retrospect of the negotiations he accepted 
 as proving that the British Government had at no time acceded, 
 either in intention or otherwise, to an instrument admitting 
 constructive claims. Whatever blame fell on those who concluded 
 the treaty must be borne by the Government the Commissioners 
 were entirely free from it ; but he denied that there was blame 
 anywhere Large concessions had undoubtedly been made to the 
 American Government such as accepting retrospective action 
 and abstaining from claiming compensation for the Fenian raids 
 in Canada but they were j ustifiable. The American Government 
 had made no protest against the interpretation publicly put on 
 the treaty in the House of Lords in the previous June. In 
 consequence of the American case having been only in possession 
 of all the members of the Cabinet for a week or so, a communica- 
 tion could not be addressed to the American Government until 
 within the last few days. The treaty was not ambiguous, and
 
 423 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 could not be read in two contradictory senses ; on the contrary, 
 the Government would contend that, tried by grammar, logic, 
 common sense, policy, or any other conceivable criterion, its only 
 just and unequivocal meaning was that which they put upon it. It v 
 amounted almost to an interpretation of insanity to suppose that 
 any negotiators could intend to admit, in a peaceful arbitration, 
 claims of such an unmeasured character as the right hon. gentle- 
 man had partially described, such as he (Mr. Gladstone) for a 
 moment glanced at, and such as it was really impossible to have 
 supposed the American Grovernment to intend ; these would be 
 claims transcending every limit hitherto known or beard of 
 claims which not even the last extremities of war and the lowest 
 depths of misfortune would force a people with a spark of spirit, 
 with the hundredth part of the traditions or courage of the people 
 of this country, to submit to at the point of death. They relied 
 on the friendly disposition which prevailed between the two peoples 
 for an amicable settlement, but under no circumstances would the 
 ^Government allow themselves to swerve from their sacred and 
 paramount duty to their country. 
 
 Sir Eobert Collier's appointment led to very warm debates in 
 both Houses. In the Lords the Duke of Argyll severely condemned 
 the letter from Lord Chief Justice Cockburn protesting against 
 the appointment a letter which, he said, contained ' railing, nay, 
 almost ribald accusations.' Lord Stanhope's vote of censure upon 
 the Grovernment was negatived by 89 against 87 votes. A similar 
 vote was moved in the Commons by Mr. Cross, whereupon Sir 
 Roundell Palmer moved an amendment to the effect that there 
 was no just cause for Parliamentary censure. His speech was of 
 great service to the Grovernment. Mr. Gathorne Hardy said that 
 he did not wish to impute wrong motives, but there were cases 
 in which Acts of Parliament had been dealt with in a peculiar 
 manner, and statutes dispensed with by the Premier. Mr. Glad- 
 stone rose and complained that irrelevant topics such as the 
 appointment to the living of Ewelme had been introduced into 
 the debate by the preceding speaker. He asked the House to 
 reserve its judgment, and not to allow the question of the con- 
 struction of an Act of Parliament to be prejudiced by the intro- 
 duction of matters which had nothing whatsoever to do with it. 
 If he (the speaker) had been guilty of the wilful violation of a 
 statute, he should deserve not merely exclusion from office but 
 from Parliament altogether. The admissions made in the course 
 of the debate, however, showed that the statute had been obeyed, 
 and that a competent man had been appointed nay, more than 
 a competent man, looking to the status and rights of an Attorney- 
 General. The Government had unsuccessfully applied to three
 
 THE EWELME KECTORY. 429 
 
 Judges before appointing Sir Kobert Collier, and without such a 
 resource would have been brought into serious practical difficulty, 
 having regard to the dignity of the office. They had not violated 
 the statute this was admitted as affecting the letter of it but 
 only somebody's idea of the intention of- the statute. The mean- 
 ing of the qualification specified in the Act was judicial status, 
 judicial experience being merely one element among others. The 
 burden of proof to the contrary lay upon the mover of the motion. 
 The Government did not foresee the storm that would be raised 
 over this appointment, and if they had foreseen it they would 
 not have been so foolish as to have evoked it. But was there 
 ever a vote of censure passed upon a Government a sentence of 
 capital punishment that hung upon so slender a thread ? He 
 hoped the House would never be drawn aside from the straight 
 road of justice into slippery paths. He did not consider the con- 
 sequences to the Grovernment of this motion ; he put it upon 
 higher grounds. Moreover, if carried, Sir Robert Collier woula 
 feel that a shade rested upon his judicial fame, and that it pos- 
 sibly might become the end of his judicial career. The House of 
 Lords had declined to pass judgment against this appointment ; 
 and he was well convinced that the House of Commons would 
 refuse to fall into the snare. 
 
 The House negatived the vote of censure by a majority of 27. 
 
 Another matter which led to a debate in the month of March 
 was one described by the papers as ' the Ewelme scandal.' In 
 this case the Premier had appointed the Eev. W. W. Harvey 
 to the vacant rectory of Ewelme ; but as the statute required that 
 the rector of that parish should be a member of the Oxford Con- 
 vocation, Mr. Harvey who had been educated at Cambridge 
 was made a member of the Oxford Convocation, in order to 
 satisfy the statute. Here again no question arose as to the 
 fitness of the appointment ; but Mr. Mowbray, in bringing the 
 matter before the House of Commons, affirmed that the act was 
 "a direct and wanton violation of the statute of Parliament and 
 of the statutes of the University, and that it had led to most 
 reprehensible delay. Mr. Gladstone, in his reply, having thrust 
 aside the irrelevant portions of Mr. Mowbray's speech, asked 
 what the Government had to do with the qualifying office for 
 Mr. Harvey. As a Minister, he had nothing to do with it ; and 
 had it been a qualifying office given by the Emperor of China or 
 the Mikado of Japan it could not have been more independent 
 of the action of the British Government than in this case. 
 Neither had the qualification anything to do with the duties of 
 the post. Membership of Convocation did not imply education 
 at the University, and if the words introduced in the Lords had
 
 430 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 been understood so to limit the rights of the Crown, it would 
 have been his duty to advise the Crown to withhold its assent. 
 Mr. Harvey had not acquired a colourable qualification, but one 
 solid, substantial, and perfect. As to the probable question, 
 what demon prompted him to create this difficulty for himself, 
 Mr. Gladstone said that his demon was simply and solely the 
 desire to appoint the fittest man to the parish fittest for the man. 
 Mr. Harvey was eminent as a divine, and his ill-health rendered 
 his immediate removal to a more salubrious neighbourhood desir- 
 able. The Premier concluded by saying that he stood upon the 
 construction of the Act, which he had in no sense violated. 
 
 The debate closed without a division. Several scenes occurred 
 at an early period of the session in connection with Mr. Ayrton's 
 Bill for the Regulation of the Parks. The Government intro- 
 duced a clause throwing on the Houses of Parliament the respon- 
 sibility of certain bye-laws for the parks. Mr. Hardy stigmatised 
 this as a cowardly proceeding, whereupon Mr. Gladstone rebuked 
 him for bringing an acid and venomous spirit into the debates, 
 and said that it was the bungling and feeble conduct of the late 
 Government which had led to the present difficulties. Mr. 
 Disraeli complained that when his friend Mr. Hardy moved in 
 this question in 1866, the present Prime Minister sat night 
 after night in sullen silence, and never spoke with reference to 
 the proceedings that took place in the Park, except when he 
 addressed a tumultous multitude from the balcony of his own 
 private residence. Mr. Gladstone replied with excusable warmth 
 that his opponent's imagination had led him astray ; but, as Mr. 
 Sheridan had remarked, there had been former occasions when a 
 gentleman had drawn on his memory for his jokes and his ima- 
 gination for his facts. With respect to the one intelligible 
 sentence in the right hon. gentleman's observations, there was 
 no foundation of fact in it whatever. When the right hon. gentle- 
 man said that after the lapse of six years it was necessary to 
 rub up one's recollection by reference to what had really occurred, 
 he strongly recommended him to practise the doctrine he had 
 preached, and to improve his memory of those things before he 
 ventured to make such extraordinary statements. Col. Gilpin 
 having attacked Mr. Gladstone in a similar manner, the Premier 
 retorted, amidst the cheers and laughter of the House, that he 
 did not think the imagination which prevailed on the front bench 
 had extended so far back as the third. The Government 
 ultimately carried their proposals. 
 
 Of all the scenes, however, which took place this session and 
 indeed for many years previously the most violent and discredi- 
 table was that which arose out of Sir Charles Dilke's motion for
 
 EXTRAOBDINARY SCENE IN THE HOUSE. 431 
 
 returns bearing upon the Civil List. Lord Bury having asked 
 whether the oath of allegiance and Sir C. Dilke's declaration at 
 Newcastle that he was a Republican were not irreconcilable, and 
 having observed also that the present motion was a colourable 
 method of repeating that declaration, the Speaker decided that 
 there was nothing irregular in the motion, and Sir C. Dilke was 
 allowed to proceed. The hon. member said his aim was to show 
 that Parliament had a general and special right to inquire into 
 the management of the Civil List, and that there ought to be such 
 an inquiry. The object of an inquiry was not to destroy the vested 
 interests of the holders of sinecures and unnecessary offices, but 
 to prevent any new interests being created, and to facilitate the 
 next settlement of the Civil List. After a lengthy explanation of 
 the nature of the returns moved for, and an examination of the 
 Exchequer accounts from the beginning of the reign, Sir Charles 
 Dilke withdrew a previous statement of his that the Queen had 
 paid no income-tax, and expressed his regret that he had been 
 misled. His reasons for the opportuneness of the present inquiry 
 were the public belief that the Sovereign had accumulated large 
 savings ; the grants to the Princesses, which he asserted were 
 entirely unprecedented ; and the secrecy maintained in respect of 
 Royal wills, which made it impossible to ascertain the Sovereign's 
 private fortune. He urged the importance of granting the inquiry 
 because of an impression which prevailed that under the shadow 
 of the Crown large sums were wasted. 
 
 When the hon. member sat down there was a general impression 
 that the House would go to a division at once, but Mr. Gladstone 
 rose and replied to Sir Charles Dilke's address. The Premier, 
 who was loudly cheered throughout by both sides of the House, 
 complained that the hon. member had been careless in the 
 investigation of his facts, and observed that the result of the inquiry 
 of a select committee had been to prove a very large reduction 
 in the Civil List compared with the two former reigns. To go into 
 the charges brought forward was impossible without notice ; but 
 these charges and the observations about sinecures were equally 
 beside the mark, and would not bear the inference which Sir 
 Charles Dilke had suggested. Some portion of the information 
 now asked for was already before the House in a different form. 
 With regard to the new portion, Mr. Gladstone said it was 
 impossible to consider it without referring to the incident in which 
 the motion originated ; and, by his unfortunate speech at New- 
 castle, the hon. member had brought the subject into an ill-omened 
 association with proposals to change the form of our Government 
 which were most repugnant to the great body of the people. Mr. 
 Gladstone severely condemned the circumstances of this meeting,
 
 432 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 find said it was Sir Charles Dilke's duty, in his assumed character 
 of a ' public instructor,' to have made it clear to his audience that 
 Parliament was solely responsible for the Civil List, and that the 
 Queen had nothing to do with the settlement of it. To grant the 
 motion would be to propagate the belief in the country that the 
 House of Commons had assented to it in direct reference to the 
 Newcastle speech, and as an initiation of the change. The Govern- 
 ment were not willing to contribute to the creation of such 
 an impression. Her Majesty had faithfully adhered to her com- 
 pact with the nation, and, contrasting this with former times, the 
 Premier mentioned that the Queen had, since the commencement 
 of her reign, spent 600,000 on private pensions ; and he urged 
 the evil precedent it would set to future Sovereigns if the people 
 attempted to re-open the life bargain. He concluded by asking 
 the House, as a matter of policy, and as a matter of grateful duty 
 to the Queen, to reject the motion, and that without further 
 discussion. 
 
 For the honour of the House of Commons, the scene which 
 ensued is probably unexampled in its history. The number of 
 sympathisers with Sir Charles Dilke's resolution, either in the 
 House or the country, was exceedingly small ; but, as the 
 Speaker had ruled that there was nothing irregular in it, he and 
 his seconder were, of course, entitled to that hearing which would 
 have been given to motions less distasteful. Members hooted 
 and groaned with stentorian power, and the scene baffled descrip- 
 tion. Mr. Liddell afterwards expressed a hope that the whold 
 proceedings would be regarded as a comedy, but it was a comedy 
 mto which only the rougher elements of burlesque entered. Mr. 
 Auberon Herbert endeavoured to second the motion, but was 
 met with a storm of cries and howls which completely drowned 
 his voice. When the cries of ' Divide ! ' mingled with groans 
 and hisses had to some extent subsided, the hon. member 
 apologised for Sir Charles Dilke, for his unintended personal 
 attack on the Sovereign, and then proclaimed his own preference 
 for a Kepublican form of Government. A large number of 
 members hereupon left the House, while those who remained 
 continued to shout and to interrupt the speaker. Mr. Herbert, 
 with much sang-froid, sent for a glass of water, which was inter- 
 preted as a sign that he meant to be heard out. The remainder 
 of his speech consisted only of disjointed sentences. 
 
 Just as Mr. Herbert was replying to Mr. Gladstone's complaint 
 that the hon. baronet had not supplied full information, an hon. 
 member rose, and blandly said that he did not think there were 
 forty members present. Several members immediately left the 
 House, calling upon others to ' Come out ; ' but the Speaker found
 
 THE BALLOT. 433 
 
 that more than the required number still remained. Mr. Herbert 
 rose again as the Speaker reached the magical number of ' forty,' 
 and was entering into further details connected with the Privy 
 Purse and the Duchy of Lancaster, when another hon. member 
 rose, and, addressing the Speaker, observed, ' It appears to me, 
 sir, the House has considerably thinned since you last counted ; 
 I move that it be counted.' There was still more than forty 
 present, and this was found to be the case on a third count. At 
 last an hon. member thought he had hit upon a solution of the 
 difficulty. This was Lord George Hamilton, who rose and said, 
 ' Mr. Speaker, I espy strangers present.' The Speaker then ordered 
 strangers to withdraw 'strangers,' of course, including the 
 reporters. It was understood that during the remainder of Mr. 
 Herbert's speech the cries and interruptions were renewed with 
 increased vehemence. The cries proceeded chiefly from members 
 in the more remote and obscure parts of the House. Amid the 
 general confusion were heard imitations of the crowing of cocks, 
 whereat Mr. Dodson rose to order. He said he would not ask 
 whether the state of the House and the scene they were witnessing 
 were for the credit and dignity of the House of Commons ; he would 
 merely, as a point of order, ask whether the sounds that proceeded 
 from near the chair were not un-Parliamentary and disorderly. 
 
 The Speaker said the sounds he had heard were undoubtedly 
 gross violations of the order of the House ; and he could not 
 refrain from expressing the pain with which he had witnessed 
 the scene that had just taken place. Other members having 
 spoken, and a motion for adjournment made by Mr. Dillwyn 
 having been defeated by a large majority, Mr. Fawcett rose 
 and said that though a year ago he might have voted for the 
 motion, now that it was associated with the Newcastle speech, 
 which he thoroughly disapproved, he should vote against it. 
 The question of Republicanism ought not to be raised on a 
 miserable haggle over the cost of the Queen's household. Mr. 
 Liddell denied that the Conservative party had attempted to 
 stifle discussion. He blamed Mr. Herbert for endeavouring to 
 brave the House, and then said that when history looked back upon 
 the proceedings of that evening, it would probably be all regarded 
 as a ' Comedy of Errors.' Sir Charles Dilke having expressed his 
 determination to divide the House, the original question was 
 put, when there appeared Ayes, 2 ; Noes, 276. The two 
 members who supported Sir C. W. Dilke and Mr. Herbert were 
 Mr. Gr. Anderson and Sir W. Lawson. The result of the division 
 was hailed with loud cheering. 
 
 The Ballot Bill, the chief measure of the session, led to many 
 protracted debates. It was introduced by Mr. Forster, and its 
 
 F F
 
 434 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 second reading was earned in a meagre house by 109 to 56. Mr. 
 Walter said he had voted against the ballot, believing that its 
 introduction was but preliminary to a new reform bill, which 
 would abolish all little boroughs, and boroughs which were really 
 fragments of counties, and enfranchise all county householders. 
 He believed that these boroughs would, under the bill, be bought 
 wholesale, and that equal electoral districts would soon be inevi- 
 table. Unless the country was prepared for that, the House ought 
 not to pass the bill. For himself, however, he should oppose it no 
 more. After the discussion of many of the details of the measure, 
 a crisis arose in connection with an amendment moved by Sir W. 
 Harcourt, which was carried against the Government by 274 votes 
 to 246, a large number of Liberals voting with the majority, and 
 others absenting themselves. The Government agreed to accept 
 a modified form of this amendment as follows : ' No person shall, 
 directly or indirectly, induce any voter to display his ballot-paper 
 after he shall have marked the same, so as to make known to any 
 person the name of the candidate for or against whom he has so 
 marked his vote ' the penalty for doing this to be three months' 
 imprisonment with hard labour. Mr. Gladstone then announced 
 the intention of the Government to proceed with the bill, and the 
 third reading was eventually carried by 276 votes to 218. Some 
 amendments to the bill were carried in the Lords, and when it was 
 returned amended to the House of Commons, Mr. Forster moved 
 to disagree with making the ballot optional. This, he said, would 
 render the bill useless, or worse than useless. Mr. Disraeli, in 
 supporting the Lords' amendments, remarked that he regarded 
 compulsory secrecy as a degrading punishment for ' the excesses 
 of electoral society,' much as the Riot Act for rioting. He denied 
 entirely the demand of the country for the ballot. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone retorted that his opponent, who thought the 
 ballot stood in the same relation to corruption as the Riot Act did 
 to rioting, evidently regarded it as an efficient remedy. He (Mr. 
 Gladstone) appealed not only to the Liberals, but to the newly- 
 elected Conservative members for various constituencies specified, 
 to show that there was a very great demand for the ballot. The 
 right hon. gentleman also pointed out that very stringent securi- 
 ties were taken against any publication by the presiding officer 
 of an illiterate person's vote, which securities the Lords had done 
 away with. 
 
 The option-giving amendments of the Lords were disagreed 
 with. A compromise was subsequently effected, the Upper 
 House yielding the main point in dispute, and the Commons 
 accepting, with certain modifications, the Scrutiny clause, as well 
 as Lord Beauchamp's amendment making the operation of the
 
 THE ALABAMA CLAIMS. 435 
 
 bill temporary. This important measure, effecting a complete 
 revolution in the system of voting, then received the Koyal assent ; 
 and the first elections conducted under its provisions were of the 
 most orderly and satisfactory character. 
 
 Although the ballot was the chief incident in the domestic 
 legislation of this session, the question of the Alabama claims 
 more than rivalled it for the excitement which it caused through- 
 out the country. In December, 1871, there was a formal meeting 
 at Geneva of the Arbitration Commission appointed to consider 
 these claims. The sittings were adjourned until the following 
 June. Meanwhile, by January, 1872, the agitation in England 
 had become still more pronounced by the presentation of the 
 British and American cases on the 20th of December. The 
 English people learnt with amazement that enormous claims for 
 indirect losses had been introduced into the American case which 
 losses were defined under the heads of transfer of trade from 
 American to British ships, increased rates of marine insurance, 
 and losses incident to the prolongation of the war. A long 
 correspondence ensued between the British and American 
 Governments, and in April counter-cases were presented at Geneva. 
 To have acceded to the American claims as originally presented 
 would have been to involve this country in liabilities which no 
 nation could possibly have accepted. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, having discovered that certain observations 
 which he had made upon this subject, during the debate on the 
 Address in answer to the Queen's Speech, had been misinter- 
 preted, wrote as follows to the London Correspondent of the 
 New York World: 
 
 ' Permit me to assure you it is an entire mistake to suppose I have ever said 
 that " every rational mind " must see but one meaning in the Treaty of Washing- 
 ton. Nothing could have induced me to use such an expression. The limit of my 
 assertion, stated briefly, was, and is, as follows : 
 
 I believe the meaning of the Treaty to be clear and unambiguous, according to 
 any legitimate test whatever which can be applied to it. This proposition I am, 
 of course, ready to sustain in argument. But every other person is equally entitled 
 to think, if he see cause, that what I hold to be clear and unambiguous is dark 
 and doubtful; or, that it is clear and unambiguous in the sense contradictory to 
 mine. What I trust is that others, upon a close examination, will not see cause to 
 think any such thing. This point a little time and patience cannot fail thoroughly 
 to elucidate. 
 
 Setting aside the remark which I did not use, and which I think open to severe 
 animadversion, I have always understood, and still understand, that any man is 
 at liberty to hold and to state with the utmost confidence an opinion as to the 
 meaning of a document (and this I have done), without being open to the charge 
 of what I conceive to be a gross offence, viz., his presuming to restrain for others 
 the liberty which he claims himself. Indeed, speaking according to the usages and 
 habits of English public life, I feel as if the utterance of such a proposition were 
 not so much a truth as a truism. 
 
 If, however, this truth or truism be applicable to documents in general, it requires 
 but a moderate share of modesty to adopt it in the case of documents such as a 
 treaty and its protocols.' 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 In May, a draft supplementary treaty was drawn up, by which 
 both nations agreed in future to abstain from claims for indirect 
 losses. This treaty was presented to the American Senate, and 
 approved. In the House of Commons, on the 27th of May, Mr. 
 Disraeli put several questions to the Prime Minister upon the state 
 of the negotiations. Mr. Gladstone replied that the American 
 Senate had agreed, by a large majority, to the last article which 
 had been prepared by her Majesty's Government, but with certain 
 verbal amendments. The English Cabinet, which had only met 
 an hour and a half ago, had not yet been able to transmit its 
 final argument to the American Minister. He was, therefore, 
 not prepared at present to state the proposed modifications ; they 
 were strictly confidential between the two Governments, and could 
 not be disclosed until the disclosure might be made without dis- 
 advantage to the important interests involved. As to ratification, 
 before that could take place the conditions must be transmitted 
 across the water. He considered it would be premature to make 
 any announcement in Parliament with respect to the steps which 
 might be taken at Geneva until they had been able to conclude 
 the business then in hand as to the supplementary enactments. 
 The proceedings at Geneva must depend in a material degree 
 upon the result of these negotiations. If an enlargement of 
 time should become necessary, power could be given by agree- 
 ment between the two Governments. The Government appre- 
 ciated the importance of the element of time as respected Geneva, 
 but they were still more impressed with its importance as 
 regarded the negotiations now going on ; and on behalf of his 
 colleagues and himself, he assured the House that not one moment 
 would be lost in returning their reply to the last proposal of 
 American Government, so as to make their contribution towards 
 producing the consummation which both nations so ardently 
 desired. 
 
 The British Government having objected to certain modifica- 
 tions in the supplementary article, a lengthened correspondence 
 ensued, and the feeling of the country found vent in debates in 
 Parliament. On the meeting of the Congress in June, differences 
 arose as to the mode of procedure. The arbitration tribunal, how- 
 ever, commenced its sittings, and was constituted as follows : 
 Count Frederick Sclopis, for Italy, president ; Baron Staempfli. 
 for Switzerland ; Vicomte d' Itajuba, for Brazil ; Mr. G. F. Adams, 
 for the United States ; and Sir Alexander E. Cockburn, for Great 
 Britain. After several adjournments, the arbitrators voluntarily 
 declared that the indirect claims were invalid, and contrary to 
 international law ; whereupon President Grant consented to their 
 withdrawal. On the 14th of September, at a final meeting, the
 
 THE ALABAMA CLAIMS. 437 
 
 arbitrators agreed upon their award. All the arbitrators found 
 Great Britain liable for damages for the injuries done by the 
 Alabama, ; four mulcted us for those done by the Florida ; and 
 three for those done by the Shenandoah. The liability in the 
 case of these vessels was to extend to the tenders as well as the 
 cruisers to which they were attached. Great Britain, however, 
 was held not to be responsible for the acts of the Georgia, or of any 
 of the Confederate cruisers beyond the three above-named. The 
 arbitrators likewise rejected altogether the claim of the United 
 States Government for expenditure incurred in the pursuit and 
 capture of the cruisers. The practical or pecuniary result of the 
 award was, that England was adjudged to pay a gross sum of 
 15,500,000 dollars in gold (about 3,229,166) in satisfaction 
 and final settlement of all claims, including interest. The 
 amount of claims preferred before the tribunal by the United 
 States in the revised statement presented in April, 1872, was 
 19,739,095 dollars in gold, to which was added a claim for 
 expenses of pursuit and capture to the amount of 7,080,478 
 dollars, with interest at seven per cent, on the whole amount for 
 about ten years, or, in all, 45,500,000 dollars in gold, being 
 about 9,479,166 sterling. 
 
 Sir Alexander Cockburn differed from the rest of the arbitrators, 
 and published his reasons for so doing. This document, which 
 did not assume the nature of a formal judgment, occupied nearly 
 three hundred pages of the London Gazette, being one of the 
 most elaborate official papers on record. The English represen- 
 tative made a powerful reply to the unjust aspersions which had 
 been cast upon this country, but admitted the justice of the award 
 for the Alabama. While strongly opposing the other awards, he 
 counselled the acceptance by the British people of the judgment 
 of a tribunal by whose award they had freely consented to abide ; 
 and he hoped that in time to come, as the result of the Geneva 
 arbitration, ' no sense of past wrong unredeemed would stand in 
 the way of the friendly and harmonious intercourse which should 
 subsist between two great and kindred nations.' Some- time 
 afterwards a final settlement was effected of this great difficulty 
 on the basis indicated in the award. 
 
 Though the session of 1872 could scarcely vie with some of its 
 predecessors in the matter of its legislative acts, it is yet not 
 without its title to remembrance. Besides the satisfactory adjust- 
 ment of the Alabama claims and the conclusion of a new French 
 treaty, the following measures of great domestic importance were 
 passed: The Ballot Act, the Scotch Education Act, two Acts 
 relating to the Regulation of Mines, the Licensing Act, the Public 
 Health Act, and the Adulteration Act. These measures at least
 
 138 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 demonstrated that the welfare of the people was not neglected by 
 the Government. 
 
 Ireland a name associated with the most brilliant legislative 
 triumphs of the Government was fated also to be its most 
 serious stumbling-block. The Irish University question had long 
 awaited a settlement, and Mr. Gladstone addressed himself to 
 the task at an early period in the session of 1873. Successfully 
 to have grappled with this difficulty would have justified Mr. 
 Gladstone's boast that, in its effects, as well as its magnitude, 
 his proposed scheme was in no wise inferior to the Irish Church 
 and the Irish Land Acts. But so many considerations were 
 involved in dealing with this subject, that the country was 
 scarcely surprised when the Premier ultimately failed in his 
 purpose. Of all questions upon which a perfect unanimity of 
 sentiment was essential, that of university education stood fore- 
 most, and it was found that this sentiment was lacking. On the 
 13th of February, the Ministerial scheme was unfolded. The 
 Premier said that for the third time he now endeavoured to 
 discharge a duty vital not only to the honour and existence of the 
 Government, but to the welfare and prosperity of Ireland. He 
 emphatically declared on the part of the Ministry that they did 
 not share in the opinion held in some quarters that Ireland 
 offered but a barren field for these efforts of legislation. Industry 
 flourished in Ireland, the wealth of the community was increasing, 
 order was respected, ordinary crime was less than in England, 
 agrarian crime had greatly diminished, and treasonable crime had 
 disappeared. After bespeaking indulgence for the intricate and 
 complex details into which he should be obliged to enter, and 
 observing that though the Government admitted the urgent 
 necessity for dealing with intermediary education, they yet 
 did not intend to mix up that question with university 
 education, Mr. Gladstone referred in a sarcastic vein to the 
 anticipatory criticisms in one of the daily journals upon his 
 measure, and repelled energetically the insinuation that it would 
 be tinged with Ultramontane influence. So far from this being 
 the fact, the Government had not even communicated with any of 
 the bodies interested in university education, and the measure 
 appealed for support solely to the equity and justice on which it 
 was based. At the same time, he could not wonder that apprehen- 
 sions with respect to Ultramontane influence should enter into 
 the minds of the British public whenever legislation affecting the 
 position of Koman Catholics in Ireland was projected ; and the 
 House could not be surprised that the influences which prevailed 
 within the Roman communion should be regarded by a very 
 great portion of the people of this country with aversion, and by
 
 IRISH UNIVEESITY EDUCATION. 489 
 
 some portion of them even with unnecessary dread. c It appears 
 to us, however,' continued the speaker, ' that we have one course, 
 and one course only to take, one decision and one only to arrive 
 at, with respect to our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. Do we 
 intend, or do we not intend, to extend to them the full benefit of 
 civil equality on a footing exactly the same as that on which it is 
 granted to members of other religious persuasions ? If we do not, 
 the conclusion is a most grave one ; but, if the House be of 
 opinion, as the Government are of opinion, that it is neither 
 generous nor politic, whatever we may think of this ecclesias- 
 tical influence within the Roman Church, to draw distinctions, 
 in matters purely civil, adverse to our Roman Catholic fellow- 
 countrymen if we hold that opinion, let us hold it frankly 
 and boldly ; and, having determined to grant measures of equality 
 as far as it may be in our power to do so, do not let us attempt 
 to stint our action in that sense when we come to the execution 
 of that which we have announced to be our design.' Mr. Glad- 
 stone next examined the alternatives which had been offered to the 
 Government or imputed to them, and declared that with regard 
 to denominational endowment, they were not only precluded from 
 proposing it by their own pledges, but by a sincere belief that it 
 would be unwise. The ' Supplemental Charter ' scheme had 
 entirely gone by, and was not equal to the present emergency, 
 and to set up another university by the side of the Dublin 
 University and the Queen's University would be no settlement of 
 the question. Defining the principles on which the Government 
 had decided to act, the right hon. gentleman started from the 
 proposition that the exclusion of the Roman Catholics from 
 university education in Ireland constituted a religious grievance 
 a civil disability, imposed for religious opinions. That both Roman 
 Catholics and Presbyterians were debarred from the benefits of 
 university education by their unwillingness to send their children 
 to places where religion was not taught on authority as part of 
 the system of training was a fact which, however some might 
 deplore it, must be dealt with as a fact that could not be altered. 
 In proof of this Mr. Gladstone quoted returns showing that there 
 were only 145 Roman Catholic students in Arts at the Dublin and 
 Queen's Universities a state of things which he described as 
 miserably and scandalously bad. Again, the total number of 
 students in Arts in Ireland was 1,179. So that the Roman 
 Catholics with more than two-thirds, nearly three-fourths in 
 fact, of the population supplied only an eighth part of the 
 students in Arts. He therefore considered that he had shown 
 there was a great religious grievance in Ireland. Had lie been 
 able to point to a state of things in which the movement was in
 
 4iO WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONK. 
 
 the other direction in which, instead of an almost constant 
 decrease of Roman Catholic attendance at the Queen's College*, 
 there was a steady, healthy, and progressive increase the case 
 would have been greatly different. Quitting the topic of the 
 religious grievance, Mr. Gladstone stated, from the most recent 
 statistics, that the whole number of university students in Ireland 
 amounted to the very poor and scanty figure of 1,634, of whom less 
 than one-half were university students in the English or in the 
 Scottish sense of the word. Of students in that sense in Ireland 
 there were but 784, against 4,000 whom Scotland, with not much 
 more than half the population sent to her universities. That was 
 a pretty strong case as regarded the absolute supply of university 
 and academic training in Ireland. But the case was stronger still 
 when they considered the comparative state of the academical sup- 
 ply. Figures demonstrated that notwithstanding the efforts of 
 Parliament, notwithstanding the general increase of education, 
 notwithstanding the opening of Queen's Colleges with large en- 
 dowments, the university students of Ireland in the proper sense 
 that is, the students in Arts were fewer at that moment than 
 they were forty years before, when no Queen's Colleges' were in 
 existence. At that moment, the students in Arts in Ireland, even 
 including men who were merely examined and who did not attend 
 lectures, only numbered as he had already remarked 1,179 ; 
 while in 1832 the students in Arts at Trinity College alone 
 numbered 1,461. 
 
 Coming to the second cause of the demand for academical 
 reform, Mr. Gladstone dwelt upon the anomalous position of the 
 university, and the strange inversion of the relations between it 
 and Trinity College. After a long retrospect of the history of 
 the university, he drew the conclusion that by its original design 
 it was always intended to include several colleges and that, in 
 fact, various colleges had from time to time existed, although 
 none had survived but Trinity College. He therefore based the 
 main principle of his bill on this historical conclusion that the 
 University of Dublin as distinct from Trinity College was the 
 ancient historical University of Ireland, and that within its 
 precincts should be effected the academical reform which was 
 needed. There was also a collateral proposition which he had to 
 mention, viz., that the Queen's Colleges of Belfast and Cork 
 would be retained, that the Galway College would be wound up 
 by 1876, and that it would be proposed to merge the Queen's 
 University into Dublin University. On this last point, however, 
 the Government were not unwilling to defer to the judgment of 
 the House. The principles which had been already applied to the 
 reform of the English universities distinguished the present bill
 
 IRISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 4U 
 
 that is to say, tests would be abolished, the university emanci- 
 pated from the colleges, members would be introduced into the 
 university not belonging to any of the colleges, and the colleges 
 would be taxed for the benefit of the university. There were 
 -:ome points on which it would be necessary to depart from the 
 English precedent for example, a limit must be placed on 
 academical teaching ; and for a time, at least, the governing body 
 must be subjected to the action of the Crown and Parliament. 
 The bill contemplated three periods. On January 1st, 1875, the 
 powers exercised by the Provost and the seven Senior Fellows of 
 Trinity College in relation to the university, would be handed 
 over to the new governing body ; then would follow a provisional 
 period, during which certain special arrangements would prevail ; 
 and after 1885, when the new system had been fully developed, 
 the permanent rules would come into force. With regard to the 
 changes to be made in the existing position of the university, 
 first of all the University of Dublin would be incorporated, which 
 it had never been yet ; the Theological Faculty would be separated 
 from Trinity College and handed over to the Eepresentative 
 Body of the Disestablished Church, with compensation for vested 
 interests and a charge for its maintenance. The Chancellor 
 would be appointed by the Crown, and would retain his present 
 function of Visitor of Trinity College ; and the Vice-Chancellor 
 would be elected by the governing body. The Queen's Col- 
 leges of Cork and Belfast, the Roman Catholic University, and 
 the Magee College, would become colleges of the university ; as 
 would probably other institutions also. With regard to the 
 very important change in the constitution of the new govern- 
 ing body of the University of Dublin, Mr. Gladstone stated that 
 there would be, in the first place, twenty-eight ordinary members, 
 to be nominated in the Act, all vacancies to be filled alter= 
 nately by the Crown and by co-optation during the preliminary 
 period of ten years, and afterwards four members would retire 
 annually one successor to be filled up by the Crown, one by the 
 council, one by the professors, and one by the senate. In addi- 
 tion to these ordinary members, every college which had fifty 
 students in statu pupillari matriculated in the university, would 
 be allowed to elect one member of council, and each college which 
 had 150 such students might elect two members. The senate 
 would consist of all Doctors and Masters of Arts who kept their 
 aames on the books, and would include both those now qualified 
 in Dublin and the Queen's University ; with special powers during 
 the first three years after 1875, for the admission of persons who 
 resided for a sufficiently long time in the other colleges. The new 
 university would be a teaching as well as an examining body, and
 
 442 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 in describing the securities for conscience which would be taken, 
 the Premier said there would be no chairs in theology, moral 
 philosophy, or in modern history. With regard to the two latter 
 subjects, no student would be examined in them against his will, 
 and these subjects would be completely excluded from examinations 
 for emoluments. The main security for the rights of conscience, 
 on which the Government relied, was such a representation 
 of all parties, within moderate and safe limits, in the body of 
 the council, as could be usefully and beneficially introduced into- 
 its constitution. 
 
 The next and the last of the difficult subjects Mr. Gladstone 
 had to lay before the House was that concerned with the financial 
 arrangements of this comprehensive scheme. The general result 
 of his investigations was, that from the present revenues of Trinity 
 College would be taken the cost of providing for vested interests, 
 and a contribution of 12,000 a-year to the new university. 
 This would still leave Trinity, he observed, the richest college in 
 Christendom ; and for its consolation, he added that in all proba- 
 bility it would be necessary to apply the same treatment to some 
 of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge when the commission 
 then prosecuting its inquiries had reported. The Premier 
 estimated the expenses of the extended university at 50,000 : 
 viz., 25,000 for the encouragement of learning, thus divided : 
 ten fellowships annually of 200 each, tenable for five years ; 
 twenty-five exhibitions annually of 50, and one hundred 
 bursaries annually of 25 each, tenable for four years ; 20,000 
 a-year for the staff of professors ; and 5,000 for examinations, 
 buildings, and general expenses. It was proposed to provide this 
 sum as follows : 12,000 by Trinity College, 10,000 from the 
 Consolidated Fund, 5,000 from fees, and the remainder from 
 the surplus of the ecclesiastical property of Ireland. Mr. Glad- 
 stone further mentioned that powers would be given to Trinity 
 College to form a scheme for its own self-government. The 
 other colleges, also, would have the same powers ; and as to the 
 preponderance of lay or ecclesiastical influence in them, each 
 must settle that for itself; all that the Legislature could do was 
 to give them an open career and fair play. The Premier paid a 
 warm tribute to Trinity College, and expressed a hope that for 
 generations and for ages it would continue to dispense more 
 unrestrainedly than ever the blessings of a liberal culture. He 
 also indicated additional advantages which the college would 
 possess under the new regime. As regarded the voluntary colleges, 
 they would enjoy an entire freedom of internal government. 
 Remarking upon the important, he might almost say from the 
 many classes it concerned and the many topics it involved the
 
 IRISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 443 
 
 solemn nature of his subject, Mr. Gladstone thus concluded his 
 lengthened address : 
 
 We have not spared labour and application in the preparation of this certainly 
 complicated, and, I venture to hope, also, comprehensive plan. We have sought to 
 provide a complete remedy for what we thought, and for what we have long 
 marked and held up to public attention as a palpa ble grievance a grievance of con- 
 science. But we have not thought that, in removing that grievance, we were dis- 
 charging either the whole or the main part of our duty. It is one thing to clear 
 obstructions from the ground ; it is another to raise the fabric. And the fabric 
 which we seek to raise is a substantive, organised system, under which all the sons 
 of Ireland, be their professions, be their opinions what they may, may freely meet 
 in their own ancient, noble, historic university for the advancement of learning in 
 that country. The removal of grievance is the negative portion of the project ; the 
 substantive and positive part of it, academic reform. We do not ask the House to 
 embark upon a scheme which can be described as one of mere innovation. We ask 
 you now to give to Ireland that which has long been desired, which has been often 
 attempted, but which has never been attained ; and we ask you to give it to Ireland, 
 founding the measure upon the principles on which you have already acted in the 
 universities of England. We commit the plan to the prudence and the patriotism 
 of this House, which we have so often experienced, and in which the country places, 
 as we well know, an entire confidence. I will not lay stress upon the evils which 
 will flow from its failure, from its rejection, in prolonging and embittering the con- 
 troversies which have for many, for too many, years been suffered to exist. I 
 would rather dwell upon a more pleasing prospect upon my hope, even upon my 
 belief, that this plan in its essential features may meet with the approval of the 
 House and of the country. At any rate, I am convinced that if it be your pleasure 
 to adopt it, you will by its means enable Irishmen to raise tlieir country to a height 
 in the sphere of human culture, such as will be worthy of the genius of the people, 
 and such as may, perhaps, emulate those oldest, and possibly best, traditions of 
 her history upon which Ireland still so fondly dwells.' 
 
 It was scarcely to be expected that the leaders of the Opposi- 
 tion would be prepared to discuss proposals of such magnitude 
 immediately upon their introduction ; and Mr. Disraeli asked 
 as in the case of the Irish Church Act that a period of three 
 weeks might elapse before the second reading of the bill. Mr. 
 Gladstone consented to fix the second reading for the 3rd of 
 March. Meanwhile, the House and the country had leisure to- 
 digest the provisions of the scheme. In the outset, it seemed as 
 though tbe bill would please all those parties whom the Ministry 
 had chiefly in view in its construction. But this hope speedily 
 gave way to an opposite feeling, and it became evident before 
 many days had elapsed that an amicable settlement of university 
 education in Ireland was as far off as ever. The Roman Catholic 
 bishops strongly denounced the measure, and, while not unpre- 
 pared to take what it offered, left it to be sufficiently understood 
 that they claimed much more. The advanced Liberals also passed 
 an adverse judgment upon the bill. Objection was likewise 
 strongly taken to the exclusion of mental and moral science from 
 the course of study. The appointment of the ordinary members 
 of the council was another important matter, and as the Govern- 
 ment did not state the names of these members, the scheme 
 encountered the hostility of the Protestant-Conservative section of
 
 444 WILLIAM EWAIiT GLADSTONE. 
 
 the House. Irish members whom it was thought the bill would 
 conciliate were its chief opponents when it came on for discus- 
 sion ; and the chorus of disapproval showed the Ministerial scheme 
 to be in danger. 
 
 In moving the second reading, Mr. Gladstone did not remain 
 content with formally rising for that purpose, but availed him- 
 self of the opportunity offered for correcting some of the preju- 
 dices created against the bill. He announced, however, several 
 minor changes which he proposed to make. Accepting the sug- 
 gestion made by Queen's College, Cork, the power of affiliating 
 new colleges would be vested in the Crown, acting on the 
 inquiries and recommendations of the governing body. As to the 
 alleged insufficient provision for vested interests, the speaker 
 had no doubt the House would be disposed to act liberally both 
 .as to money and status. Changes would be introduced into the 
 definition of persons in statu pupillari, and also in the powers 
 of the council to divide students in Arts into different branches 
 for the purposes of examination. Anticipating the amendment 
 to be moved by Mr. Bourke, Mr. Gladstone admitted that the 
 anxiety of the House to learn the constitution of the governing 
 body was excusable, but what the hon member asked was impos- 
 sible. He pointed out that it was contrary to all precedents to 
 the course taken on the English University Bills, on the Keform 
 Bill of 1867, and the Irish Church Bill of 1870. It was the 
 desire of the Government to select men of the greatest weight 
 to serve on the council, without reference to their political 
 opinions or the course they might have taken in regard to this 
 bill ; but it would be impossible to ask such men to undertake 
 the duty until the bill had made some way in committee, and it 
 was obvious that if they were willing to serve before they knew 
 what shape the bill would take they would not be fit for the 
 position. ' Are we to be told,' demanded the Premier, ' that the 
 House of Commons is to be asked to pass a vote of censure on 
 the Government for not having attempted what it would be ridicu- 
 lous to attempt and impossible to form ? That such a vote of 
 censure would be passed I am not going to assume, but that such 
 a vote should be asked for is worthy of commemoration in the 
 annals of Parliament.' 
 
 The opposition to the bill, as already intimated, was remark- 
 able both for the diverse politics of the speakers, and the 
 arguments they advanced against the Ministerial scheme. Many 
 of the strong points of Mr. Gladstone's case, however, were left 
 untouched. Mr. Bourke having moved his amendment expressing 
 the regret of the House that the Government had not stated to 
 the House the names of the twenty-eight ordinary members of
 
 IRISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 445 
 
 the council, Lord E. Fitzmaurice seconded the resolution, strongly 
 condemning the 'gagging clauses,' and maintaining that the bill 
 would destroy Protestant separate education, and the mixed system 
 of education, in order ultimately to give the Roman Catholics the 
 monopoly of a second-rate article. Mr. C. E. Lewis combated 
 the arithmetical arguments upon which Mr. Gladstone had built 
 up his measure, and the O'Donoghue opposed the bill, not for the 
 benefits which it conferred on Episcopalians and Presbyterians, 
 but because it did nothing for the Koman Catholics. The latter 
 would be content with nothing but a separate Catholic university. 
 Lord R. Montagu said that the majority of the people of Ireland 
 would continue to agitate for denominational education until 
 Parliament complied with their demands, and Sir M. Hicks Beach 
 remarked that though he was not particularly friendly to Mr. 
 Fawcett's bill, he preferred that settlement of the question to this. 
 Mr. Fawcett, however, pronounced the strongest condemnation of 
 the scheme, in language sometimes open to animadversion. He 
 maintained that it would make the condition of university educa- 
 tion in Ireland more unsatisfactory than ever, and would create 
 worse evils than those with which it was meant to deal. It was a 
 mere compromise intended to please everybody, but which pleased 
 nobody. He entered an emphatic protest against the abolition of 
 the Queen's University and the Galway College, took exception 
 to the constitution of the governing body, and denounced the 
 ' gagging clauses,' and the degrading censorship of professorial 
 teaching which they involved. The bill would lead to no other 
 conclusion but the establishment of denominational education in, 
 Ireland, and he hoped the House would reject it on its merits 
 without reference to the collateral issue of a Ministerial crisis. 
 On the first night of the discussion, the only speakers in defence 
 of the Government University scheme were the Marquis of Hart- 
 ington and Mr. Osborne Morgan ; and upon the resumption of 
 the debate, Mr. Horsman created some astonishment by delivering 
 a clever but bitter diatribe against the bill, which he had at first 
 welcomed as a settlement of the question. He alleged in justifi- 
 cation of this change of opinion the demands of the Roman 
 Catholic Bishops, and asked, ' Why does not the Government 
 withdraw the bill? Nobody wants it nobody accepts it it 
 settles nothing, but unsettles everybody. Had any English or 
 Scotch member ever gone through the hypocrisy of proposing to 
 feel confidence in the Government on this question ? To ask for 
 such a vote was a piece of effrontery worthy of a cartoon in 
 Punch? Such a vote, continued the right hon. gentleman, would 
 be regarded by the country as a vote of confidence in Cardinal 
 Cull en and the priests. The measure was defended by Mr.
 
 446 WILLIAM EWAE.T GLADSTONE. 
 
 Chic best erFortescue, and opposed, in able speeches, by Dr. Play- 
 fair and Mr. Gathorne Hardy. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, nevertheless, came to the 
 support of the Ministerial scheme in an address, which, for the 
 moment, seemed as though it would do much to retrieve the 
 fortunes of the Government. Kemarking, with respect to the 
 ' gagging clauses,' that they were not of the essence of the bill, 
 Mr. Lowe showed that their meaning had been entirely misap- 
 prehended. A number of objections urged against the essential 
 principle of the measure arose from the ambiguous use of the 
 words ' university ' and ' college/ While ' college ' only implied 
 teaching provision, ' university/ as well as teaching, implied the 
 power of giving degrees, and he maintained, therefore, that while 
 colleges could not be over-multiplied, a university ought to have 
 as nearly as possible a monopoly. He justified the scheme of the 
 bill on this ground the collection of a number of colleges under 
 a single university. The present necessity for legislation arose 
 from three causes : the imperfect constitution of Trinity College, 
 the insufficient education given at the Queen's Colleges, and the 
 refusal of the Roman Catholic Bishops to allow their youth to 
 seek a degree either at Trinity College or the Queen's Colleges. 
 He expressed his regret that the Roman Catholic Bishops had 
 signified their disapproval of the bill, but that event must be 
 treated as an earthquake, or any other natural calamity which 
 could not be helped. While admitting that the Government had 
 met with more hostile criticism than they anticipated, he never- 
 theless maintained that this bill was the only means of applying 
 a real remedy to the grievance.* 
 
 * The happiest passage in Mr. Lowe's speech was its conclusion, in which, amid 
 continuous cheers and laughter, he retorted thus effectively upon Mr. Horsman : 
 ' There are Abdiels who will not leave their friend. There is one member of the 
 House whose sympathy with us I feel unequal to express, and would, therefore, for 
 that purpose, take the liberty of resorting to the words of a bard of Erin : 
 
 " Come rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer, 
 Though the herd have all fled thy home is still here ; 
 Here still is a smile that no cloud can o'ercast, 
 And a hand and a heart thine own to the last." 
 
 The House will see that I am not too high-flown in the panegyric I give, when I 
 read a brief extract from this letter : " Mr. Gladstone has introduced a measure of 
 university education that does him great honour, and when perfected by amend- 
 ment in committee, and it takes its place on the Statute Book, it will be a noble 
 crowning to the work of the present Parliament. We must all resume its considera- 
 tion with an earnest desire to acknowledge the large and generous spirit with which 
 the Government has addressed itself to the sub ject,and co-operate w ith the high pur- 
 poses it has in view ; and as the erroneous impression conveyed by Mr. Gladstone's 
 allusion to Sir Robert Inglis and the Pope could not pass without notice, I have 
 tvritten this letter with a view of getting it out of the way before we come to the 
 real business." ' Mr. Horsman ' What is the date of that letter ? ' ' The date is 
 7, Richmond Terrace, Feb. 15, and it is signed " Edward Horsman." I have read 
 the House the letter, and in the early part of the evening they have been furnished 
 with the comment. And now I will say this Whatever faults you may find with
 
 IRISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 447 
 
 The fact that the Government were willing to give up the 
 J gagging clauses,' combined with the admission that they had 
 never intended to sanction the wholesale affiliation of diocesan 
 colleges, afforded a momentary but delusive hope that the 
 measure might ultimately weather the storm. 
 
 Sir W. Harcourt, who spoke on the third night of the discus- 
 sion, supported the bill, though he was far from admitting that 
 it was a successful specimen of legislating according to Irish 
 ideas. - Dr. Ball vigorously attacked the measure, and Mr. Bernal 
 Osborne expressed his surprise that a Cabinet with eight double 
 first-class Oxford men in it could have so blundered in a matter 
 of education. MX. Cardwell said that all the points which had 
 been objected to were open for discussion in committee, and there 
 was nothing to bind the House to abide by the bill as it stood. 
 
 This admission had the unfortunate effect of damaging instead 
 of aiding the cause of the Government. While it alienated the 
 Ultramontane interest, it failed to conciliate the wavering alle- 
 giance of the discontented Liberals. The close of the debate was 
 therefore looked forward to with augmented interest. On the 
 fourth night, about half-past ten, Mr. Disraeli rose, and delivered 
 a speech which, in some parts, was unusually brilliant, but equally 
 irrelevant. Although they had been assured, he said, that those 
 points which were not of ' the essence of the bill ' were dead, and 
 Mr. Cardwell had spoken in the direction of surrender, Mr. Glad- 
 stone had disclaimed this meaning, and declared that the only 
 concession was that these points should be fully discussed. Having 
 no proof, therefore, that the Government had withdrawn any of 
 the clauses, he (Mr. Disraeli) would discuss the Bill on its merits. 
 First, he objected to it because it proposed to institute a univer- 
 sity that was not universal. He also objected strongly to the 
 transfer of the Theological Faculty to the disestablished Church, 
 and as to the proposed exclusion of mental and moral philosophy 
 and modern history, it was an astounding proposal to come from 
 the leader of the Liberal party at this day. The speaker next 
 demanded some information upon the composition of the 'despotic 
 and anonymous council,' and observed that, arguing from previous 
 experience, it would be like the House of Commons, and would 
 consist of two well-organised parties arrayed against each other, 
 
 this bill, I believe it will be recognised by the country as an attempt to deal 
 thoroughly with what appears to me to be a great and crying evil, and one which 
 ought no longer to be allowed to exist. We have encountered a great deal of 
 opposition, and shall, no doubt, have to encounter still more ; but I am very much 
 mistaken if behind this storm we do not receive an acknowledgement from the 
 people of these islands of the honesty and fairness of the intention of this bill 
 an acknowledgment which will brush aside all captious criticism, and help to 
 make it, in the language of my right hon. friend the member for Liskeard, " tht 
 crowning work of the present Parliament."
 
 448 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 with a few trimmers inclining the balance. Discussing the situation- 
 of the Roman Catholics, Mr. Disraeli said he pitied their position, 
 but it was their own doing. His own Government had entered 
 into negotiations with the Roman Catholic bishops, and while 
 vindicating the principle of concurrent endowment, the House 
 knew that it was held to be dead. Mr. Gladstone had capped his 
 negotiations with the policy of confiscation. The Roman Catho- 
 lics fell into the trap, and lost sight of university education in the 
 prospect of destroying a Protestant Church. But the country had 
 had enough of this policy of confiscation, and he hoped that that 
 night's vote would show that it was suffering the inconveniences 
 of satiety. He had no desire to disturb the Premier, but he should 
 vote against the bill, believing it to be monstrous in its principle, 
 pernicious in many of its details, and utterly futile as a measure 
 of practical legislation. 
 
 Before the vehement cheering on the Opposition benches had 
 subsided, Mr. Gladstone had risen to reply to Mr. Disraeli, and 
 wind up the debate. In the opening of his speech the Premier 
 drew forth prolonged applause from his supporters by calling 
 upon the House to note that, though the leader of the Opposition 
 had declared concurrent endowment to be dead, it yet lived in 
 his mind, and might revive under his magical touch. After 
 explaining that the attitude of the Government on this question 
 was not due to any words of his, and deprecating the introduc- 
 tion of religious heat and party temper into its discussion, he 
 repeated once more the grounds on which the measure had been 
 introduced, viz., the grievance of the Roman Catholics, and the 
 necessity for academic reform in Ireland. The history of the bill 
 had some dramatic features ; it had suffered a catastrophe ; on its 
 introduction all the ' waiters on providence ' in London were in 
 favour of it, but now not an individual of the species had a word 
 to say for it. The question, however, was, Should the House go 
 into committee on the bill ? In deciding that, the House ought 
 to have no other motive but to endeavour to do that now which 
 a few years hence it would regret it had not done. He denied 
 that the bill would lower the standard of education, and reminded 
 the House that the London University a mere examining body 
 had certainly raised education. They had been told the bill 
 should be given up on account of the opposition in Ireland ; but 
 that opposition had been most inaccurately stated in the House. 
 Yet even if the opposition had not been exaggerated and misre- 
 presented, in dealing with a measure like this it would be impolitic 
 and unparliamentary on that account to withdraw the bill before 
 it had been considered in committee. The general effect of the 
 speech of Mr. Cardwell with wluch he entirely agreed was to
 
 IKISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 449 
 
 show that it was a wise course in a question of this character, 
 where it was difficult to retrieve ground once lost, to go into 
 committee, to compare their several notions and demands at close 
 quarters, and to see what they could effect towards bringing them 
 into harmony. Mr. Gladstone then cited against Mr. Disraeli's 
 condemnation of going into committee on the ground that a 
 measure came out substantially the same the precedent set by 
 the right hon. gentleman himself as regarded the Eeform Bill of 
 1867. The history of that bill in committee had its lessons. 
 Referring to the banishment of ethics and modern history from 
 the curriculum, and the introduction of collegiate members into 
 the council, the Government would not adhere to them, and there 
 were also other points upon which they would meet the House on 
 equal terms. Any amendments which were real improvements 
 would be welcomed, and even those which were not improvements 
 would be welcomed if deemed of importance by the House, and if 
 they did not touch the vitality of the bill. As to the actual vital 
 principle of the bill, it was this there must be a complete removal 
 of the admitted religious grievance by opening degrees under 
 an impartial and unsectarian authority to men of all opinions, 
 whether educated under the mixed or separate system. The 
 university must be relieved from the monopoly of Trinity College, 
 and must have an independent governing body and a competent 
 endowment, and the faculty of theology must be separated from 
 it. Mr. Gladstone next proceeded to condemn the principle of con- 
 current endowment, observing that he wished to leave on record 
 the strong conviction he entertained that it would be a grave 
 and serious error on the part of the House were they to give the 
 slightest encouragement to the demand that was made for intro- 
 ducing into Ireland the system of separate endowment for separate 
 religious institutions for academic purposes, and thereby to dis- 
 tinctly renounce and repudiate the policy of 1869, to which the 
 great majority of that House were parties. Having alluded to 
 the concord which had for the moment been established between 
 the Conservatives and the Roman Catholics, and further entreat- 
 ing the House to remove the grievance rather than follow Mr. 
 Disraeli's alternative of withdrawing from the task, Mr. Gladstone 
 thus concluded his powerful speech : 
 
 'For the House, for us all^for the country, I ask what is to be the policy that 
 is to follow the rejection of this bill ? What is to be the policy adopted in Ireland ? 
 Perhaps the bill of my hon. friend the member for Brighton will find favour, which 
 leaves the University of Dublin in the hands of Trinity College, and which, I pre- 
 sume, if passed, will only be the harbinger of an agitation fiercer still than that 
 which we are told would follow the passing of the present bill. It will still leave 
 the Roman Catholic in this condition, that he will not be able to obtain a degree in. 
 Ireland without going either to the Queen's College, to which he objects, or placing 
 himself under examinations and a system of discipline managed and conducted by 
 
 GG
 
 450 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 a Protestant board a board composed of eight gentlemen, of whom six are clergy- 
 men of the disestablished Church of Ireland. The other alternative will be the 
 adopting for Ireland of a new set of principles, which Parliament has repudiated 
 in Ireland and has disclaimed for Great Britain, not only treating the Koman 
 Catholic majority in Ireland as being the Irish nation, but likewise adopting for 
 that Irish nation the principles which we have ourselves overthrown even within 
 the limits of our own generation. I know not with what satisfaction we can look 
 forward to these prospects. It is dangerous to tamper with objects of this kind. 
 We have presented to you our plan, for which we are responsible. We are not 
 afraid, I am not afraid, of the charge of my right hon. friend that we have served 
 the priests. (Mr. Horsman : I did not say so.) I am glad to hear it. I am ready 
 to serve the priests or any other man as far as justice dictates. I am not ready to 
 go an inch further for them or for any other man ; and if the labours of 1869 and 
 1870 are to be forgotten in Ireland if where we have earnestly sought and toiled 
 for peace we find only contention if our tenders of relief are thrust aside with 
 scorn let us still remember that there is a voice which is not heard in the crack- 
 ling of the fire, or in the roaring of the whirlwind or the storm, but which will and 
 must be heard when they have passed away the still small voice of justice. To 
 mete out justice to Ireland, according to the best view that with human infirmity 
 we could form, has been the work, I will almost say the sacred work, of this Parlia- 
 ment. Having put our hand to the plough, let us not turn back. Let not what 
 we think the fault or perverseness of those whom we are attempting to assist have 
 the slightest effect in turning us even by a hair's-breadth from the path on which 
 we have entered. As we have begun, so let us persevere even to the end, and with 
 firm and resolute hand let us efface from the law and the practice of the country, 
 the last for I believe it is the last of the religious and social grievances of 
 Ireland.' 
 
 The amendment having being negatived, a division was taken 
 upon the main question, that the bill be read a second time. A 
 scene of great excitement ensued when, upon the return of the 
 tellers, the clerk at the table handed the paper to Colonel Taylor, 
 the Conservative whip. The tellers approached the table, and 
 comparative quiet having being restored, the numbers were 
 declared as follows: For the bill, 284; against, 287 majority 
 against the Government, 3. Thirty-five Irish, eight English, and 
 two Scotch Liberal members voted against the Government, while 
 eighteen Liberals were absent, and eighteen paired. 
 
 The Grovernment did not, of course, count upon this defeat of 
 their measure, and were quite justified in the hope that the 
 House would support them in removing the last of the great 
 grievances of the Irish people. Some years after the defeat of 
 his scheme, the ex -Premier was questioned as to whether he was 
 really surprised at the rejection of the Irish University Bill, or 
 whether he dealt with the subject as a matter of duty, knowing 
 that he risked almost all that followed. The right hon. gentle- 
 man replied, that considering the extremely favourable reception 
 which the bill met with in the outset, he was mosiremphatically 
 astonished at its ultimate fate. He had been most anxious to 
 dispose of this vexed question of Irish University education 
 Had this been happily accomplished, in all probability the 
 ex-Premier would have brought forward some other schemes of 
 Irish legislation. 
 
 Following his specifically-declared intention, Mr. Gladstone
 
 IRISH UNIVEESITT EDUCATION. 451 
 
 resigned office, whereupon a peculiar difficulty arose. The Premier 
 was unfeignedly desirous of being relieved of his onerous duties, 
 but Mr. Disraeli, acting upon the wishes of the great bulk of his 
 followers, declined to accept office with a majority of the House 
 of Commons against him. Some days later, Mr. Gladstone made 
 a statement in the House of Commons to the effect that he and 
 his colleagues had consented to resume their positions. He also 
 explained the nature of the transactions which had taken place 
 in the interregnum. The Queen having requested his advice 
 upon Mr. Disraeli's unconditional refusal to take office, he (Mr. 
 Gladstone) submitted a statement to her Majesty. That was 
 made known to Mr. Disraeli, and his reply to it was received. 
 Perceiving from the unequivocal nature of this reply that there 
 was no chance of a Government being formed by the party 
 opposite, he had agreed to resume office. Referring to a difference 
 of opinion which had arisen between himself and Mr. Disraeli 
 upon the duties of an Opposition when it had brought about the 
 fall of a Government, Mr. Gladstone read an extract from his 
 letter to the Queen, in which he contended that his rival's sum- 
 mary refusal to accept office was contrary to precedent and Parlia- 
 mentary usage. With regard to the delay which had occurred, 
 he was not conscious of its being due to any personal reluctance 
 to resume office, although he did feel it, and thought he had 
 earned a right to rest so far as it could be earned by labour. That 
 which had occurred, however, he feared would modify the rela- 
 tions of the Government and the Opposition in a manner not 
 likely to contribute to the satisfactory working of our Parlia- 
 mentary system. The Government would endeavour fully and 
 honourably to discharge their duty, and nothing had transpired 
 to shorten the existence of the present Parliament, either as 
 touching the course of public business or the duration of time. 
 Nothing could be more injurious than the prevalence of opinions 
 to the contrary effect. The Government would endeavour to 
 proceed, both with respect to legislation and administration, in 
 the same manner and upon the same principles as those which 
 had heretofore governed their conduct. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli then gave his version of the Ministerial difficulty 
 and the advice he had tendered to the Queen. His speech was 
 in reality a manifesto to the country. He pointed out that the 
 majority against the Government had been created by a con- ' 
 siderable section of the Liberal party, with whom he had no bond 
 of union. He had had experience of office under such circum- 
 stances as those which had recently arisen, and it had convinced 
 him that such an experiment weakened authority and destroyed 
 public confidence. He had consequently prayed her Majesty to 
 
 GG2
 
 452 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 relieve him of the task. Upon the question why he had not 
 advised the Queen to dissolve, he remarked that although a 
 Minister in office could perform it with great promptitude, it was 
 not so with a Minister who had to form his Government. He 
 might, perhaps, have been able to dissolve in May, but what could 
 he have dissolved upon ? The Irish University Bill was not suffi- 
 cient, nor could a Government appeal to the country without a 
 policy. The function of the Opposition was essentially critical, 
 and it was totally impossible for them suddenly to have a policy 
 matured. Mr. Disraeli next illustrated in an amusing manner 
 the difficulties of a Government which endeavoured to carry on 
 public business in the face of a hostile majority. After stating 
 that the Queen had given him permission to dissolve if it would 
 assist him, Mr. Disraeli with a view of showing that he had 
 exhausted all means before refusing office read an extract from 
 his letter to her Majesty, in which he stated he had represented to 
 her Majesty that Mr. Gladstone had resigned on very inadequate 
 grounds, and that his honour having been satisfied by a resigna- 
 tion, his return to office was the best solution of the difficulty. 
 Mr. Disraeli concluded by predicting for the Tory party a noble 
 and a triumphant career, when other topics pressing to the front 
 would become ' great and burning questions.' 
 
 Thus closed a remarkable episode in the history of Irish uni- 
 versity education. Although much of the time of the session of 
 1873 was devoted to this important scheme, some measures of 
 great value were passed. Foremost of these was Lord Selborne's 
 Judicature Bill. Mr. Forster brought forward in the Commons a 
 bill transferring from the school boards to the guardians of the 
 poor the duty of determining whether the fees of indigent children 
 should be paid out of the rates ; and this bill passed. Mr. Lowe 
 was not so successful with his financial measures as the chief of 
 the Government had been in former years, and Mr. Gladstone came 
 to his assistance in the debate on Mr. W. H. Smith's motion upon 
 the subject of local taxation, which the Premier said was aimed 
 at all indirect taxes. The resolution was negatived without a 
 division. Mr. Fawcett carried his bill for the reform of the Uni- 
 versity of Dublin, but it was so changed as to become a simple 
 measure for the abolition of tests. Mr. Miall's motion for the dis- 
 establishment of the Church of England was defeated by 356 to 
 61 votes, Mr. Gladstone delivering the most important speech 
 against it. He said that he not only opposed the motion on its 
 merits, but because it was ill-timed and incapable of present dis- 
 cussion. The popular feeling was not favourable to the proposal, 
 and if a general election were to occur he believed a House would 
 be returned much less disposed to entertain the question than
 
 IRISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 453 
 
 the existing one. Mi 1 . Gladstone also opposed Mr. Cowper- 
 Temple's proposal for the delivery of sermons in churches by 
 laymen and Dissenters. The principle of extending household 
 suffrage to counties received the personal adhesion of the Premier 
 this session. In proposing the usual grant on the approaching 
 marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh to the Grand Duchess Marie 
 Alexandrovna of Kussia, Mr. Gladstone said the union would be 
 one of affection, and expressed his trust that the day had gone 
 by when royal personages connected with this country were 
 required to enter into matrimonial engagements 'without the 
 consecrating element of personal attachment, which was the 
 solemn basis on which this union was founded.' 
 
 Several Ministerial changes of an important character occurred 
 shortly after the close of the session. Mr. Lowe having resigned 
 the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone took up the 
 duties himself, and filled the double offices of Premier and 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Eipon, Mr. Childers, and 
 Mr. Baxter retired from the Government, and Mr. Bright 
 re-entered it as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 
 Vigorous speeches in defence of the Ministerial policy were 
 made during the recess, but the Government failed to recover its 
 once overwhelming popularity.
 
 CHAPTEE XXII 
 
 FALL OF ME. GLADSTONE'S MINISTRY. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli on the Policy of tne Government Reaction against the Liberal 
 Ministry The Premier's Manifesto to the Electors of Greenwich Dissolution 
 of Parliament Reasons for the Step A Record of distinguished Service Mr. 
 Gladstone's Proposals Public Opinion on the Manifesto Mr. Disraeli's Counter- 
 blast The Straits of Malacca A Geographical Quarrel Result of the General 
 Election Resignation of Mr. Gladstone Character and Labours of bis Adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 THE autumn of 1873 was a time of strange transition in the 
 political feeling of the country. The people clearly demonstrating 
 that they no longer desired to keep up with the reforming zeal of 
 the Grovernment, Mr. Disraeli stepped in, and cleverly guided the 
 public sentiment to the advantage of the Opposition. Writing 
 to his * dear Grey,' in October, he observed that * for nearly five 
 years the present Ministers have harassed every trade, worried 
 every profession, and assailed or menaced every class, institution, 
 and species of property in the country. Occasionally they have 
 varied this state of civil warfare by perpetrating some job which 
 outraged public opinion, or by stumbling into mistakes which 
 have been always discreditable, and sometimes ruinous. All this 
 they call a policy and seem quite proud of it ; but the country 
 has, I think, made up its mind to close this career of plundering 
 and blundering.' This strongly-exaggerated description of the 
 Premier's policy had the effect of fanning the popular discontent. 
 The bye-elections which had recently occurred had mostly proved 
 substantial Conservative victories, and indications were not 
 wanting that many Liberal members who had long endorsed Mr. 
 Gladstone's action were falling away from him. The Bible was 
 affirmed to be in danger ; and when it came to ' beer ' as well, 
 amongst other things, the work of revolution was pronounced by 
 many powerful classes as certainly going too far. The joint flag 
 of 'Beer and Bible' having been hoisted, the cry against the 
 ! Ministry became irresistible. 
 
 ' Something must be done. That which was done was an equal 
 
 , surprise to both political parties. The Premier assured by the 
 
 press that the people whom he had so long and so faithfully served
 
 FALL OF ME. GLADSTONE'S MINISTRY. 455 
 
 had turned their backs upon him, and weary of the half-hearted 
 support of his own party resolved to take the direct judgment of 
 the country itself upon the aspect of public affairs. Accordingly, 
 on the 23rd of January, he issued a lengthy manifesto to the electors 
 of Greenwich, announcing that the existing Parliament would 
 be dissolved, and a new one summoned to meet without delay. The 
 excitement of the people was intense when they learnt that the 
 Parliament of 1868 the Parliament which had disestablished 
 the Irish Church, settled the Irish land question, abolished Pur- 
 chase in the Army, founded a system of National Education, and 
 established the Ballot was declared, as Cromwell once declared 
 a Parliament, to be no longer a Parliament. 
 
 In the fullest and frankest manner, Mr. Gladstone in a 
 document entitled to rank as a State paper, from its political and 
 historical importance stated his reasons for what was regarded 
 in many quarters as a political coup d'etat. After observing 
 that the welfare of the country can never be effectually promoted 
 by a G-overnment which is not invested with adequate authority, 
 he wrote: 'In the month of March last the G-overnment were 
 defeated in their effort to settle upon just and enlarged principles 
 the long-disputed question of the higher education in Ireland, if 
 not by a combined, yet concurrent effort of the leader of the 
 Opposition and of the Roman Catholic prelacy of Ireland. Upon 
 suffering this defeat the G-overnment, according to the practice 
 of our Constitution, placed their resignation in the hands of the 
 Sovereign. Her Majesty, in the just and wise exercise of her high 
 office, applied to the leader of the Opposition. He, however, declar- 
 ing that he was not prepared with a policy, and could not govern 
 in the existing Parliament, declined to fill the void which he had 
 made. Under these circumstances, we thought ourselves bound 
 by loyalty to the Queen not to decline the resumption of our offices. 
 But this step we took with an avowed reluctance. We felt that, 
 in consequence of what had happened, both the Crown and coun- 
 try were placed at a disadvantage, as it was established that, 
 during the existence of the present Parliament, one party only 
 could. govern, and must, therefore, govern without appeal. We 
 also felt that a precedent had been set, which both diminished 
 our strength and weakened the general guarantees for the 
 responsibility and integrity of Parliamentary opposition. Of 
 this diminution of strength we were painfully and sensibly 
 reminded during the session by the summary and rapid dismissal, 
 in the House of Lords, of measures which had cost much tirm 
 and labour to the House of Commons. But we remembered 
 that in the years 1868 and 1870, when the mind of the country 
 was unambiguously expressed, the House of Lords had, much to
 
 456 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 its honour, deferred to that expression upon matters of great 
 moment ; and I cannot doubt that it would have continued in 
 this course had the isolated and less certain, but still frequent 
 and fresh, indications of public opinion at single elections con- 
 tinued to be in harmony with the powerful and authentic, but 
 now more remote, judgment of 1868.' 
 
 This state of things not having improved, however, during the 
 latter part of the recess, the Administration desired to pass from 
 a condition thus fitful and casual, to one in which the nation 
 would have full opportunity of expressing its will and choice as 
 between the two political parties. The Government of the day, 
 whatever it might be, would thus be armed with the just means 
 of authority. Mr. Gladstone next reviewed the measures of his 
 Ministry, and claimed a renewal of confidence. He promised a 
 diminution of local taxation and the total repeal of the income- 
 tax, for which the surplus of upwards of four millions which he 
 would have to show would afford justification. He observed that 
 the income-tax had been borne with exemplary patience, mainly 
 on the ground of the great work of liberation which had been 
 achieved by its aid. But no Grovernment had ever been able to 
 make it perpetual. The proceeds of the income-tax for the present 
 year were expected to be between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000, 
 and at a sacrifice for the financial year of something less than 
 5,500,000, the country might enjoy the advantage and relief of 
 its total repeal. He declared that this advantage was in present 
 circumstances practicable, but added that it was manifest they 
 ought not to aid the rates, and remove the income-tax, without 
 giving to the general consumer, and giving him simultaneously, 
 some marked relief in the class of articles of popular consumption. 
 
 The Premier next pointed out that the changes indicated 
 would dispose of considerably more than the surplus named, 
 but there was nothing to preclude the Government from asking 
 Parliament to consider, in conjunction with those great remis- 
 sions, what moderate assistance could be had from judicious 
 adjustments of existing taxes. Pointing to his own declarations 
 of 1868, he affirmed that he could not belong to a Government 
 which did not on every occasion seek to enlarge its resources by 
 a wise economy. As some earnest of his sincerity in this matter, 
 he added, ' The policy of the Government for the last five years in 
 particular, the character and opinions of my colleagues, and the 
 financial and commercial legislation with which I may say that, 
 since 1842, 1 have been associated, are before you.' In conclud- 
 ing, Mr. Gladstone referred to the charge sometimes ma.de that 
 the Liberal Government and. party had endangered the institu- 
 tions and worried all the interests of the country. As to the
 
 FALL OF MB. GLADSTONE'S MINI5TET. 457 
 
 interests, he was aware of no one that had been injured, and if 
 unhappily they had offended any, it was not their intention or 
 wish, but in consequence of their anxiety to consult the highest 
 interest of all the interest of the nation. 'As to the institu- 
 tions of the country, gentlemen, the charge is the very same that 
 you have been accustomed to hear urged against Liberal Grovern- 
 ments in general for the last forty years. It is time to test by a 
 general survey of the past this trite and vague allegation. Now, 
 there has elapsed a period of forty, or more exactly a period of 
 forty-three, years since the Liberal party acquired the main 
 direction of public affairs. This followed another period of about 
 forty years, beginning with the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
 War, during which there had been an almost unbroken rule of 
 their opponents, who claimed, and were reputed to be the great 
 preservers of the institutions of the country. But I ask you to 
 judge the men by the general results. I fear we must admit that 
 the term of forty years of Tory rule which closed in 1830, and to 
 which you are invited to return, left the institutions of the country 
 weaker, ay, even in its peace and order less secure, than at the 
 commencement of the period it had found them. I am confident 
 that if now the present Government be dismissed from the service 
 of their Gracious Mistress and of the country, the Liberal party, 
 which they represent, may at least challenge contradiction when 
 they say that their term of forty years leaves the throne, the laws, 
 and the institutions of the country not weaker, but stronger than 
 it found them. Such, gentlemen, is the issue placed before you, 
 and before the nation, for your decision. If the trust of this 
 Administration be by the effect of the present elections virtually 
 renewed, I, for one, will serve you, for what remains of my time, 
 faithfully ; if the confidence of the country be taken from us and 
 handed over to others whom you may judge more worthy, I, for 
 one, shall accept cheerfully my dismissal.' * 
 
 * The opinions of the press upon Mr. Gladstone's Address of course varied in 
 tone. The Times wrote : ' The Prime Minister descends upon Greenwich amid a 
 shower of gold, and must needs prove as irrresistible as the Father of the Gods. 
 The benefits he proposes to confer upon the tax-payers of the country will seem to 
 them miraculous, as they will feel at first some difficulty in understanding how so 
 much relief from taxation can be got out of even 5,000,000. Upon this head, how- 
 ever, they will reassure themselves by remembering that few venture to assail Mr. 
 Gladstone's arithmetic, and even if it should prove necessary, as Mr. Gladstone 
 hints, that some moderate assistance to the revenue, through judicious adjustments 
 of existing taxes, should accompany these great remissions, there must still be a 
 vast balance of relief in their favour. . . . The issue is before the country, and 
 Mr. Gladstone is to be approved for no longer delaying it.' The Daily News said : 
 ' Here is a full and attractive programme of Liberal policy. The Liberal party are, 
 in fact, invited to open a fresh chapter of their history. . . . Whatever may be 
 said of the tune or manner of the dissolution, it is, beyond all dispute, a policy to 
 awaken or, if anybody will have it so, to revive the enthusiasm of the Liberal 
 party, and to benefit the country.' ' Mr. Gladstone,' said the Standard, ' probably 
 finds that he could not meet the present Parliament, for all his nominal majority,
 
 458 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 The leader of the Opposition lost no time in issuing a counter- 
 blast to the Prime Minister's address. On the very day upon 
 which the document which we have just summarised appeared, 
 Mr. Disraeli indited an epistle to the electors of Buckinghamshire. 
 Its phraseology, if in some parts brusque, was undoubtedly clever. 
 This brief definition, nevertheless, exhausts its merits. Com- 
 mencing with a reference to the dissolution, he said, ' Whether 
 this step has been taken as a means of avoiding the humbling 
 confession by the Prime Minister that he has, in a fresh violation 
 of constitutional law, persisted in retaining for several months a 
 seat to which he was no longer entitled, or has been resorted to 
 by his Government in order to postpone or evade the day of 
 reckoning for a war carried on without communication with 
 
 without sustaining an immediate and decisive defeat. . . . We have condemned, 
 as the country will condemn, a policy which must be described as one of surprise 
 and intrigue.' The Daily Telegraph thus expressed itself : ' It is an admirable 
 record of success, and it will remain for others to celebrate his share in the work. 
 The country will not forget $hat share when it pronounces judgment in the present 
 House of Commons on the Liberal party. Mr. Gladstone has given it the materials 
 for a mature verdict. But the all-important necessity is that the House of Com- 
 mons should again be brought into harmony with the country, and be endowed 
 with new vigour. ... If the nation should express its trust in Mr. Gladstone, he 
 will be able to proceed with the great financial work in hand as vigorously as he 
 did when he took office at the head of a great majority in 1868.' The Morning Post 
 remarked that, ' Taken altogether in its general bearings, it must be allowed that 
 the address to the electors of Greenwich is a very able apology for the Adminis- 
 tration, and does great credit by the boldness of its language, if not by its lavish 
 bids for support, to the statesman who penned it. Whether it will stand analysis 
 remains to be seen.' The Pall Mall Gazette took the following review of the Pre- 
 mier's appeal for a renewal of confidence : ' The authority which he wants and 
 openly asks for is a personal authority, renewed and confirmed by a plebiscite 
 " Unambiguously express your opinions once more, or, in other words, make me 
 sigain personally supreme and paramount over the other branch of the Legislature. 
 Make me again the absolute ruler I was five years ago, confirm the powerful and. 
 authentic, but now more remote judgment of 1868, and I in return will remit you 
 the income-tax, lighten your local burdens, and free your breakfast tables." Such 
 is the offer ; and, whatever we think of its terms or its morality, its candour is 
 undeniable.' ' The issue upon which attention must be concentrated,' contended the 
 Globe, ' is that upon which lies the appeal to the country. . . . Accepting Mr. 
 Gladstone's account of the situation, we deem it the most humiliating a Prime 
 Minister could voluntarily assume ; and while we appreciate the wisdom of his 
 appeal to hope instead of gratitude, we have little doubt the country will discount 
 his draft on its confidence on the terms he has himself established, as only reason- 
 able and only safe.' The Echo observed that, ' Whatever difference of opinion may 
 agitate the country for the next few weeks, we are confident there will be but 
 one as regards the illustrious statesman whose address we are now considering. 
 No one of his opponents will advocate the repeal of any one of the great measures 
 by which his Administration has been signalised, while his supporters will remem- 
 ber that no other five years have been equally fruitful in wise, just, and beneficial 
 legislation.' Coming to the weekly journals, we find the Saturday Eeview opposed 
 to the spirit of the manifesto. ' The Liberal party has done great things in the 
 last forty years, and some of the greatest have been done since Mr. Gladstone has 
 been Prime Minister. But although we may honour statesmen for what they have 
 done in the past, we are obliged to judge their present policy by its own special 
 character, and it is difficult to see anything in this sudden dissolution, and in Mr. 
 Gladstone's bargaining for the price of a financial secret, which raises the repu- 
 tation of the Liberal party, or adds to the benefits it has conferred on the country.' 
 The Spectator was more just in its view as to the rights of a statesman at a critical
 
 FALL OF ME. GLADSTONE'S MINISTEY. 459 
 
 Parliament, and the expenditure for which Parliament has not 
 sanctioned, it is unnecessary to consider.' The right hon. 
 gentleman then described the Prime Minister's address as 'a 
 prolix narrative, in which he mentions many of the questions 
 that have occupied, or may occupy, public attention, but in which 
 I find nothing definite as to the policy he would pursue except 
 this, that, having the prospect of a large surplus, he will, if 
 retained in power, devote that surplus to the remission of taxation 
 which would be the course of any party or any Ministry.' Mr. 
 Disraeli next declared that he had always endeavoured, and would 
 continue to endeavour, to propose or support all measures calcu- 
 lated to improve the condition of the people ; but he did not 
 think this great end could be attained by incessant and harassing 
 legislation. ' By an act of folly or of ignorance rarely equalled/ 
 he continued, ' the present Ministry relinquished a treaty which 
 secured us the freedom of the Straits of Malacca for our trade with. 
 China and Japan, and they at the same time entering, on the 
 West Coast of Africa, into those equivocal and entangling engage- 
 ments, which the Prime Minister now deprecates, involved us in. 
 the Ashantee War. The honour of the country now requires that 
 we should prosecute that war with a vigour necessary to ensure 
 success, but, when that honour is vindicated, it will be the duty 
 of Parliament to inquire by what means we were led into a costly 
 and destructive contest, which neither the Parliament nor the 
 country have sanctioned, and of the necessity or justice of which, 
 in its origin, they have not been made aware.' * Mr. Disraeli, in 
 concluding an address whose flippancy contrasted strangely with 
 the dignity and gravity of that of his rival, pronounced against 
 the extension of household suffrage to the counties, criticised 
 adversely the more prominent features of Mr. Gladstone's policy,. 
 
 moment to appeal to a long record of distinguished services, and more generous in 
 its recognition of those services. ' No sincere Liberal will doubt that Mr. Gladstone's 
 appeal to the people of England ought to meet with a cordial and grateful response. 
 This Government has been distinguished above all other Liberal Governments for 
 the honesty and earnestness with which it has redeemed its pledges, instead of 
 using them mainly as baits to catch votes. It has been a steady, and an upright, 
 and a Liberal Government, not a Conservative Government with a Liberal name, 
 and has done more to gain for the people of the United Kingdom some addition to 
 that stock of human happiness which, as Mr. Gladstone, as truly, as pathetically 
 says, is never too abundant, than any Government of the present generation. 
 The genuine Liberals, who see its shortcomings best, will also see best its immea- 
 surable superiority to anything likely to replace it.' The Examiner took the 
 advanced Radical view, and cared little whether Mr. Gladstone was accepted or 
 rejected at Greenwich, or whether he or Mr. Disraeli came into power. The 
 Nonconformist, while exhorting Nonconformists throughout the country to close up 
 their ranks and to act upon the maxim ' Measures not men,' observed of the Govern- 
 ment, ' We have nothing to say against their being upheld. They are very much to 
 be preferred to any Conservative Government of whack we can conceive.' 
 
 * With an alteration of names, these expressions of opinion may be com- 
 mended to the consideration of the Administration of which their writer is now the 
 chief*
 
 460 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 and assured the electors that, if again returned, he would resist 
 every proposal which might impair the strength and stability of 
 England. 
 
 Parliament was dissolved on the 26th of January, and the new 
 House was summoned to meet on the 5th of March. The elec- 
 tioneering campaign at once began in earnest. Mr. Gladstone's 
 general adherence to the principles of the educational policy 
 pursued during the past four years caused the Nonconformist 
 Committee to pass a resolution declaring it to be the immediate 
 duty of all who desired to restore union and vigour to the Liberal 
 party, to insist that all candidates for their support should pledge 
 themselves against the further development of the denominational 
 system. There were many difficulties, in addition to this, in the 
 way of Liberal union. On the 28th Mr. Gladstone met his con- 
 stituents on Blackheath. After alluding to the circumstances 
 under which the Ministry resigned in -the previous March, he 
 replied to the election address of Mr. Disraeli. He warned his 
 hearers that when they were asked to divert their attention from 
 domestic aflairs to foreign policy, they were called upon to run 
 away from what they had the power of comprehending, to discuss 
 that which was extremely difficult adequately to study and 
 comprehend. The Premier then defended those points of the 
 foreign policy of the Government which had been attacked, and 
 thus took up the reference by the leader of the Opposition to the 
 Straits of Malacca : ' Such is his poverty and destitution of 
 points to make against the Government, although he travels all the 
 way to the Straits of Malacca for the purpose, that he manufactures 
 his charge out of an act which is not a bad act, but a good act, 
 and an act which was not done by us, but done by the colleagues 
 of Mr. Disraeli, and by the Government to which he belonged. 
 Understand me, gentlemen, when I say it was done, I mean this : 
 the draft of the treaty concluded by us was forwarded by Lord 
 Derby in the month of September or August, 1868. He deserved 
 the main credit for it, and credit not discredit is what is due. 
 And so, gentlemen, I will leave the leader of the Opposition for 
 the present floundering and foundering in the Straits of Malacca.' 
 Mr. Gladstone then reiterated that economy and reduction of 
 taxation were the great objects which the success of the Liberal 
 party would secure. At the same time, he did not believe that 
 it was in his power to serve them unless they were a united 
 Liberal party. 
 
 At Aylesbury, on the 31st, Mr. Disraeli returned to the charge 
 with regard to the Straits of Malacca, affirming that the conduct 
 of the Government over which he presided was exactly the reverse 
 of that which the Prime Minister had alleged against them. Mr.
 
 FALL OF ME. GLADSTONE'S MINISTRY. 461 
 
 Gladstone, however, was determined to have the last word upon 
 the subject save for the avalanche of geographical ignorance 
 which descended upon the press in relation to these Straits of 
 Malacca. Delivering the last of his eloquent election addresses 
 at Deptford, the Premier denied that his Administration ever 
 advised the recall of the late Lord Mayo from the Governor- 
 Generalship of India, and then took up the Malacca question. 
 4 The real Straits of Malacca,' he said, ' are but twenty or thirty 
 miles broad. But no, says Mr. Disraeli, the Straits of Malacca 
 are between Acheen and the Continent, where the sea is 150 miles 
 wide. Mr. Disraeli I have no doubt quite unintentionally 
 has fallen into a sad error, which I will endeavour to expose. 
 The narrow part of the Straits near the Island of Sumatra is 
 bordered by the kingdom of Siak. It was with regard to Siak 
 I stated that Lord Malmesbury had accepted with thanks the 
 treaty transmitted by the Dutch announcing that they had assumed 
 the control of Siak. I stated also that the kingdom of Siak was 
 the part of Sumatra which was important with respect to the 
 Straits.' Mr. Gladstone next defended his Irish policy, and con- 
 tended that the Land Act had removed a great scandal. He 
 further reminded the meeting of the remaining principal achieve- 
 ments of the Government, and concluded by expressing his belief 
 that the Liberal party, once more joining hand in hand and 
 setting shoulder to shoulder, would carry forward the banner they 
 so long bore in hope, and which for nearly forty years they had 
 borne on to victory, and would achieve results worthy of the past, 
 and full of national benefit for the future. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli, speaking subsequently at Newport Pagnell, said 
 that although he was quite as anxious as the Premier to abolish 
 the income-tax, he yet felt there were occasions, such as a sudden 
 war, or a reform of the tariff, when it would be necessary to have 
 recourse to this impost. He declined to pledge himself to any 
 specific course, either with regard to the income tax or indirect 
 taxation. 
 
 With these declarations of policy before them, the constitu- 
 encies went to the poll ; and the first general election held under 
 the ballot was conducted in a peaceable and creditable manner. 
 A few riots occurred, but, on the whole, the elections passed off 
 with orderliness and quietude. The result proved to be most 
 disastrous to the Liberal party. Out of 652 members (the com- 
 plete number of the House, six members being otherwise accounted 
 for) the Conservatives returned 349 and the Liberals 303, thus 
 giving the former a majority of 46 votes. The Liberals lost 
 95 seats and gained 39, so that their net loss was 56 seats, being 
 equivalent to 112 votes on a division. The licensed victuallers
 
 462 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 had thrown in their interest with the Conservatives, and * Bung ' 
 was everywhere triumphant ; even Mr. Gladstone himself so far 
 succumbed to his influence as to occupy an inferior position 
 upon the Greenwich poll. Other interests, acting under the belief 
 that the Ministry were their oppressors, also declared against 
 them. In no instance was this more conspicuous than in the 
 case of the docky ardsmen. Greenwich, Chatham, Portsmouth , and 
 Devonport, exasperated with Mr. Gladstone, and allured by the 
 promises of friendship held out by the Conservatives, swelled the 
 Tory reaction. The curious in such matters may readily discover 
 what the dockyard employes have reaped by these changes under 
 the new regime. The farmers, the licensed victuallers, the dock- 
 yardsmen, the civil service, and the Church all pronounced in 
 favour of Mr. Disraeli, and all with expectation of immediate 
 legislation for their benefit. The leader of the Opposition was 
 so far grateful to the licensed victuallers that legislation was set 
 on foot on their behalf, while the clergy were understood to be 
 temporarily satisfied when Mr. Disraeli affirmed that the country 
 had emphatically declared that education must be preserved 
 upon a strictly religious basis. 
 
 As soon as the national verdict was known, Mr. Gladstone 
 went to Windsor and tendered his resignation and that of his 
 colleagues to the Queen. The great Liberal leader surrendered 
 his functions after a term of office which, while not very protracted, 
 was distinguished for wise and memorable acts of legislation. 
 Having faithfully served his Sovereign and his country, he now 
 made room for his successors. In stepping down from his high 
 position overshadowed but not disgraced we can find no words 
 more appropriate in which to describe him than those once used 
 by Lord Beaconsfield concerning Sir Eobert Peel : ' Placed in 
 an age of rapid civilisation and rapid transition, he had adapted 
 the practical character of his measures to the condition of the 
 times. He had never employed his influence for factious purposes, 
 and had never been stimulated in his exertions by a disordered 
 desire of obtaining office ; above all, he had never carried himself to 
 the opposite benches by making propositions by which he was not 
 ready to abide.' * The only grave charge made against Mr. 
 Gladstone as a political leader was his alleged want of tact in 
 the management of the House of Commons. It may be that, in 
 the superabundance of other gifts, he had not all the qualities 
 best suited to this task, but to these objectors a comparison 
 
 * This juster estimate of Sir Robert Peel both in the eyes of his contemporaries 
 and of posterity than that which Lord Beaconsfield subsequently formed, was 
 pronounced during the debate on the ' no confidence ' motion in the Ministry, May 
 27th, 1841.
 
 FALL OF ME. GLADSTONE'S MINISTRY. 463 
 
 may well be suggested between Mr. Gladstone's management of 
 the House of Commons and that of the sessions of 1878 and 
 1879. Let it at once be admitted, however, that the Gladstone 
 Ministry had its failures, which were mainly owing to the fact 
 that the Premier's ablest lieutenants were most conspicuous for 
 their lack of practical adaptability. What had much more to do 
 with the failure of the Government was its misfortune in stirring 
 up an antagonism in many of the most powerful classes of society. 
 How much of the blame attached to them, and how much to the 
 classes against whom they were supposed to wage war, we need 
 not attempt to determine. It was well said by a writer of the 
 time that 4 a great many people entertain towards Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Government the same sort of sentiment as that which 
 worthy Mrs. Bertram, in Scott's romance, felt for the energetic 
 revenue officer who would persist in doing his duty, instead of 
 following the example of his predecessor, who sang his song, and 
 took his drink, and drew his salary without troubling any one.' 
 
 But the record which the Gladstone Administration has left in 
 the Statute Book might well atone for blunders far more stupen- 
 dous than those with which it was fairly chargeable. Its errors 
 were few and trivial by comparison ; its services were conspicuous 
 and enduring. It is worthy of equal remembrance with any 
 Ministry of the century, for in its legislation it touched higher 
 grounds than those of mere material comfort and prosperity 
 (though in a remarkable degree it considered these also): it 
 satisfied the claims of conscience, and met in so far as the time 
 of its duration permitted those demands of justice, in relation 
 to Ireland, which had hitherto been ignored demands which had 
 been the sport of circumstances and of Governments, and for 
 whose redress their advocates had long knocked at the doors of 
 the British Legislature in vain.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 SPEECHES ON PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The new Premier Mr. Gladstone partially retires from the Liberal Leadership- 
 Letter to Lord Granville Debate on the Address Church Patronage of Scotland 
 Bill Opposed by Mr. Gladstone His Speech on the Public Worship Regulation 
 Bill The ex-Premier's Six Resolutions Reasons for their Withdrawal The En- 
 dowed Schools Act Amendment Bill a retrograde Measure Strongly attacked 
 by Mr. Gladstone Strange Confession of the Premier The Bill passes in a 
 mutilated Form Mr. Gladstone on Education Reply to Dr. Strauss's Work, The 
 Old Belief^ and the New Address to the Working Classes Friendly Societies, 
 Trades Unions, &c. Facilities for Intellectual Improvement The ex-Premier at 
 Mill Hill School Advice to the Students The Higher Culture.. 
 
 BORNE into office by a strong current of public opinion, Mr. 
 Disraeli, for the first time in his Parliamentary career, now com- 
 manded a majority. It seemed to change the simile as though 
 some brilliant but erratic comet, arrested in mid-course, had 
 suddenly been given the elements of stability. The talents of the 
 new Premier had always commanded the admiration of his sup- 
 porters (and to a large extent of his opponents), but with this 
 admiration there mingled in many quarters little of the sentiment 
 of sincere esteem. By the admission of members of his own side 
 of the House, the leader of the Conservative party had never 
 evoked amongst his followers that feeling of implicit trust and 
 affection with which his predecessor, Lord Derby, had been re- 
 garded. Amongst the strongest denunciations of his policy were 
 those pronounced by men long the occupants of the same benches 
 with himself ; and perhaps the most crushing indictment of his 
 career is to be found, not in the party journals, nor yet in the 
 addresses of Liberal politicians, but in the speeches of one who 
 afterwards became his most trusted friend and colleague. 
 
 But Mr. Disraeli was now in power, and the question that arose 
 was, ' What will he do with it ? ' Whatever chances Mr. Gladstone 
 had once possessed of righting himself with the House had 
 vanished with the general election. It was said that if he had met 
 Parliament, and brought forward his budget announcing the repeal 
 of the income-tax, all would have been well. Such speculations 
 were now useless. He had taken the hazard of the die, and for 
 tune had been against him ; and there were not wanting members
 
 PUBLIC WOESHIP AND EDUCATION. 465 
 
 of both Houses, supposed to have been in sympathy with him, who 
 could even grow jocular upon his fall. With Buckingham, the 
 ex-Premier might have said : 
 
 ' Those you make friends 
 
 And give your hearts to, when they once perceive 
 The least rub in your fortunes, fall away 
 Like water from ye, never found again 
 But where they mean to sink ye.' * 
 
 Lord Selborne j ustly and severely rebuked a certain noble duke tor 
 his flippancies at the expense of the fallen Minister. It was the 
 old story transferred into political life of a reverse of fortune 
 testing friendship, and the flocking of the multitude after its 
 new idol. We pass by these exhibitions of feeling, as both painful 
 and humiliating. 
 
 Shortly before the House met for active business, the Liberal 
 party were astonished at finding themselves practically without a 
 leader. In one of the speeches delivered before his constituents, 
 Mr. Gladstone had intimated that if the country resolved upon 
 the dismissal of the Liberal Ministry, he should reserve to himself 
 the right of limiting his future services to his party as he might 
 think fit. He was sincerely desirous of enjoying that period of 
 repose which he had fairly earned, though there were not lacking 
 opponents who attributed his comparative retirement from Parlia- 
 mentary life to personal pique. His letter to Lord Granville, 
 however, dated 11, Carlton House Terrace, March 12, fully 
 explained the reasons for that step which took the House and 
 the country somewhat by surprise : 
 
 ' My dear Granville, I have issued a circular to members of Parliament of the 
 Liberal party on the occasion of the opening of Parliamentary business. But I 
 feel it to be necessary that, while discharging this duty, I should explain what a 
 circular could not convey with regard to my individual position at the present 
 time. I need not apologise for addressing these explanations to you. Indepen- 
 dently of other reasons for so troubling you, it is enough to observe that you have 
 very long represented the Liberal party, and have also acted on behalf of the late 
 Government, from its commencement to its close, in the House of Lords. 
 
 For a variety of reasons personal to myself, I could not contemplate any un- 
 limited extension of active political service ; and I am anxious that it should be 
 clearly understood by those friends with whom I have acted in the direction of 
 affairs, that at my age I must reserve my entire freedom to divest myself of all the 
 responsibilities of leadership at no distant time. The need of rest will prevent me 
 from giving more than occasional attendance in the House of Commons during 
 the present session. 
 
 I should be desirous, shortly before the commencement of the session of 1875, to 
 consider whether there would be advantage in my placing my services for a time 
 at the disposal of the Liberal party, or whether I should then claim exemption from 
 the duties I have hitherto discharged. If, however, there should be reasonable 
 ground for believing that, instead of the course which I have sketched, it would 
 be preferable, in the view of the party generally, for me to assume at once the 
 place of an independent member, I should willingly adopt the latter alternative. 
 But I shall retain all that desire I have hitherto felt for the welfare of the party, 
 and if the gentlemen composing it should think fit either to choose a leader ot 
 
 * Kiny Henry V7II., Act ii., Scene i. 
 
 H H
 
 466 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 make provision ad interim, with a view to the convenience of the present year, the 
 person designated would, of course, command from me any assistance which he 
 might find occasion to seek, and which it might be in my power to render.' 
 
 The Liberal party accepted the offer of Mr. Gladstone's informal 
 and modified leadership for the session of 1874, and the chief 
 members of the late Government made the best of the circum- 
 stances in which they were placed. The Ministerialists indulged 
 themselves in a little pleasantry at the expense of an Opposition 
 virtually without a leader, while the latter felt more than ever 
 in how essential a degree Mr. Gladstone was necessary to the 
 party. The Liberal position was that of the cast of Hamlet 
 with the Prince of Denmark withdrawn. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone met his successful antagonist fairly, and in the 
 course of the debate upon the Address defended the conduct of 
 the late Government in dissolving Parliament. He held that 
 the simple possession of a Parliamentary majority did not betoken 
 absolute confidence in a Government, and would not justify it in 
 retaining office until the natural expiration of Parliament. Ad- 
 mitting that the verdict of the country had been pronounced in 
 no uncertain manner, and without discussing the combinations 
 which had brought it about, he did not regret the dissolution by 
 which it had been evoked, if thereby an opportunity had been given 
 to the people to express their opinion upon the conduct of public 
 affairs, and upon those who ought to direct them in the future. 
 The transfer of power was made under conditions favourable to the 
 late Government ; but the majority of the constituencies had 
 rejected their proposals, and as this was the act of the country, the 
 new Government was entitled to a fair trial, and open space for 
 the development of their plans and the application of their prin- 
 ciples. Everything like factious opposition should be avoided, and 
 full opportunity should be given to the various departments to 
 develop their plans and apply their principles. It was but right 
 that the country should have the opportunity of judging of those 
 plans and principles ; and whether the result should be the con- 
 tinuance in power of gentlemen opposite or the contrary, the 
 Constitution would provide a remedy for any conceivable state of 
 things. 
 
 Now was witnessed for a short time the unusual spectacle of a 
 perfectly friendly and peaceful House of Commons. The Govern- 
 ment, making no pretensions to an original policy, resolved on 
 following the example of their predecessors. Mr. Smollett pro- 
 posed a vote of censure upon the late Government in connection 
 with the dissolution, but Mr. Gladstone, in his reply, completely 
 annihilated the arguments of the hon. gentleman, and the motion 
 collapsed. The Premier would hear nothing against the Liberal
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 467 
 
 chief, while Sir Stafford Northcote confessed that the financial 
 calculations of the ex- Prime Minister were quite correct, and 
 that there was a surplus of five millions and a half. All, in fact, 
 went l merry as a marriage bell ' until the introduction of several 
 important religious measures by the Government. 
 
 The first of these measures was the Church Patronage of 
 Scotland Bill. Brought forward in the House of Lords by the 
 Duke of Kichmond on behalf of the Government, the object of 
 this bill was to abolish the system of lay patronage in the 
 Established Kirk, and to make it over to the congregation. The 
 question of patronage had agitated the people of Scotland for the 
 last three hundred years, and the General Assembly had passed 
 various resolutions expressing dissatisfaction with the existing 
 condition of things. The bill, which was exceedingly short, 
 proposed to abolish all Church patronage from the Crown down- 
 wards, and to create a constituency by whom the minister of a 
 congregation might be selected. The qualification taken would 
 be that which existed in other Presbyterian bodies in Scotland, 
 and the patronage would be vested in the male communicants. 
 The bill would enact, as regarded compensation to patrons, that 
 it should not exceed one year's stipend ; and it was believed that 
 in the great majority of cases the patrons would not require 
 compensation at all. 
 
 The Duke of Argyll and some other Liberal peers supported the 
 bill, but on the motion for its second reading in the Commons, 
 Mr. Baxter proposed an amendment to the effect that the House 
 considered it inexpedient to legislate on the subject of patronage 
 in the Church of Scotland without further inquiry and informa- 
 tion. The chief feature of the debate was a vigorous speech by 
 Mr. Gladstone in opposition to the bill. The right hon. gentle- 
 man's re-appearance in the House after a considerable absence was 
 the signal for an unanimous outburst of cheering from the Liberal 
 benches. His presence for some time escaped notice, but when it 
 became known, his greeting was of the warmest and most flatter- 
 ing character. Mr. Gladstone at once grappled with the subject 
 with that facility which in other men we should call eloquence. 
 Regretting to find himself engaged in a new ecclesiastical con- 
 troversy, yet admitting at the same time that the motive of the 
 bill was laudable, the ex-Premier said its details were so objection- 
 able, and its production was so inopportune and premature, that 
 he was constrained to support Mr. Baxter's amendment. He based 
 his opposition to the bill on three grounds the exclusion of 
 ' heritors ' from all share, as such, in the ejection of ministers ; the 
 omission of any provision calculated to meet the case of the High- 
 land parishes ; and the alleged injustice which the abolition of 
 
 H H 2
 
 468 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 patronage would do to the Free Church. The bill amounted to a 
 cry of Peccavi ; and he asked what they were going to do for 
 those people whom they had driven out of the Established Church, 
 and compelled to find ministers for themselves, to build churches, 
 manses, and schools, and in fact to organise and pay for the 
 establishment of a complete system of Church government. I f 
 they would receive them back in bodies, he would withdraw his 
 opposition to the bill. If the General Assembly would, on terms 
 of fraternal equality, communicate with the Dissenting bodies, 
 and endeavour to bring about an union of equality, he would 
 assist them to the full extent of his power ; but the present bill 
 was neither fair nor generous. He wanted to know what the 
 General Assembly had done towards reuniting itself to bodies 
 which it turned out holding the view which formed the basis of 
 the present bill. Mr. Gladstone finally discussed the effects 
 which the measure had already produced : 
 
 ' There was scarcely any disestablishment movement in Scotland until the date 
 of the introduction of this, I do not call it bad, but crude, premature, and insuffi- 
 ciently considered bill. But is it true that there is no promise of a disestablishment 
 movement in Scotland now ? What has happened since the announcement of this 
 bill? The representatives of 1,200,000 of the Scottish people have, in their General 
 Assembly, declared for disestablishment. . . . There were 295, as I under- 
 stand the number, against 98, those 98 not voting in favour of establishment, but 
 for the previous question. I do not wish myself to be responsible for raising the 
 question of disestablishment in Scotland. I am not an idolater of establishments.' 
 
 Here Mr. Gladstone was interrupted by an ironical cheer from 
 the Ministerial benches, but he continued amid the counter 
 cheering of his own supporters : 
 
 ' Neither am I one of those who would wish to raise a controversy of that kind, 
 excepting under very strong justifying circumstances, and excepting with a per- 
 fect preparedness to abide the issue of that contest. If the cheer we have just 
 heard and it was, perhaps, a very fair, natural, and legitimate cheer was intended 
 to imply that I am a great enemy of establishments, because I used every effort in 
 my power to put an end to an establishment in Ireland, I must say, in answer to that 
 cheer, that I do not repent the part I took. So far from repenting it, if I am to 
 have a character with posterity at all supposing posterity is ever to know 
 that such a person as myself existed in this country I am perfectly willing 
 that my character should be tried simply and solely by the proceedings to which I 
 was a party with regard to the Irish Church Establishment. I would, however, in 
 this case recognise distinctions that are founded in the nature of things. In Scot- 
 land there has been no general movement of principle towards disestablishment ; 
 and although an established Church in a minority is an anomaly, it is an anomaly 
 which I was well content to tolerate, and which the masses of- the people of Scot- 
 land were justly and wisely prepared to tolerate, and not to be guided by abstract 
 principles, but by a careful regard to the state of facts. But when in that state of 
 things the Government throws down the challenge before them ; proposes to invest 
 this ecclesiastical body, or even the committee or commission of it, with powers 
 never before entrusted to an ecclesiastical body, but which will infallibly be quoted 
 in support of high clerical pretensions in other quarters; and when in doing that, 
 it does it, as the right hon. and learned lord says, in the sense of strengthening the 
 Established Church, but declining to recognise, for every practical purpose, the 
 existence of those great Presbyterian communities whom you drove out and com- 
 pelled to become Dissenters, entirely declining to recognise them, except as bodies
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 469 
 
 from whom you mike a certain profit by withdrawing one adherent from them 
 here, and another from them there that is a challenge, I think, to them to take 
 up a question of the public and national endowment of religion such as was never 
 before issued by a Government under any circumstances, and such as, in my opinion, 
 it is totally inconsistent with prudence and wisdom to issue. If we have been 
 rash which I do not admit our rashness will certainly fade into utter insignifi- 
 cance by the side of the gratuitous hardihood of the Government, which, as it 
 appears to me, determines to initiate a religious war in Scotland under the influence 
 of the best motives, but under circumstances the most slippery and dangerous.' 
 
 Mr. Disraeli, by whom, in the conduct of business, Mr. Glad- 
 stone's absence had been especially felt, congratulated the right 
 hon. gentleman upon his re-appearance, and expressed the general 
 feeling of the House, when he said that all had missed him. He 
 hoped his appearance that night would not be a solitary one. 
 Keplying to Mr. Gladstone's arguments, he denied that this was 
 an abolition of patronage ; it was merely an alteration in the 
 mode of selecting ministers, and in what they had done the 
 Government had acted upon precedent. With reference to Mr. 
 Gladstone's defence of his Irish Church policy, the Premier 
 expressed a hope that his epitaph would not include the disestab- 
 lishment of any other church. The second reading of the bill was 
 carried by 307 to 109 votes. 
 
 The next important speech by Mr. Gladstone this session was 
 that delivered on the Public Worship Kegulation Bill. This 
 measure, as introduced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, into 
 the House of Lords, in its amended form, provided that to the 
 bishop should be given that directory power as to worship which, 
 from sundry places in the Canons and in the Prayer Book, would 
 seem to have been intended in the constitution of the church. He 
 was to be guided by the advice of a board of assessors, clerical and 
 lay. Supposing that any one parishioner, or the rural dean, or 
 the archdeacon, should think that the practices of a given incum- 
 bent with regard to public worship amounted to a grievance, he 
 should have a right to go to the bishop and state it as such. If 
 the bishop should think it was a matter that ought to be inquired 
 into, he should call his assessors together ; and if that tribunal 
 should condemn the act or acts in question, the bishop would issue 
 Ms monition. But the incumbent might be allowed an appeal to 
 the archbishop with a board of assessors, whose decision should Oe 
 final. 
 
 Having passed the Lords, the bill came down to the Commons, 
 and its second reading was moved by Mr. Eussell Gurney. 
 During the first night of the debate, Mr. Gladstone rose and 
 addressed the House in a speech which, according to the daily 
 journals, fairly electrified the assembly. He began by the declara- 
 tion that he had never approached any question with more 
 embarrassment than this, and he had been constrained to quit
 
 470 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 his retirement to point out the false issue which had been laid 
 before Parliament, and to dispel the delusions and the ignorance 
 which prevailed throughout the country in regard to this bill. 
 The difficulty under which Parliament laboured was increased by 
 the history of the bill, which he traced from the first announce- 
 ment of it by some 'clever fellow' in the columns of a daily 
 paper, and also by the departure from the usual practice that the 
 heads of the Church and of the State should concur in any legis- 
 lation for the Church. His great objection, however, to the bill 
 was its interference with liberty and with the variety of customs 
 which had grown up in different parts of the country, though he 
 ,ilso took exception to the omission of the bishops from the bill, 
 and to the payment of the Judge's salary from the funds of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners. He considered that Ritualism was 
 the smallest part of the question, and with regard to the eighth 
 clause of the bill, which defined the offences to be dealt with, he 
 insisted that by strictly and uniformly enforcing the Rubrics, 
 any indiscreet or fussy bishop would be enabled to root out local 
 usages, traditions, and customs in the celebration of public 
 worship ; and the variations from the Rubric, whether of omission 
 or commission, he maintained ought not to be interfered with. 
 Mr. Gladstone enlarged upon the inconveniences of enforcing 
 strict uniformity. For example, the Rubric required the cate- 
 chising of children at the afternoon service, it required the 
 Athanasian creed to be read thirteen times in the year, and it 
 was very doubtful whether the present Hymnology of the Church 
 was in accordance with the Rubrics. The right hon. gentleman 
 also mentioned the separate or single administration of the con- 
 secrated elements as another matter in which strict uniformity 
 could not be enforced. Then followed this passage, perhaps the 
 most striking in the speech : 
 
 ' I, for one, will make nc objection to any expenditure of time which the House 
 is prepared to make in order to discuss the question ; I will not be the man to 
 raise the cry of difficulty or inconvenience ; but I shall be the man from stage to 
 stage of the bill, as far as it may be necessary, to point out the real nature of 
 the work we are doing, to endeavour to assist the House in sifting these proposals 
 to the bottom, and in dissipating and dispelling the gross illusions which possess 
 the country, and, to a great extent, as it appears to me, the mind of the right hon. 
 and learned gentleman, with regard to the provisions and probable operation of 
 the bill. ... I think I have shown the House that inconvenience must 
 arise from the very first slip of judgment on the part of a bishop who may allow 
 an improper suit to proceed. Well, then, the House may say fairly " Do not you 
 think something ought to be done? " and I think the idea that something ought 
 to be done is what weighs upon the minds of most men. I will tell you what I 
 think ought to be done in principle. The House can do nothing without acknow- 
 ledging how much we owe to the great mass of the clergy of the Church of England 
 for their zeal and devotion. For eighteen years I was a servant of a very large 
 body of them. My place is now most worthily occupied by another ; but I have 
 not forgotten, and never can forget, the many sacrifices they were always ready to 
 make, and the real liberality of mind which upon a thousand occasions they have
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 471 
 
 shown. But even that is a thing totally insignificant in comparison with the worj 
 which they are doing. You talk of the observance of the law. Why, sir, every* 
 day and night the clergyman of the Church of England, by the spirit he diffuses 
 around him, by the lessons he imparts, lays the nation under a load of obligation to" 
 him. The eccentricities of a handful of men, therefore, can never make me forget 
 the illustrious merit of the services done by the mass of the clergy in an age which is 
 beyond all others luxurious, and, I fear, selfish and worldly. These are the men who 
 hold up to us a banner on which is written the motto of Eternal Life, and of the 
 care for things unseen which must remain the chief hope of man through all the 
 vicissitudes of his mortal life.' 
 
 After this eloquent tribute to the clergy, Mr. Gladstone observed 
 that there was imposed on him the duty of saying something about 
 what ought to be done in this matter at least in principle. He 
 had accordingly embodied his ideas on the subject into six reso- 
 lutions, which he proceeded to read to the House as follows : 
 
 ' 1. That in proceeding to consider the provisions of the bill for the Regulation of 
 Public Worship, this House cannot do otherwise than take into view the lapse of 
 more than two centuries since the enactment of the present Rubrics of the 
 Common Prayer Book of the Church of England; the multitude of particulars 
 embraced in the conduct of Divine service under their provisions ; the doubts 
 occasionally attaching to their interpretation, and the number of points they 
 are thought to leave undecided ; the diversities of local custom which under these 
 circumstances have long prevailed ; and the unreasonableness of proscribing all 
 varieties of opinion and usage among the many thousands of congregations of 
 the Church distributed throughout the land. 
 
 2. That this House is therefore reluctant to place in the hands of every single 
 bishop, on the motion of one or of three persons howsoever defined, greatly 
 increased facilities towards procuring an absolute ruling of many points hitherto 
 left open and reasonably allowing of diversity, and thereby towards the establish- 
 ment of an inflexible rule of uniformity throughout the land, to the prejudice, in 
 matters indifferent, of the liberty now practically existing. 
 
 3. That the House willingly acknowledges the great and exemplary devotion of 
 the clergy in general to their sacred calling, but is not on that account the less 
 disposed to guard against the indiscretion, or thirst for power, or other faults of 
 individuals. 
 
 4. That the House is therefore willing to lend its best assistance to any measure 
 recommended by adequate authority, with a view to provide more effectual 
 securities against any neglect of or departure from strict law which may give 
 evidence of a design to alter, without the consent of the nation, the spirit or 
 substance of the established religion. 
 
 5. That, in the opinion of the House, it is also to be desired that the members of 
 the Church, having a legitimate interest in her services, should receive ample 
 protection against precipitate and arbitrary changes of established customs by the 
 sole will of the clergyman and against the wishes locally prevalent among them ; 
 and that such protection does not appear to be afforded by the provisions of the 
 bill now before the House. 
 
 6. That the House attaches a high value to the concurrence of her Majesty's 
 Government with the ecclesiastical authorities in the initiative of legislation 
 affecting the established Church.' 
 
 Sir William Harcourt said they had all been under the wand 
 of the Great Enchanter, and had listened with rapt attention as 
 he poured forth the wealth of his incomparable eloquence ; but 
 the speech they had just heard could only be described as a 
 powerful plea for universal Nonconformity, or optional con- 
 formity. The chief thing to be done was to reassert the unalterable 
 attachment of the people of England to the principles of the 
 Reformation. The debate was adjourned, and on the 13th Mr.
 
 472 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Disraeli said that Mr. G ladstone's resolutions could only point to 
 one conclusion the abolition of that religious settlement which 
 had prevailed in this country for more than two centuries, and 
 on which depended much of our civil liberty. Such propositions 
 ought at once to be brought under discussion, and if the second 
 reading of the bill were voted after the conclusion of the pending 
 debate, he would give Mr. Gladstone an opportunity of bringing 
 forward his six resolutions on the motion for going into com- 
 mittee. The debate was resumed on the 15th. Mr. Walter 
 thought that the grievances of which Mr. Gladstone complained 
 even the compulsion to read the Athanasia'n Creed and the 
 Prayer for the Church Militant were as nothing compared with 
 the Ritualistic practices against which the bill was directed. The 
 discussion was closed by Mr. Disraeli, who said that the object 
 of the bill was to put down Ritualism ; and if Mr. Gladstone did 
 not know whas Ritualism was, he was in a very isolated position. 
 
 The Government thus clearly adopted the bill, and the second 
 reading was carried without a division. It soon became evident 
 that Mr. Gladstone's resolutions were distasteful to the bulk of 
 his own supporters, the whole House in fact being practically 
 unanimous in its desire to arrest the progress of Ritualism. On 
 the following day, accordingly, Mr. Gladstone announced the 
 withdrawal of his resolutions. The House having passed the 
 second reading of the bill without a division, he could not in 
 fairness, he said, do otherwise than accept that decision as an 
 expression of the desire of the House to proceed to the considera- 
 tion of the bill in committee, without raising any of those broad 
 questions relating to the grounds and proper limits of legislation 
 Avhich undoubtedly were raised in the resolutions of which he 
 had given notice. Notice had also been given of important 
 amendments which tended greatly to the improvement of the 
 bill. He therefore did not intend to move his resolutions. A 
 collision arose with the Lords upon an amendment carried in the 
 Commons. The chief incidents in the debate in the Lower House 
 were Sir Wm. Harcourt's passage of arms with his former chief, 
 and Mr. Disraeli's description of the Marquis of Salisbury as a 
 man who never measured his phrases, but was ' a great master of 
 gibes, and flouts, and sneers.' Eventually the Commons did not 
 insist upon their amendment, and the bill was read a third time 
 on the 3rd of August. 
 
 The Public Worship Regulation Bill became law, "but how 
 inoperative it has been may be gathered from the fact that Ritual- 
 istic practices in the Church are at this moment more flourishing 
 than ever, and in most dioceses are practically suffered to go 
 unchecked.
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. i73 
 
 Mr. Gladstone strongly opposed the Endowed Fchools Act 
 Amendment Bill, introduced by Lord Sandon. The object of this 
 measure was the transference to the Charity Commissioners of tho 
 powers held by the Endowed Schools Commissioners, appointed 
 t>y the Act of 1689 ; powers which at the close of the session of 
 1873 it had been agreed to prolong for another twelve months, 
 the original term of three years having expired. It w*as further 
 proposed to alter the definitions contained in the former Act, so 
 as to restore to the Church of England the administration of 
 numerous schools in cases where the founder had recognised the 
 authority of a bishop, or had directed attendance on the service 
 of the Church, or had required that the masters should bo in holy 
 orders. This bill was regarded by the Liberal party as the first 
 distinct attempt to reverse recent legislation, and to the Noncon- 
 formists it was especially obnoxious ; for it practically gave to one 
 great religious body the control of schools that were thrown open 
 to the whole nation by the policy of the last Parliament. The 
 principles of the measure which thus went far beyond the transfer 
 of the powers of the Endowed Schools Commissioners to the 
 Charity Commissioners gave rise to considerable agitation. 
 
 Accordingly, when the order for the second reading came on, 
 Mr. Forster moved the rejection of the bill. The more he studied 
 it, he said, the more he felt convinced that it was a step backward. 
 He could adduce arguments which even hon. gentlemen opposite 
 could hardly disregard, to show that the change of policy pro- 
 posed was unwise, reactionary, and unjust, and the change in 
 administration inexpedient and needless, if not dangerous. He 
 was convinced that the noble lord was attempting to claim for 
 the Established Church which, after all, was only a denomina- 
 tion, although the largest schools which really belonged to the 
 nation, and that he was striving so to arrange things that mem- 
 bers of that Church should have exclusive control over schools 
 which ought to be open to all classes of her Majesty's subjects. 
 Out of 1,082 grammar schools, 584 were founded before the 
 Toleration Act ; 35 were pre-Reformation schools ; and 44 were 
 founded during the Commonwealth. Mr. Forster paid a strong 
 tribute to the Commissioners for their services in the cause of 
 education, only ten of their schemes having been challenged in 
 Parliament. 
 
 This measure, inequitable, unusual, and unwise as it was, drew 
 forth a strong condemnation from Mr. Gladstone. The Church, 
 he held, had no title to the endowments bestowed on her between 
 1530 and 1660 when no man could live outside her pale ; and 
 her title was in no way strengthened by the fact that the founder 
 had directed Church instruction to be given to the child ren.
 
 474 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 This retrograde legislation was unusual and unwise ; for it was a 
 bill for undoing part of the work of the last Parliament. The 
 party which sat opposite possessed, after having been many years 
 in a minority, a large majority ; ' but,' continued Mr. Gladstone, 
 * what I wish to point out is this, that the history of our country 
 for the last forty or fifty years presents to us, as a general rule, 
 this remarkable picture : The initiative of policy in almost every 
 instance I do not know of even one exception both of adminis- 
 trative and legislative, was supplied by the Liberal party, and 
 subsequently adopted in prudence and in honesty by the party 
 which is called Conservative. Take the financial, take the colo- 
 nial, take any of the departments ; and I will venture to say 
 you will find that this is a true description of the history of which 
 we have all been witnesses. When the Conservative Government 
 came into power in 1834, and again in 1841, after the first 
 Reform Act had been the subject of a long dispute and much 
 contention, there was absolute security in the mind of the country, 
 and full conviction that the party coming into office would not 
 be so unwise and so unpatriotic as to retrace the steps taken by 
 their predecessors. This is the first instance on record, so far as 
 I have been able to ascertain, of any deliberate attempt being 
 made by a Ministry at retrogression.' 
 
 The speaker, nevertheless, went on to make allusion to the case 
 of the Presbyterian Establishment, which had been placed in 
 possession of ecclesiastical patronage in Scotland in the time of 
 William III. A Tory Ministry subsequently came into power, 
 which made an attempt at passing a reactionary bill. This 
 Ministry introduced the measure for the establishment of patron- 
 age in the Church of Scotland, which involved the repeal of the 
 previous Act of William III. This was the one solitary instance 
 to which her Majesty's Grovernment could refer. And what an 
 instance ! an instance that brought about the passage of the 
 Act which the same party now proposed to repeal, because it 
 was an Act of retrogression, and because it interfered with the 
 integrity of the Presbyterian constitution. That was the only 
 instance of any similar course that could be adduced in support 
 of the ill-omened bill they were now invited to vote for. If that 
 were so if it were a most unusual step it was also as unwise 
 as it was unusual. Mr. Gladstone ask**d in conclusion : 
 
 ' What does this bill amount to ? The right hon. gentleman who lias just sat down 
 (Mr. E. A. Cross) has said that this is one of the legacies which have been left by 
 the Liberal Government. Yes ; there have been a great many legacies left by the 
 Liberal Government. The policy which at present governs every department of 
 the State is part of a legacy left by the Liberal Government. The right hon . gentle- 
 man and his party ought to be more grateful for those Liberal legacies on which 
 they will have to live as a Ministry. What are we now asked to do ? The majority
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 475 
 
 of this Parliament is invited to undo the work of their predecessors in office, in 
 defiance of precedents, which I should weary the House by enumerating, so great 
 are their numbers and uniformity. It is rather remarkable that what is now the 
 majority is about to undo an Act which they had never opposed in its passage. I 
 believe that the conditions with reference to schools before the Toleration Act and 
 before the Reformation were carried in this House without a division. I believe 
 I am even strictly correct iu saying that this provision was not only agreed to 
 without a division, but without an adverse voice when the question was put from 
 the Chair. Yet they now avail themselves of the first opportunity they have to 
 :i ttempt to repeal what they did not object to when it was before Parliament. Is 
 tliis wise? Is it politic ? Is it favourable to the true interests of the Established 
 Church ? . . . What has been the judgment generally passed upon us by foreign 
 authors, men of the highest weight and importance in their respective countries '? 
 They have often told truths of which we should not be fully aware from our own 
 observation. What have they told us of their judgment of the course and conduct 
 of the British Legislature ? If you consult any one of those great political writers 
 who adorn the literature of their own countries, you will find their language 
 respecting us uniform. When they look at our political constitution they are struck 
 by the multitude of obstructions which for the defence of minorities we allow to be 
 placed in the way of legislation. They are struck by observing that the immediate 
 result is great slowness in the steps we take; but when they refer to the consequences 
 of this slowness they find one great and powerful compensation, and it is that in 
 England all progress is sure. Vestiyia nulla retrorsum. Whatever has been once 
 decided, whatever has once taken its place in the Statute Book, or has been adopted 
 in our Administration, no feelings of party and no vicissitudes of majorities or 
 minorities are allowed to draw the nation into the dangerous, though they may be 
 the seductive, paths of retrogression. That is the principle to which we appeal, 
 and even were the rights of the case less clear, even were it equitable instead of 
 inequitable, for the Church to make the claims which are made in her behalf by 
 the Government, most unwise would it be on the part of any Administration 
 and, of all others, most unwise on the part of the Conservative Administration 
 to give a shock to one of the great guiding principles and laws which have 
 governed the policy of this country throughout a course of many generations, 
 and the solidity and security of which is one of the main guarantees of the interests 
 we possess and the liberty we enjoy.' 
 
 Notwithstanding this effective attack upon its leading principle, 
 the bill passed its second stage by a large majority. The numbers 
 were For the second reading, 291 ; against, 209 majority for 
 the Government, 82. The Opposition, however, were determined 
 not to let the matter rest. They brought forward a hostile 
 motion on the proposal for going into committee, but this was 
 defeated by 262 to 193. Yet though the bill went into com- 
 mittee, the Prime Minister speedily found that it would be hotly 
 contested, and deemed it unwise to proceed with it in its primal 
 shape. He accordingly announced the abandonment of the 
 foundation clauses, and the restriction of the measure to the 
 mere abolition of the Endowed Schools Commissioners and the 
 transfer of their powers to the Charity Commissioners. Making 
 a confession that might almost seem to prove his incapacity to 
 fill the position he occupied, he admitted that after hours of 
 anxious consideration, the disputed clauses were unintelligible to 
 him. Some days later, in giving the names of the Commissioners 
 who were to take the Endowed Schools business upon them, Mr. 
 Disraeli assumed personally the responsibility for the introduc- 
 tion of the bill.
 
 476 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 The weakness of the Premier's position being thus exposed, 
 Mr. Gladstone retorted upon him with great spirit. The nature 
 of a Conservative policy, he observed, was now clearly seen. Mr. 
 Disraeli had said that some of the clauses of the bill were un- 
 intelligible to him ; this was an important discovery, and it was a 
 pity that it had not been made earlier, as the charge of obstructive 
 conduct might not then have been brought against members on 
 the Opposition side of the House. The pledge of the Premier to 
 call attention to this subject anew in another session of Parliament 
 was a pledge dictated by Ministerial exigencies and by the state 
 of the relations of those in the Cabinet, far more than by any 
 well-weighed consideration of what was to take place in the future. 
 If that was so he thought the Nonconformists, and not they only, 
 but those who attached an enormous value to the principles and 
 methods of stable legislation, had good reason to congratulate 
 themselves upon the present situation. In closing his address 
 Mr. Gladstone said, ' When a great host attempted the invasion 
 of an enemy's country, and was beset by storms, and baffled by 
 adverse winds, the practice was to erect an altar, and to put the 
 knife to the throat of the victim. The Commissioners of the 
 Endowed Schools are, on this occasion, those who have been 
 called upon to submit to the sacrificial knife ; and these three 
 gentlemen most guilty in the opinion of some who have spoken 
 and whom they have perhaps offended ; but most innocent, most 
 meritorious, and most patriotic in the judgment of others are 
 to give up their official existence as an atonement and reconcilia- 
 tion for others, and the great mass of Nonconformist interests 
 throughout the country are, I rejoice to say, to enjoy an absolute 
 immunity from danger ; the only price that is paid for all this 
 being the official life of Lord Lyttelton and his colleagues. In 
 saying that, I am very sorry for what the right hon. gentleman 
 calls the policy of her Majesty's Government. The policy of her 
 Majesty's Government with regard to the Endowed Schools of the 
 country has received this most striking, this most triumphant 
 attestation that three gentlemen who, as the noble lord says, 
 are our friends, are to be displaced from their office in order that 
 three gentlemen who are his friends may be put into office, in 
 order to prosecute, with bated hopes and weakened forces, the 
 difficult duties imposed on them by the country.' 
 
 The Endowed Schools Act Amendment Bill, in its mutilated 
 form, received the Royal assent in the month of August. It was 
 not a measure to reflect credit upon its authors ; and seeing that 
 its original scope had been greatly narrowed, the Government 
 would have done wisely in abandoning it altogether. But thia 
 was one of the earliest indications of a determination, on the
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 477 
 
 part of the Conservative majority, to exercise its power not 
 always with consideration. 
 
 We now come to several addresses which Mr. Gladstone has 
 delivered in recent years on the subject of education. They are 
 typical of other speeches which the right hon. gentleman has at 
 various times made upon the same question, and show the speaker 
 in the favourable light of a friend to liberal culture, a character 
 to which he has been steadfast since he addressed the students of 
 Liverpool College, at a very early stage in his career. The first of 
 these addresses, which formed, perhaps, the most interesting extra- 
 Parliamentary utterance of the recess of 1872, was delivered on 
 the occasion of the distribution of the prizes to the pupils of Liver- 
 pool College. We have already had occasion, in the earlier part 
 of this work, to make a brief extract from that address, but it 
 now demands some further notice. The Premier entered a strong 
 plea on behalf of higher education, and then passed on to refer to 
 the extraordinary and boastful manifestation in this age of ours 
 for the extremest forms of unbelief. After a searching examina- 
 tion of Dr. Strauss's recently published work, The Old Belief and 
 the New, Mr. Gladstone tendered this counsel to the students : 
 
 ' You will hear much to the effect that the divisions among Christians render 
 it impossible to say what Christianity is, and so destroy the certainty of religion. 
 But if the divisions among Christians are remarkable, not less so is their unity in 
 the great doctrines which they hold. Well nigh fif teen hundred years years of a 
 more sustained activity than the world has ever before seen have passed away 
 since the great controversies respecting the Deity and the Person of the Redeemer 
 were, after a long agony, determined. As before that time in a manner less denned 
 but adequate for their day, so ever since that time, amid all chance and change, 
 more, ay, many more than ninety-nine in every hundred Christians have with one 
 will confessed the Deity and incarnation of our Lord as the cardinal and central 
 truths of our religion. Surely there is some comfort here, some sense of brother- 
 hood, some glory in the past, some hope for the times that are to come. On one 
 and only one more of the favourite fallacies of the day I will yet presume to touch. 
 It is the opinion and boast of some that man is not responsible for his belief. 
 Lord Brougham was at one time stated to have given utterance to this opinion, 
 whether truly I know not. But this I know, it was my privilege to hear from his 
 own lips the needful and due limitation of that proposition. " Man " he said, " is 
 not responsible to man for Ms belief." But as before God one and the same law 
 applies to opinions and to acts, or rather to inward and to outer acts, for opinions are 
 inward acts. Many a wrong opinion may be guiltless because formed in ignorance, 
 and because that ignorance may not be our f ault ; but who shall presume to say there 
 is no mercy for wrong actions also when they, too, have been due to ignorance, 
 and that ignorance has not been guilty ? The question is not whether judg- 
 ments and actions are in the same degree influenced by the condition of the 
 moral motives. If it is undeniable that self-love and passion have an influence 
 upon both, then, so far as that influence goes, for both we must be prepared to 
 answer. Should we, in common lif e, ask a body of swindlers for an opinion upon 
 swindling, or of gamblers for an opinion upon gambling, or of misers upon bounty ? 
 And if in matters of religion we allow pride and perverseness to raise a cloud 
 between us and the truth, so that we see it not, the false opinion that we form is 
 but the index of that perverseness and that pride, and both for them, and for it as 
 their offspring, we shall be justly held responsible. Who they are upon whom this 
 responsibility will fall it is not ours to judge. These laws are given to us, not to 
 apply presumptuously to others, but to enforce honestly against ourselves. Next to 
 a Christian life, my friends, you will find your best defence against reckless novelty
 
 478 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 of speculation in sobriety of temper, and in sound intellectual habits. Be slow to stii 
 inquiries which you do not mean particularly to pursue to their proper end. Be 
 not afraid to suspend your judgment, or feel and admit to yourselves how narrow 
 are the bounds of knowledge. Do not too readily assume that to us have been 
 opened royal roads to truth, which were heretofore hidden from the whole family of 
 man ; for the opening of such roads would not be so much favour as caprice. If it is 
 bad to yield a blind submission to authority, it is not less an error to deny to it its 
 reasonable weight. Eschewing a servile adherence to the past, regard it with rever- 
 ence and gratitude, and accept its accumulations in inward as well as outward things 
 as the patrimony which it is your part in life both, to preserve and to improve.' 
 
 For the catholicity of its sentiments, however, and the excel- 
 lence of its counsel, one of the best addresses Mr. Gladstone ever 
 delivered was that spoken in aid of the Buckley Institute and 
 Keading-room, in the recess of 1878. It was specially directed 
 to the working classes. The address covered a wide range of 
 topics, and we can only touch upon those possessing a permanent 
 interest. Referring to the friendly and benefit societies which 
 abound throughout the country, Mr. Gladstone eulogised them 
 for enabling the working population of this country to realise 
 that idea of independence and self-support, which, while very 
 desirable for all men, was most of all honourable, and even noble, 
 in those who depended upon their daily labour for their daily 
 bread. The only thing he exhorted them jealously to watch over 
 was that the societies were based upon principles of sound calcula- 
 tion, so that those who had supported them in their youth and 
 maturity, should not find in old age that their funds had dis- 
 appeared. Mr. Gladstone's warning derived additional point from 
 the fact that reports had been published of societies unsound in 
 this respect. Touching upon co-operative societies, he hoped 
 that in proportion as the retail dealers of the country came more 
 and more to understand the best mode of carrying on their busi- 
 ness that is to say, of working it upon ready-money principles, 
 instead of long credit they would be able to compete advan- 
 tageously with these societies. There were also societies for 
 manufacturing productions, and some for carrying on farms, 
 which would be beneficial by putting, to a certain extent, the 
 working man in the position of the capitalist. 
 
 There was a broad liberality of view in the speaker's utterances 
 upon the subject of trades unions, and also on the question of 
 the employment of women. ' What I would always desire,' he 
 said, ' in trades unions, and what I look upon as essential to their 
 full utility is, that those who enter into such combinations shall 
 fully and absolutely respect the liberty of those who do not wish 
 to enter them, and further, that they shall, although it is a 
 difficult lesson for them, adopt large and liberal principles with 
 regard to all the points that touch them in the exercise of their 
 professions. Questions such as the employment of women, the
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 479 
 
 employment of boys and young men, piecework, &c. on the 
 whole of these questions they should get rid of narrow and selfish 
 views, and should adopt sound ones. I am bound to say that I 
 think they are often lectured upon these narrow and selfish views 
 by other people in higher stations who are very apt to act upon 
 narrow and selfish views themselves when they can. But that 
 is not the question. Is it the best for themselves ? I am con- 
 vinced that they should be large and liberal in all their views 
 with regard to the employment of labour, because, after all, when 
 men choose to put unnatural and unnecessary restrictions on the 
 labour of women and children, what is that but putting it on 
 the members of their own family, for these women and children 
 are persons in intimate associations with them ?' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone recognised the necessity for recreation and 
 relaxation, and after alluding to the provision for games and 
 refreshments, which were natural and proper, he touched upon 
 the question of debate. He believed it to be a mistake to suppose 
 that members of the community at large were not fit to meet 
 together and debate like men those matters in which they were 
 able to feel an interest. If they had the truth of confidence in 
 their opinions, they should not be ashamed or afraid to compare 
 them with others. 
 
 The last topic dealt with related to the greater facilities for 
 intellectual improvement enjoyed by the working classes of the 
 present day as compared with their predecessors, The materials 
 were better and the access to the means of instruction far easier. 
 
 ' It was said of Socrates that he called down philosophy from heaven, that the 
 enterprise of certain enlightened publishers has taught them to work for the 
 million, and that is a very important fact. When I was a boy I used to be fond of 
 looking into a bookseller's shop, but there was nothing to be seen there that was 
 accessible to the working man of that day. Take a Shakespeare, for example. I 
 remember very well that I gave 2 16s. for my first copy ; but you can get an 
 admirable copy for 3s. Those books are accessible now which formerly were 
 quite inaccessible. We may be told that you want amusement, but that does not 
 exclude improvement. There are a set of worthless books written now and at 
 times which you should avoid, which profess to give amusement ; but in reading 
 the works of such authors as Shakespeare and Scott there is the greatest possible 
 amusement in its best form. Do you suppose that when you see men engaged in 
 study that they dislike it? No. There is labour no doubt of a certain kind 
 mental labour, but it is so associated with interest all along that it is forgotten in 
 the delight which it carries in its performance, and no people know that better 
 than the working classes. I want you to understand that multitudes of books 
 now are constantly being prepared and placed within reach of the population at 
 large, for the most part executed by writers of a high stamp, having subjects of 
 the greatest interest, and which enable you at a moderate price, not to get a cheap 
 literature which is secondary in its quality, but to go straight into the very heart, if I 
 may so say, into the sanctuary of the temple of literature and become acquainted 
 with the greatest and best works that the men of our country have produced. It 
 is not to be supposed that working men, on coming home from labour, are to 
 study Euclid and works of that character ; and it is not to be desired unless in the 
 case of very special gifts ; but what is to be desired is that some effort should be 
 made by men of all classes, and perhaps by none more than by the labouring class,
 
 480 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 to lift ourselves above the level of what is purely frivolous, and to endeavour to 
 find our amusement in making ourselves acquainted with things of real interest 
 and beauty.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone also delivered an address of great practical value 
 on the occasion of the distribution of prizes at the Nonconformist 
 School at Mill Hill, in June, 1879. In the outset, he impressed 
 two necessary lessons upon the pupils. One was, he said, that 
 those who had received prizes must take good care not to be 
 inveigled by the first-fruits of their efforts into sluggishness, for 
 that was a danger which beset the young, and premature success 
 had been a snare to many. As for those who had not received 
 prizes, the occasion which should inspire caution in others should 
 inspire hope in them. It was upon perseverance that their future 
 enterprise would depend. He therefore exhorted them to bear 
 their disappointment like men, like Englishmen, like Christians. 
 In comparing the relative advantages of Mill Hill School, and 
 the great and wealthy seats of learning in the country, the speaker 
 observed : 
 
 ' Do not suppose for a moment that I have come here to renounce my fidelity to 
 those ancient schools whose interests are so deeply seated in my heart. You may 
 not have the advantage and it ought to be an advaptage of the noble and ancient 
 memories connected with many great schools in the country. They ought to 
 appeal with resistless force to all those who belong to them not to prove unworthy 
 of those great memories, and I rejoice to say it is so at any rate, in many among 
 them. But, although you must be content with viewing in the future that which 
 those great institutions have been able to do for themselves in the present and past, 
 yet you have your advantages. If you are not sustained by ancient traditions, 
 neither are you hampered by any prejudices which in certain cases may prevail. 
 All that they have achieved is before you. Their great experiences are at your 
 service and command. You have power to appropriate to yourselves every good rule 
 they have made, and you have the power where you are not satisfied with the results 
 to correct them. You have this enormous advantage under the peculiar conditions 
 of this age. You, the authorities of these schools, and you, the boys, have not to 
 contend in the same degree as have the authorities and boys of some of the ancient 
 schools, with the tremendous dangers and temptations which the overflow of money 
 associated with inadequate wisdom produces, not the extravagance of the boys only, 
 but in many instances the more serious evil of parents giving to their boys that 
 which they think will contribute to their happiness, but which, in fact, tends to 
 weaken the fibre of character, to relax manly resolution, to anticipate at an early 
 age enjoyments intended only for manhood. . . . These are great advantages ; 
 and that* which others possess because their fathers handed it down to them, you, I 
 hope, are gradually and progressively accumulating in order to hand it over to those 
 who may come after you. However, it was a great and. bold undertaking to estab- 
 lish a school of this kind in a field which was already occupied by those great insti- 
 tutions so well known to us as the public schools of England, But there was certainly 
 one reason which I cannot shrink from noticing, and which I think constitutes not 
 only the high merit, but the very high merit, of those who set themselves about 
 founding Mill Hill School. ... I need not say I pay them the highest honour 
 for determining to give this advantage of a public school education, not on a 
 basis merely neutral or negative with regard to religion, but, on a basis which 
 would supply all their wants and enable the pupils, according to the conscientious 
 convictions their parents entertain, and in which they have been reared, to prepare 
 themselves for that Christian life on which they are about to enter. I earnestly 
 hope that upon that basis on which you have begun you will continue to stand. 
 As you have not been ashamed or afraid to face the difficult enterprise of founding
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION. 481 
 
 this public school, so I trust you will never be ashamed or afraid of recognising 
 not a generalising and neutralising religion, but a religious teaching fully equal 
 to all the honourable purposes of life. 
 
 Following this admirable passage, came a protest against the 
 notion that education was a merely mechanical process ; after 
 which Mr. Gladstone spoke earnestly of the great value and 
 importance attaching to the study of natural history. Having 
 cited many other advantages to be derived from it, among them 
 being that power of accurate deduction which is invaluable in the 
 pursuit of every branch of knowledge, he observed, ' We all know 
 how much has been done in the researches of our time by apply- 
 ing the principle of comparison comparison, for example, of the 
 structure of living bodies as the basis of modern biology, the 
 comparison of the structures of languages as the basis of philology. 
 Depend upon it, then, that the observation and analogy which 
 natural history is continually suggesting, as it is valuable for the 
 purposes of science, so it has a lighter but a most graceful and 
 civilising use in supplying those analogies taken from the seen 
 world and applicable to the unseen, assisting in giving to every 
 work of the mind that grace and beauty which is just as appro- 
 priate and desirable, though it may not be so indispensable to it, 
 as are the higher qualities of solidity and truth.' The concluding 
 words of the address had reference to the cultivation of the higher 
 virtues. 1 1 trust you know what are the qualities you ought to 
 esteem and cherish that your wish is to lead a life that is man- 
 ful, modest, truthful, active, diligent, generous, and humble. You 
 ought to take for your motto those wonderful words of the Apostle, 
 where he says, " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
 are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report" 
 everything that is good is to be within your view, and nothing 
 that is not good. I am certain that if you cherish those virtues 
 you will never forget the basis of them, you will never forget 
 where lies their root. I do not mean that in your periodical and 
 your play you are continually to be parading your religious feel- 
 ings and convictions. These are very deep and solemn subjects, 
 and will grow in the shade rather than in the sunlight. Let them 
 ever be in your minds, as they are indigenous to the root of every 
 excellence. Whatever you aspire to, aspire above all to be 
 Christians and to Christian perfection.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone in his time has played many parts ; but in none 
 have his English good sense and manliness, his sagacity, and his 
 deep moral feeling been so conspicuous as in bis addresses upon 
 education and kindred subjects. His political friends and oppo- 
 nents alike find here common ground upon which to pay him just 
 
 II
 
 482 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 tribute. To the working classes especially have his addresses been 
 most valuable. He has recalled them from the pursuit of social 
 and industrial will-o'-the-wisps, while he has at the same time 
 acknowledged their right to combine in every lawful manner for 
 their well-being and prosperity. He has striven to show that labour, 
 the universal lot of man, is honourable, and that social drones are 
 the most prolific source of danger to the commonwealth. And 
 >rhile he has thus enjoined the value and sacredness of labour, by 
 the wise and useful legislation which he has initiated, he has 
 enabled the working man to treasure up the fruits of that labour, 
 and to make provision for old age. Moreover, he has insisted 
 upon the high and noble results which follow from culture and 
 self-improvement, counselling the toilers in our factories and 
 workshops that these are to be sought not alone for the material 
 advantages they may bring, but for that deeper and richer good 
 which follows upon the development of the mental and moral 
 faculties. Mr. Gladstone has, in fine, ever urged the people 
 onward in the path of real progress, and has shown them how, by 
 self-denying and strenuous effort, they may enjoy for themselves, 
 and extend to others, the blessings of a robust and a Christian 
 civilisation.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 RESIGNATION OF THE LIBERAL LEADERSHIP. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone definitely resigns the Liberal Leadership Second Letter to Lord 
 Granville His Lordship's Reply Public Opinion on the ex-Premier's Retire- 
 ment Speech of Mr. Forster at Bradford The Liberal Party without a 
 Leader Claimants for the Post Election of the Marquis of Hartington 
 Mr. Gladstone's appearances in the House of Commons He supports the Burials 
 Bill Attacks the Budget. 
 
 WE have seen, from Mr. Gladstone's letter to Earl Granville, 
 that the Liberal leader held himself at liberty to determine at 
 any time, according as circumstances might dictate to him, 
 whether he could with satisfaction continue in his onerous 
 position as the active chief of the party. His friends, foreseeing 
 the difficulties which must ensue from his withdrawal from the 
 leadership, earnestly desired his continuance in the post where 
 none could well follow him. But his retirement came earlier 
 than was anticipated. Having thrown himself deeply into 
 literary and controversial studies, and finding in the existing 
 aspect of public affairs little hope of being able to render such 
 service to the Liberal party and the country as he desired, Mr. 
 Gladstone resolved on completing the act of resignation to which 
 he had some time before referred as a not distant possibility. 
 
 Accordingly, early in January, 1875, he addressed a second letter 
 to Lord Granville, announcing his resignation in decisive and 
 unmistakable terms. ' The time has, I think, arrived,' wrote the 
 ex-Premier, ' when I ought to revert to the subject of the letter 
 which I addressed to you on March 12. Before determining 
 whether I should offer to assume a charge which might extend 
 over a length of time, I have reviewed, with all the care in my 
 power, a number of considerations, both public and private, of 
 which a portion, and these not by any means insignificant, were 
 not in existence at the date of that letter. The result has been 
 that I see no public advantage in my continuing to act as the 
 leader of the Liberal party ; and that, at the age of sixty-five, and 
 after forty-two years of a laborious public life, I think myself 
 entitled to retire on the present opportunity. This retirement 
 is dictated to me by my personal views as to the best method of 
 
 II 2
 
 48'1 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 speeding the closing years of my life. I need hardly say that my 
 conduct in Parliament will continue to be governed by the prin- 
 ciples on which I have heretofore acted ; and, whatever arrange- 
 ments may be made for the treatment of general business, and for 
 the advantage or convenience of the Liberal party, they will have 
 my cordial support. I should, perhaps, add that I am at present, 
 and mean for a short time to be, engaged on a special matter, 
 which occupies me closely.' 
 
 Such a resignation on the part of a great political chief was 
 without precedent ; but while many lamented the step, none 
 challenged the right of this eminent statesman to retire after 
 forty-two years of active service. Even with a less brilliant cata- 
 logue of legislative achievements than his, it was surely within 
 his own legitimate province to say when the time had come for 
 putting off the political armour, and yielding the command of 
 the Liberal forces into other hands. At the same time, the 
 announcement came with so great a surprise upon the country 
 that for the moment it could scarcely be realised. That he who 
 for a considerable period had been the life and soul of one of the 
 two great political parties in the State should thus suddenly 
 relinquish its control, carried something like consternation into 
 the ranks of those who were anxiously looking for the consolida- 
 tion of the Liberal party. Efforts were made to induce 
 Mr. Gladstone to reconsider his decision, but in vain ; and in 
 formally acknowledging the receipt of the ex-Premier's letter, 
 Earl Granville wrote as follows : ' I have communicated to you 
 in detail the reasons which made me profoundly regret and 
 deprecate the conclusion at which you have arrived. Your late 
 colleagues share these feelings to the fullest extent, and have 
 regretted the failure of their endeavour to persuade you to come 
 to a different decision. We have no doubt that the Liberal 
 party, both in and out of Parliament, will feel as we do on 
 the subject. The observations we have addressed to you are 
 prompted by considerations of public advantage for the future, 
 and not merely by our sense of your great services, and our 
 sentiments of personal admiration and attachment.' 
 
 The daily and weekly press, both metropolitan and provincial, 
 were all but unanimous in their expressions of sympathy and 
 regret, and in recognising in Mr. Gladstone's retirement a loss 
 to the nation. Many journals expressed a hope that the resigna- 
 tion was the result of a temporary depression, rather than of a 
 lasting mood of mind ; and, while assuming that there would be 
 many occasions when his mind would revert to Westminster, 
 they trusted also that a sense of duty to the nation would bring 
 him back at recurrent intervals to the scene of so many triumphs.
 
 RESIGNATION OF THE LIBERAL LEADERSHIP. 4S5 
 
 Mr. Bright, in addressing his constituents at Birmingham, 
 alluded to the few disparaging comments made upon the Liberal 
 leader's withdrawal comments scarcely noticeable amid the 
 general expressions of esteem and regret. ' I will say nothing,' 
 observed the right hon. member for Birmingham, * in answer to 
 ungenerous things that have been said and done. Of this I am 
 well aware that Mr. Gladstone, like an old and a noble Roman, 
 can be content with deserving the praises of his country, even 
 though some of his countrymen should deny them to him.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's retirement did not, of course, signify the end 
 of his Parliamentary career. He would still tender such advice 
 and counsel to his party as he was able, and appear from time to 
 time in his place in the House of Commons. But the nature and 
 meaning of the step could not be disguised. The previous session 
 had witnessed a disorganised Opposition, but another was about to 
 open which would find the party in yet more lamentable plight 
 without a chief and without a programme. Tributes were paid to 
 the retiring leader in all parts of the country, and by persons of all 
 shades and complexions of political opinion. But the feelings of 
 those who most deeply felt his loss, and most truly assessed its 
 significance, were, perhaps, best interpreted by Mr. Forster, when 
 he remarked that although every one knew Mr. Gladstone's 
 power and eloquence, it was only those who had been brought 
 into close personal contact with him who knew what an example 
 he had set in the absolute sincerity, the absolute want of 
 selfishness or self-seeking in the principles and the manner in 
 which he had conducted political life.* ' It is difficult for any 
 one,' said the member for Bradford, ' who has not been brought 
 into close contact with him, and seen him under occasions of 
 difficulty such as those in which a colleague haa seen him 
 occasions, I must say, not only of difficulty, but even of tempta- 
 tion it is difficult for any one who has not been in that 
 position thoroughly to realise what an example of purity, of self- 
 sacrifice, and of disinterestedness he has set to politicians 
 throughout the country, and to what an extent he, as far as he 
 has acted, has raised the tone of political life. , . . I have only one 
 word to add, and I think it is not unfitting to mention even in 
 this business assembly, that, although he has thought proper from 
 motives personal to himself, which are sufficient for himself and 
 affecting his own personal life, to withdraw from the active 
 leadership of one of the great parties in the State, yet I do 
 not for one agree that that implies that he will withdraw from 
 party or political life. I am sure that, as men of business as 
 members of a Chamber of Commerce we should be the last 
 * Speech deliver xl at a meeting of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce.
 
 486 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 persons to desire that. He has many claims upon the gratitude 
 of his fellow countrymen for the services he has done them, and 
 although perhaps not one of the greatest of those claims, yet a 
 very great claim, is what he has done for commerce and men of 
 business, by his advocacy of the true principles of trade, and by 
 his introduction of principles of finance which have had the 
 effect of making the taxes less onerous upon tradesmen and 
 upon individuals than they have ever been before. It certainly 
 is not for me to view with anything but with fear and alarm the 
 thought that he could withdraw his talents and his power entirely 
 from political or Parliamentary life. I am sure you will join me 
 in the hope and trust that this will not be the case.' These 
 sentiments were very largely echoed by the Conservatives, and 
 of course entirely so by the Liberals. The former, for many 
 reasons, as sincerely regretted his withdrawal as the latter. 
 
 The Liberal party now found themselves with a vacancy, and 
 'aboured under some bewilderment how to fill it. They had 
 amongst them two men of genius, Mr. Lowe and Mr. Bright, and 
 some half a dozen others with at least a passable title to states- 
 manlike qualities. It was known, however, that Mr. Bright 
 would decline the post of leader, if elected ; and whenever the 
 name of Mr. Lowe was mentioned, it was invariably received with 
 admissions of his striking intellectual power and ability, but as 
 invariably also followed by a negative shaking of the head. 
 Genius, when erratic, is much more troublesome than mediocrity. 
 By-and-by only four names came to be discussed, viz., those of 
 Mr. Forster, Sir W. Harcourt, Mr. Goschen, and Lord Hartington. 
 The three first-named were subsequently withdrawn, Mr. Forster 
 ^ whose claims were considered the strongest) writing to Mr. Adam 
 as follows : ' It appears to me that I should not receive that 
 general support without which I ought not to attempt to fulfil 
 the duties of this most difficult though honourable post ; and, 
 therefore, though I must not be supposed to anticipate that the 
 choice of the majority of the meeting would fall on me, I feel it 
 my duty to state that, even should it chance to do so, I could not 
 undertake the task.' It was understood that Mr. Gladstone 
 thought the selection of Lord Hartington as his successor 
 the most fitting that could be made under the circum- 
 stances. On the 3rd of February, about 140 members of 
 the Liberal party met at the Eeform Club to proceed to an 
 election. Mr. Bright was voted to the chair, and Mr. Whit- 
 bread moved the following resolution : * That this meeting 
 desires to express its deep sense of the great loss which the 
 country has sustained in the retirement of Mr. Gladstone from 
 the leadership of the Liberal party.' Mr. Fawcett seconded the
 
 RESIGNATION OF THE LIBERAL LEADERSHIP. 487 
 
 motion, and in paying Mr. Gladstone a high tribute on behalf of 
 his independent supporters, observed: 'When we opposed him, 
 in the very height of his power and I say this most advisedly 
 we never admired him more than in the hour of his defeat. I 
 think that he bore that defeat with magnanimity, good feeling, 
 and true nobility of character.' Mr. Villiers then proposed that 
 the Marquis of Hartington should be requested to undertake the 
 leadership of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. Mr. 
 S. Morley, speaking for his own section of the House, seconded 
 the motion, which was as warmly received as the previous resolu- 
 tion expressive of regret at Mr. Gladstone's retirement. Lord 
 F. Cavendish, in responding for the noble Marquis, his brother, 
 said that he would conscientiously, watchfully, and prudently 
 devote his utmost strength and abilities to the service of the. 
 party, just as he was prepared to do had their choice fallen upon 
 Mr. Forster or any other person. Mr. Bright referred to the 
 many excellent qualities possessed by Lord Hartington. 
 
 Although his lordship lacked the great gifts of his predecessor 
 and his leadership cannot by any means be placed in compari- 
 son with that of his former chief he lived to defeat the predic- 
 tions of those who prophesied his failure, and to justify very 
 largely the eulogium of Mr. Bright. Thus ended the brief 
 interregnum in the Liberal leadership in the House of Commons. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's appearances during the session were very in- 
 frequent. On more than one occasion, however, he addressed the 
 House with something of his old fire. On the order for the second 
 reading of Mr. Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill, on the 21st of 
 April, he spoke in support of the measure. The bill proposed 
 that, as regards interment in a parish churchyard, the friends of 
 the deceased should have the power to elect what service they 
 would have read over them. Mr. Gladstone, in supporting the 
 second reading of the bill, said he could not give an entirely silent 
 vote. While it was undoubtedly a real grievance that the clergy 
 should be under an obligation to perform the service of the Church 
 of England in cases where they and the parties concerned con- 
 curred in the desire that it should not be read, the bill did not 
 profess to deal with that question. His hon. and learned friend 
 had said it was a grievance that those who did not belong to the 
 Church of England should be debarred from the power of having 
 read over their friends the rites distinguishing their own forms of 
 religion, a,nd in that view he (Mr. Gladstone) concurred ; but if 
 it were deemed expedient that this grievance should be remedied, 
 provision ought to be made by the bill in case of the attendance 
 of large crowds of persons at the churchyard to hear a service over 
 the deceased, or the address of a popular preacher. The clergy
 
 488 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 were responsible for keeping the churchyards in order, and it w;i.3 
 a serious question, if a churchyard were to receive damage, as to 
 how the cost for repairing that damage should be met. It woiild 
 be necessary to provide for that case (should the bill pass its 
 second reading) in committee, and, while he reserved that point, 
 he should give a very cheerful and hearty support to the measure. 
 
 Mr. Cross spoke powerfully against the bill, and Mr. Bright 
 still more eloquently in its favour, but it was rejected by a 
 majority of 14, the numbers being For the second reading, 
 234 ; against, 248. This being a Wednesday sitting of the House, 
 the numbers were unusually large. Only one Liberal, Mr. W. H. 
 Forster, voted in the majority ; while eight Conservatives viz., 
 Mr. S. Cave (a member of the Government), Mr. J. P. Corry, Mr. 
 Russell Gurney, the Marquis of Hamilton, Mr. C. E. Lewis, Sir 
 W. Stirling-Maxwell, Mr. C. W. Nevill, and the Hon. A. Walsh- 
 voted in favour of the bill. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote's budget was viewed with mitigated 
 interest upon its introduction, but on a consideration of Ways and 
 Means in committee, Mr. Gladstone unexpectedly poured in his 
 eloquence upon his successor like a flood. The principal feature 
 in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposals., related to the 
 National Debt, for the gradual reduction of which he suggested a 
 new kind of sinking fund, involving an annual charge in every 
 budget for 28,000,000. The Chancellor of the Exchequer calcu- 
 lated that by 1885 6,800,000 of debt would be paid off, and in 
 thirty years' time 213,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's chief objections were framed against the pro- 
 positions with regard to post-office savings-banks and friendly 
 societies' accounts, and to the proposed National Debt Sink- 
 ing Fund. He maintained that the surplus for the ensuing 
 year was over-estimated, and with the deductions which ought 
 to be expected for the charge for the deficiency - in friendly 
 societies and savings-banks funds and Irish education, it 
 would be entirely eaten up. Further, the Government ought 
 to have submitted the supplementary estimates before pro- 
 ceeding to strike a balance between the revenue and expen- 
 diture of the year, but instead of that it was proposed to vote 
 185,000 for the reduction of debt, of which sum Government 
 did not possess a single shilling. Mr. Gladstone pointed out three 
 modes of reducing the National Debt, the first by surplus of revenue 
 over expenditure, secondly by terminable annuities, and thirdly 
 by fixed appropriations beforehand. Much had been done towards 
 reducing the debt, and they had not yet, he considered, done 
 enough ; but he objected to the present plan to reduce it, because 
 it was unreal, and based upon the supposition that large surpluses
 
 RESIGNATION OF THE LIBERAL LEADERSHIP. 489 
 
 would be received during the next thirty years. The Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer had not one farthing of surplus himself, but pre- 
 sented an imaginary surplus of ^500,000 for thirty years to come, 
 for every one of which the surplus was founded on the assumption 
 that future Chancellors of the Exchequer would do the reverse of 
 what he had done. The world had produced wonders, but it never 
 had, and never would, produce a Chancellor of the Exchequer who 
 would have the courage to propose a new tax for the purpose of 
 maintaining a sinking fund. * History certainly has not produced 
 any such creation ; no such lusus naturce has as yet appeared , 
 and I do not think that the Government of a party which justly 
 prides itself on adherence to the traditions of the past, on learning 
 lessons from antiquity, on avoiding vain theories and keeping to 
 the lessons of experience, ought to be the people to delude us by 
 projects such as this into the marshes in which we shall be plunged, 
 instead of remaining upon the safe high road by which we have 
 hitherto travelled.' Mr. Gladstone concluded by describing the 
 proposal as an atttempt to revert to a scheme of proceeding 
 which, however well intended, had been exploded under the 
 combined action of authority and experience. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote, while failing to answer many of Mr. 
 Gladstone's arguments, replied by quoting Mr. Gladstone, the' 
 author of the scheme of terminable annuities, in opposition to Mr. 
 Gladstone, the denouncer of the establishment of an artificial 
 sinking fund for the extinction of the debt. Another attack was 
 subsequently made upon the sinking fund proposition, but the 
 bill in which it was embodied was carried by 189 votes to 122. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone supported the Government in their financial 
 proposals with regard to the expenses of the Prince of Wales's visit 
 to India, and also addressed the House on one or two other ques- 
 tions of less general interest which arose during this session. In 
 the autumn he met the Hawarden cottage tenantry, and spoke 
 in his usual felicitous vein, observing that there was nothing more 
 characteristic of life in England than meetings of that description. 
 But, for the time being, it is not in the right hon. gentleman's 
 political or social, but in his controversial, character that we must 
 view him. The questions which were closely occupying him in 
 his semi-retirement were of a religious nature, and these were 
 shortly to receive a full and vigorous exposition.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 BITTJALISM AND VATICANISM. 
 
 Ecclssiastical Controversy Mr. Gladstone's Essay on Rituilism Modern Roman 
 Catholicism ' Is the Church of England worth Preserving ? ' Mr. Gladstone's 
 Answer Pamphlet on the Vatican Decrees Papal Infallibility Effects of the 
 Dogma variously viewed by Roman Catholics Papal Claim to Civil Allegiance 
 The Liberal Party and the Roman Catholics Progress of Roman Catholicism 
 Replies to Mr. Gladstone's Pamphlet Vaticanism : An Answer to Reproof a and 
 Replies Reiteration of previous Charges Mr. Gladstone and Cardinal Newman 
 General Conclusion on the Vatican Claims. 
 
 IN the recess of 1874, Mr. Gladstone continued the eccle- 
 siastical controversy which had been initiated some months 
 before in the House of Commons ; but he now gave to it broader 
 and deeper issues, There appeared in the October number of 
 the Contemporary Review an essay by the ex-Premier, entitled 
 ' What is Ritualism ? ' This article, which attained an immense 
 circulation, excited the keenest interest. Mr. Gladstone gave 
 this general definition of Ritualism : ' It is unwise, undisci- 
 plined reaction from poverty, from coldness, from barrenness, from 
 nakedness ; it is overlaying purpose with adventitious and obstruc- 
 tive incumbrance ; it is departure from measure and from harmony 
 in the annexation of appearance to substance, of the outward to 
 the inward ; it is the caricature of the beautiful ; it is the con- 
 version of help into hindrances ; it is the attempted substitution 
 of the secondary for the primary aim, and the real failure and 
 paralysis of both.' The writer himself had no personal sympathy 
 with excessive ornamentation in Divine service as a religious 
 principle, but he regarded the question of high ritual as one of 
 aesthetic taste. Herein he was at variance with large numbers 
 of the Protestant section of the community, who saw in Ritualism 
 something more than a mere predilection for ornament and ritual 
 the inner significance beneath the outer forms. ' The truth is,' 
 Mr. Gladstone observed in one place, ' that in the word Ritualism 
 there is involved much more than the popular mind seems to 
 suppose. The present movement in favour of ritual is not con- 
 fined to Ritualists, neither is it confined even to Churchmen. 
 It has been, when all things are considered, quite as remarkable 
 among Nonconformists and Presbyterians ; nc t because they have
 
 EITUALISM AND VATICANISM. 491 
 
 as much of it, but because they formerly had none, and because 
 their system appeared to have been devised and adjusted in order 
 to prevent its introduction, and to fix upon it even in limine the 
 aspect of a flagrant departure from first principles.' Mr. Glad- 
 stone enlarged upon the fact that Dissenting chapels now had 
 their crosses, their organs, richly-painted architecture, steeples, 
 . stained windows, elaborate chanting, &c. all which, while per- 
 fectly true, had little or no bearing upon the dangers which 
 Eitualism in the Church of England was believed to involve. 
 The writer seemed almost disinclined to grapple with the real 
 tendencies and symbolisms of Eitualism. He admitted, however, 
 that an important connection between high doctrine and high 
 ritual is to be traced to a considerable extent in the Church of 
 England. If we were not the better for more ritual, he observed, 
 we were the worse for it. A general augmentation of ritual, 
 such as that going on around men on every side, if it were with- 
 out corresponding enhancement of devotion, meant more light, 
 but not more love. 
 
 The following passage in Mr. Gladstone's essay roused the 
 indignation of the Eoman Catholics to the highest pitch : ' There 
 is a question which it is the special purpose of this paper to sug- 
 gest for consideration by my fellow-Christians generally, which is 
 more practical, and of greater importance, as it seems to me, and 
 has far stronger claims on the attention of the nation and of the 
 rulers of the Church, than the question whether a handful of the 
 clergy are or are not engaged in an utterly hopeless and visionary 
 effort to Eornanise the Church and people of England. At no 
 time since the sanguinary reign of Mary has such a scheme been 
 possible. But, if it had been possible in the seventeenth or 
 eighteenth centuries, it would still have become impossible in the 
 nineteenth ; when Eome has substituted for the proud boast of 
 semper eadem a policy of violence and change in faith ; when she 
 has refurbished and paraded anew every rusty tool she was fondly 
 thought to have disused ; when no one can become her convert 
 without renouncing his moral and mental freedom, and placing- 
 his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another ; and when she 
 has equally repudiated modern thought and ancient history. 1 
 cannot persuade myself to feel alarm as to the final issue of her 
 crusades in England, and this, although I do not undervalue her 
 great powers of mischief.' This extract demonstrated Mr. Glad- 
 stone's courage and strict loyalty to conscience; for the very 
 members of the community of whom he thus indirectly spoke 
 were those from whom he had but recently struck their long- 
 endured political and religious fetters. Yet in quarters where 
 thp writer had once been regarded as the champion of religious
 
 492 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 and political freedom, he was now fiercely, bitterly, and unjustifi- 
 ably assailed. 
 
 On the question of Ritualism, Mr. Gladstone expressed the 
 view that ' the best touchstone for deciding what is wrong and 
 defining what is right in the exterior apparel of Divine service, 
 will be found in the holy desire and authoritative demand of the 
 Apostle, " that the Church may receive edifying " rather than in 
 abstract imagery of perfection on the one hand, or any form ot 
 narrow traditional prejudice on the other.' Beyond this, he formu- 
 lated no general conclusions, but contented himself by reprinting 
 the six resolutions in which, when the Public Worship Regulation 
 Bill was before the House of Commons, he endeavoured to set 
 forth what appeared to him to offer a safer and a wiser basis of 
 .egislation.* 
 
 To the numerous criticisms upon this essay, Mr. Gladstone 
 published in the following year a general reply entitled, ' Is the 
 Church of England worth Preserving? ' f The writer observed that 
 there had been an expectation that his previous essay might untie 
 or cut the knot of the questions which had been so warmly if not 
 fiercely agitated during the preceding session of Parliament ; but 
 he had no such ambitious aim. The season being now tranquil, 
 the question might at length be approached in the temper of the 
 chamber, and not of the battle-field. He deprecated a secession 
 from the National Church, for such an event would operate, with 
 reference to its nationality, like a rent in a wall, * which is mainly 
 important, not by the weight of material it detaches, but by the 
 discontinuity it leaves.' But it was not only the severance of 
 the Church into two bodies which might precipitate disestablish- 
 ment ; obstinacy and exasperation of internal strife might operate 
 yet more effectively towards the same end. He earnestly urged 
 it upon all the members of the National Church that the more 
 they studied her place and function in Christendom, the more 
 they would find that her unity, qualified but real, was worth 
 preserving. Coming to one of the capital and cardinal points of 
 his case, he expressed his conviction that ' heavy will be the 
 blame to those, be they who they may, who may at this juncture 
 endeavour whether by legislation or by judicial action, and 
 whether by alteration of phrases or by needlessly attaching 
 doctrinal significance to the injunction or prohibition of 
 ceremonial acts to shift the balance of doctrinal expression 
 in the Church of England.' To lessen the chances of a mis- 
 apprehension of his arguments, Mr. Gladstone summed up, in 
 
 * These Resolutions will be found in Chapter XXIII. 
 t See the Contemporary Review for July, 1875.
 
 RITUALISM AND VATICANISM. 493 
 
 the following propositions, the bearings and purport of his 
 second essay : 
 
 * I. The Church of this great nation is worth preserving, and for that end much 
 may well be borne. II. In the existing state of minds and of circumstances, pre- 
 served it cannot be, if we now shift its balance of doctrinal expression, be it by any 
 alteration of the Prayer Book (either way) in contested points, or be it by treating 
 rubrical interpretations of the matters heretofore most sharply contested on the basis 
 of " doctrinal significance." III. The more we trust to moral forces, and the less to 
 penal proceedings (which are to a considerable extent exclusive one of the other), 
 the better for the establishment, and even for the Church. IV. If litigation is to 
 be continued, and to remain, within the bounds of safety, it is highly requisite that 
 it should be confined to the repression of such proceedings as really imply unfaith- 
 fulness to the national religion. V. In order that judicial decisions on ceremonial 
 may habitually enjoy the large measure of authority, finality, and respect, which 
 attaches in general to the sentences of our courts, it is requisite that they should 
 have uniform regard to the rules and results of full historical investigation, and 
 should, if possible, allow to stand over for the future matters insufficiently cleared, 
 rather than decide them upon partial and fragmentary evidence.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone gave himself no rest in the ecclesiastical warfare. 
 Within one month from the publication of his essay on Eitualism 
 appeared from his pen a pamphlet on The Vatican Decrees in 
 their Bearing on Civil Allegiance ; a Political Expostulation. 
 His object now was to justify the assertions in the previous 
 article which had been so much controverted by Roman Catholics. 
 The propositions which occasioned the pamphlet on the Vatican 
 Decrees, and which he now defended, were as follows : ' I. That 
 Rome has substituted for the proud boast of semper eadem a 
 policy of violence and change in faith. II. That she has refur- 
 bished and paraded anew every rusty tool she was fondly thought 
 to have disused. III. That no one can now become her convert 
 without renouncing his moral and mental freedom, and placing 
 his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another. IV. That 
 Rome has equally repudiated modern thought and ancient history.' 
 Mr. Gladstone passed over briefly the first and fourth of these 
 propositions, as they belonged to the theological domain ; but, in 
 justifying them, he remarked that no one who had followed the 
 course of the literature of the Romish Church during the past 
 forty years could fail to be sensible of the change in its present 
 tenor. More and more had the assertions of continuous uni- 
 formity of doctrine receded into scarcely penetrable shadow. More 
 and more had another series of assertions of a living authority, 
 ever ready to open, adopt, and shape Christian doctrine according 
 to the times, taken their place. With regard to the second 
 branch of his subject, the writer cited a number of propositions 
 respecting the liberty of the press, liberty of conscience, the Papal 
 judgments and decrees, &c., the holders of which had been con- 
 demned by the See of Rome during his own generation, and 
 especially within the last twelve or fifteen years. The third pro- 
 position by Mr. Gladstone was the most important, as it concerned
 
 494 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the operation of the Romish dogmas on personal and private duty. 
 To this point he accordingly addressed himself at length. ' Is it, 
 or is it not, true,' he demanded, ' that Rome requires a convert 
 who now joins her to forfeit his moral and mental freedom, and 
 to place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another ? ' 
 Without imputing to any one the moral murder of stifling con- 
 science and conviction, he could not, for one, be surprised that 
 the fermentation which was working through the mind of the 
 Latin Church had as yet (elsewhere than in Germany*) but in 
 few instances come to the surface. Mr. Gladstone proceeded to 
 show that the declarations made by Irish bishops before com- 
 mittees of the Houses of Lords and Commons, previous to the 
 passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, as well as decrees of 
 councils and declarations of great ecclesiastical authorities in 
 earlier and later times, were at variance with the new claims set 
 up in 1870, and that the Roman Catholic authorities deprecated 
 fifty years ago the very doctrines of allegiance which were now 
 strongly asserted. All the propositions which had been formerly 
 left to the individual conscience had now undergone a change, 
 and been completely reversed. ' The Pope's Infallibility, when he 
 speaks ex cathedra on faith and morals, has been declared, with 
 the assent of the bishops of the Roman Church, to be an article 
 of faith, binding on the conscience of every Christian ; his claim 
 to the obedience of his spiritual subjects has been declared in like 
 manner without any practical limit or reserve; and his supremacy, 
 without any reserve of civil rights, has been similarly affirmed to 
 include everything which relates to the discipline and government 
 of the Church throughout the world. And these doctrines, we now 
 know on the highest authority, it is of necessity for salvation to 
 believe.' After a close examination of the character and bearings 
 of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, Mr. Gladstone thus gene- 
 rally enforced the effects of the dogma : ' 
 
 ' Absolute obedience, it is boldly declared, is due to the Pope, at the peril of 
 salvation, not alone in faith, in morals, but in all things which concern the disci- 
 pline and government of the Church. Thus are swept into the Papal net whole 
 multitudes of facts, whole systems of government, prevailing, though in different 
 degrees, in every country in the world. Even in the United States, where the 
 severance between Church and State is supposed to be complete, a long catalogue 
 might be drawn of subjects belonging to the domain and competency of the State, 
 but also undeniably affecting the government of the Church ; such as, by way of 
 example, marriage, burial, education, prison discipline, blasphemy, poor-relief, 
 incorporation, mortmain, religious endowments, vows of celibacy, and obedience. 
 In Europe the circle is far wider, the points of contact and of interlacing almost 
 innumerable. But on all matters respecting which any Pope may think proper to 
 ieclare that they concern either faith, or morals, or the Government or discipline 
 
 * On more than one occasion it has been reported that Dr. von Dollinger (to 
 whom Mr. Gladstone paid a high tribute) had made his submission on the doctrine 
 of Papal Infallibility ; but the learned Doctor himself has emphatically denied thi* 
 to be the case.
 
 RITUALISM AND VATICANISM. 495 
 
 of the Church, he claims, with the approval of a council undoubtedly ecumenical in 
 the Roman sense, the absolute obedience, at the peril of salvation, of every member of 
 his communion. It seems not as yet to have been thought wise to pledge the Council 
 in terms to the Syllabus and the Encyclical. That achievement is probably reserved 
 for some one of its sittings yet to come. In the meantime it is well to remember 
 that this claim in respect of all things affecting the discipline and Government of 
 the Church, as well as faith and conduct, is lodged in open day by and in the 
 reign of a Pontiff who has condemned free speech, free writing, a free press, tolera- 
 tion of nonconformity, liberty of conscience, the study of civil and philosophical 
 matters in independence of the ecclesiastical authority, marriage, unless sacramen- 
 tally contracted, and the definition by the State of the civil rights (jura) of the 
 Church ; who has demanded for the Church, therefore, the title to define its own 
 civil rights, together with a divine right to civil immunities and a right to use 
 physical force ; and who has also proudly asserted that the Popes of the middle ages 
 with their councils did not invade the rights of princes : as, for example, Gregory 
 VII., of the Emperor Henry IV. ; Innocent III., of Raymond of Toulouse ; Paul III., 
 in deposing Henry VIII. ; or Pius V., in performing the like paternal office for 
 Elizabeth.' 
 
 Before such incontrovertible facts as these, and others of equal 
 significance within the public knowledge, it may well have seemed 
 extraordinary to the writer as indeed it must have done to 
 thousands of other persons that men of the high intellectual 
 eminence of Cardinals Newman and Manning should have sub- 
 scribed to the dogmas promulgated from the Vatican. We are 
 driven to the conclusion that such a subscription would have been 
 impossible save under the influence of the strong soporific of 
 casuistry. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone demanded in the most specific form, and in the 
 clearest terms, one of two things either, ' I. A demonstration 
 that neither in the name of faith, nor in the name of morals, nor 
 in the name of the government or discipline of the Church, is the 
 Pope of Rome able, by virtue of the powers asserted for him by 
 the Vatican decree, to make any claim upon those who adhere to 
 his communion, of such a nature as can impair the integrity of 
 their civil allegiance ; or else, II. That, if and when such claim 
 is made, it will, even although resting on the definitions of the 
 Vatican, be repelled and rejected ; just as Bishop Doyle, when 
 he was asked what the Roman Catholic clergy would do if the 
 Pope intermeddled with their religion, replied frankly, " The 
 consequence would be that we should oppose him by every means 
 in our power, even by the exercise of our spiritual authority." ' 
 In the absence of explicit assurances to this effect, Mr. Gladstone 
 was compelled to adopt these conclusions : ' 1 . That the Pope, 
 authorised by his Council, claims for himself the domain (a) of 
 faith, ( 6) of morals, (c) of all that concerns the government and 
 discipline of the Church. 2. That he in like manner claims the 
 power of determining the limits of those domains. 3. That he 
 does not sever them, by any acknowledged or intelligible line 
 from the domains of civil duty and allegiance. 4. That he there- 
 fore claims, and claims from the month of July, 1870, onwards,
 
 *96 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 with plenary authority from every convert and member of his 
 Church, that he shall " place his loyalty and civil duty at the 
 mercy of another," that other being himself.' 
 
 The important question now arose that, being true, were the 
 above propositions material ? On this point, the author showed 
 that there was not the smallest doubt the temporal power of the 
 Popedom came within the meaning of the words used at the 
 Vatican to describe the subjects on which the Pope was authorised 
 to claim, under awful sanctions, the obedience of the ' faithful.' 
 And it was possible we had here the key to the enlargement of 
 the province of Obedience beyond the limits of Infallibility, and 
 to the introduction of the remarkable phrase ad disciplinam et 
 regimen Ecclesice. With regard to the inquiry whether his pro- 
 positions were proper to be set forth by the present writer, Mr. 
 Gladstone answered, that for thirty years, under a great variety 
 of circumstances, in office and as an independent member of Par- 
 liament, he had laboured with others to maintain and extend the 
 civil rights of his Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. The 
 Liberal party had sometimes suffered heavily for its ardour in 
 the pursuit of that policy. It was, therefore, only just that he 
 should make the present declaration. Up to 1870, opinion in the 
 Roman Church on all matters affecting civil liberty was free. Mr. 
 Gladstone felt at that time that it was the first and paramount duty 
 of the British Legislature to give to Ireland all that justice could 
 demand. The last debt of the kind was paid by the Irish Univer- 
 sity Bill of 1873, and the rejection of that measure was due to 
 the influence of the Roman Catholic prelacy of Ireland. ' From 
 that time forward I have felt that the situation was changed, and 
 that important matters would have to be cleared by suitable 
 explanations.' 
 
 The writer anticipated the inquiry which his observations would 
 suggest, viz., ' Are they, then, a recantation and regret ; and what 
 are they meant to recommend as the policy of the future ? ' His 
 reply was succinct and plain of what the Liberal party had accom- 
 plished, by word or deed, in establishing the full civil equality ot 
 Roman Catholics, he regretted nothing and recanted nothing. 
 He admitted that during the last thirty years the Romish- Church 
 had made some progress, but its conquests had been chiefly as 
 might have been expected among women.* Roman Catholicism 
 had also made some progress amongst the upper classes. ' The 
 original Gospel was supposed to be meant especially for the poor ; 
 but the Gospel of the nineteenth century from Rome courts another 
 
 * Recent statistics prove that the progress of the Romish Church in the United 
 Kingdom is by no means commensurate with the growth of the population, 01 
 with the progress of some other religious bodies.
 
 RITUALISM AND VATICANISM. 497 
 
 and less modest destination. If the Pope does not control more 
 souls among us, he certainly controls more acres. The sever- 
 ance, however, of a certain number of lords of the soil from those 
 who till it can be borne.' As to his own views and intentions in 
 the future, which he described as of the smallest significance, the 
 author declared that he should be guided, as heretofore, by the 
 rule of maintaining equal civil rights, irrespectively of religious 
 differences ; and he should resist all attempts to exclude the 
 members of the Roman Church from the benefit of that rule. Mr. 
 Gladstone thus concluded this remarkable pamphlet : 
 
 ' The State will, I trust, be ever careful to leave the domain of religious conscience 
 free, and yet to keep it to its own domain ; and to allow neither private caprice, 
 nor, above all, foreign arrogance to dictate to it on the discharge of its proper office. 
 " England expects every man to do his duty ; " and none can be so well prepared 
 under all circumstances to exact its performance as that Liberal party which has 
 done the work of justice alike for Nonconformists and for Papal Dissidents, and 
 whose members have so often, for the sake of that work, hazarded their- credit with 
 the markedly Protestant constituencies of the country. Strong the State of the 
 United Kingdom has always been in material strength, and its moral panoply is 
 now, we may hope, pretty complete. It is not then for the dignity of the Crown 
 and people of the United Kingdom to be diverted from a path which they have 
 deliberately chosen and which it does not rest with all the myrmidons of the 
 Apostolic chamber either openly to obstruct or secretly to undermine. It is right- 
 fully to be expected, it is greatly to be desired, that the Roman Catholics of this 
 country should do in the nineteenth century what their forefathers of England, 
 except a handful of emissaries, did in the sixteenth, when they were marshalled in 
 resistance to the Armada, and in the seventeenth, when, in spite of the Papal Chair, 
 they sat in the House of Lords under the Oath of Allegiance. That which they are 
 entitled to desire, we are entitled also to expect ; indeed, to say we did not expect it 
 would, in my judgment, be the true "way of conveying an " insult " to those concerned. 
 In this expectation we may be partially disappointed.' Should those to whom I 
 appeal, thus unhappily come to bear witness in their own persons to the decay of 
 sound, manly, true life in their Church, it will be their loss more than ours. The 
 inhabitants of these islands, as a whole, are stable, though sometimes credulous 
 and excitable ; resolute, though sometimes boastful ; and a strong-headed and 
 stout-hearted race will not be hindered, either by latent or by avowed dissents, 
 due to the foreign influence of a caste, from the accomplishment of its mission in 
 the world.' 
 
 Few pamphlets, or indeed works of any kind, have created so 
 much public excitement, or attained such an enormous circula- 
 tion, as this dissertation on the Vatican Decrees. In the course 
 of a few weeks no fewer than one hundred and twenty thousand 
 copies of the pamphlet had been disposed of, and replies innu- 
 merable appeared within the same period.* Mr. Gladstone's essay 
 performed one service at least it demonstrated that there was a 
 want of harmony between the members of the Romish Church 
 themselves on the subject of the Vatican Decrees. For example, 
 
 * The following is a list of the chief writers of replies to Mr. Gladstone's essay : 
 Cardinal Manning, Dr. (Cardinal) Newman, Bishop Ullathorne, Bishop Vaughan, 
 Monsignor Capel, Lord Petre, Lord Herries, Sir G. Bowyer, Lord Robert Montagu. 
 a Monk of St. Augustine's, Ramsgate, Bishop Clifford, Rev. J. Coleridge, Rev. T. B. 
 Parkinson, Monsignor Francesco Nardi, Mr. A. P. de Lisle, Canon Oakley, Mr. 
 Marum, LL.B., Rev. John Curry, Mr. J. Stores Smith, and a Scottish Catholic Lay- 
 man. A great number of anonymous replies were also published, as well as stric- 
 tures upon Mr. Gladstone's conclusions, in the Ultramontane press. 
 
 K E
 
 *93 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 Lord Camoys, a well-known Catholic nobleman, declared that he 
 concurred in Mr. Gladstone's views upon the new dogmas of the 
 Church. History, common-sense, and his early instruction said 
 his lordship forbade him to accept the astounding and novel 
 doctrine of the personal Infallibility of the Pope, even though 
 limited to the domain of faith and morals. He took exception to 
 nothing in Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet but the term ' bloody,' as 
 applied to Queen Mary. If the Vatican Decrees were enforced, 
 serious difficulties would arise for the members of the Koman 
 Catholic Church throughout the world. Lord Acton, one of the 
 most intellectual and enlightened of Catholics, claimed that he 
 could be an orthodox Eomanist, and yet resist the Vatican 
 Decrees. Mr. Henry Petre likewise repudiated the high Ultramon- 
 tane views. Other members of the Eomish communion, however, 
 such as Lord Herries, Lord Petre, Mr. Stourton, and Mr. Lang- 
 dale, accepted the Decrees. Upon the appearance of the pamphlet, 
 two prominent Italian journals, the Osservatore and the Voce 
 della Verita, could scarcely believe it possible that it was Mr. 
 Gladstone who thus attacked the Holy See. They imagined that 
 he had done this deed to clear himself of the suspicion of hidden 
 Catholicism, and the former journal hinted that the essay might 
 have been the result of certain interviews which Mr. Gladstone 
 was known to have had with Dr. von Dollinger.* Both journals 
 further expressed a hope that the offender might be brought ulti- 
 mately within the pale of the l true Church,' a consummation 
 scarcely likely to be realised. 
 
 Three months after the appearance of his first pamphlet, Mr. 
 Gladstone issued a second, entitled Vaticanism : an Answer to 
 Reproofs and Replies. Those who adopted the Ultramontane 
 hypothesis had charged him with insulting the Eoman Catholics 
 of Great Britain. Mr. Gladstone repudiated all such intention, 
 but in doing so reiterated his original charges as follows : ' The 
 Vatican Decrees do, in the strictest sense, establish for the Pope 
 a supreme command over loyalty and civil duty. To the vast 
 majority of Koman Catholics they are, and in all likelihood will 
 long in their carefully enveloped meaning remain, practically 
 unknown. Of that small minority who have spoken or fitted 
 themselves to speak a portion reject them. Another portion 
 receive them with an express reserve, to me perfectly satisfactory, 
 against all their civil consequences. Another portion seem to 
 suspend their judgment until it is determined what is a free 
 
 * Cardinal Manning and Bishop Ullathorne also supposed Dr. von Dollinger to 
 be in some degree responsible for, or at least cognisant of, the tract on the Vatican 
 Decrees ; but Mr. Gladstone af terwards stated that the learned Doctor had no 
 concern, direct or indirect, in the production or publication of the pamphlet, and 
 tnat until it had gone to the press he was even ignorant of its existence,
 
 RITUALISM AND VATICANISM. 49U 
 
 Council, what is moral unanimity, what are declarations ex 
 icathedra 9 whether there has been a decisive and binding pro- 
 mulgation so as to create a law, and whether the claim for an 
 undue obedience need be considered until some act of undue 
 obedience is asked. A very large class, as it seems to me, think 
 they receive these Decrees, and do not. They are involved in 
 inconsistency, and that inconsistency is dangerous.' He did not 
 censure the supporters of the Decrees : the Alpha and Omega of 
 his desire was to assail the system. 
 
 The writer paid a high compliment to his most distinguished 
 antagonist, Dr. Newman. c In my opinion,' he remarked, ' his 
 secession from the Church of England has never yet been estimated 
 among us at anything like the full amount of its calamitous 
 importance. It has been said that the world does not know its 
 greatest men ; * neither, I will add, is it aware of the power and 
 weight carried by the words and by the acts of those among its 
 greatest men whom it does know. The Ecclesiastical historian 
 will perhaps hereafter judge that this secession was a much greater 
 event even than the partial secession of John Wesley, the only 
 case of personal loss suffered by the Church of England since the 
 Keformation, which can be at all compared with it in magnitude. 
 I do not refer to its effect upon the mere balance of schools or 
 parties in the Church ; that is an inferior question. I refer to 
 its effect upon the state of positive belief, and the attitude and 
 capacities of the religious mind of England.' After having 
 given an extraordinary impulse to the religious thought of 
 England at a critical period, Dr. Newman lived to be the 
 main, if involuntary, cause of disorganising it in a mannei 
 quite as remarkable. 
 
 With regard to the character of Dr. Newman's answer, and 
 the replies of other acceptors of the Decrees who wrote in the 
 same sense, Mr. Gladstone could not refrain from saying that the 
 immediate purpose of his appeal had been attained, in so far as 
 that the loyalty of his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in the 
 mass remained evidently untainted and secure. Dr. Newman's 
 letter to the Duke of Norfolk Mr. Gladstone pronounced to be of 
 the highest interest as a psychological study. 'Whatever he 
 writes, whether we agree with him or not, presents to us this 
 great attraction as well as advantage, that we have everywhere 
 the man in the work, that his words are the transparent covering 
 of his nature. If there be obliquity in them, it is purely intel- 
 lectual obliquity ; the work of an intellect sharp enough to cut 
 
 * This thought, so often attributed to a wrong source, appears in Sir Henry 
 Taylor's Philip van Artevelde, Act I., sc. 5, 'The world knows nothing of its 
 greatest men.' 
 
 K K 2
 
 500 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the diamond, and bright as the diamond which it cuts. How 
 rarely it is found, in the wayward and inscrutable records of our 
 race, that with these instruments of an almost superhuman force 
 and subtlety, robustness of character and energy of will are or 
 can be developed in the same extraordinary proportions, so as to 
 integrate that structure of combined thought and action which 
 makes life a moral whole ! ' But his exclusive duty now was 
 concerned with the learned Doctor's tract, and on the general 
 question he must avow that he did not feel the same security for 
 the future as for the present. He could not overlook indications, 
 even in this country, that the proceedings of Vaticanism threat- 
 ened to become a source of practical inconvenience. With respect 
 to Archbishop Manning, that prelate's satisfactory views on the 
 present lule of civil allegiance had not prevented him from 
 giving his countenance as a responsible editor to the lucubrations 
 of a gentleman who denied liberty of conscience, and asserted 
 the right to persecute when there was the power ; a right which, 
 indeed, the Archbishop himself had not disclaimed. But apart 
 from personal questions, do what men might in checking external 
 developments, it was not in their power to neutralise the mischiefs 
 of the wanton aggression of 1870 upon the liberties which up to 
 that epoch had been allowed to private Christians in the Roman 
 communion. ' Even in those parts of Christendom where the 
 Decrees and the present "attitude of the Papal See do not 
 produce or aggravate open broils with the civil power, by 
 undermining moral liberty they impair moral responsibility, 
 and silently, in the succession of generations, if not in the 
 lifetime of individuals, tend to emasculate the vigour of the 
 mind.' 
 
 In the body of this second essay, Mr. Gladstone proceeded 
 further to sustain and prove his two main propositions that 
 Rome had reproduced for active service those doctrines of former 
 times which she was fondly thought to have disused ; and that 
 the Pope now claims, with plenary authority, from every convert 
 and member of his Church, that he shall place his loyalty and 
 civil duty at the mercy of another, viz., himself. The writer 
 adduced proofs to show that his account of the contents of the 
 Syllabus was accurate, and that he had understated, not overstated, 
 its authority. In the code of Vaticanism, it was unquestionably 
 entitled to obedience. The other topics treated were the Vatican 
 Council and the Infallibility of the Pope, the revived claims of 
 the Pope, the Vatican Council and obedience to the Pope, warrant 
 of allegiance according to the Vatican, and the intrinsic nature 
 and conditions of the Papal Infallibility decreed in the Vatican 
 Council. Mr. Gladstone brought forward a variety of arguments
 
 EITUALISM AND VATICANISM. 501 
 
 and proofs in justification of the following general conclusions 
 or assertions : ' 1. That the position of Koman Catholics has 
 been altered by the decrees of the Vatican on Papal Infallibility, 
 and in obedience to the Pope. 2. That the extreme claims 
 of the Middle Ages have been sanctioned, and have been revived 
 without the warrant or excuse which might in those ages have 
 been shown for them. 3. That the claims asserted by the Pope 
 are such as to place civil allegiance at his mercy. 4. That the 
 State and people of the United Kingdom had a right to rely on 
 the assurances they had received, that Papal Infallibility was not, 
 and could not become, an article of faith in the Koman Church, 
 and that the obedience due to the Pope was limited by laws 
 independent of his will.' Here are the closing words of the author's 
 eloquent peroration : ' As freedom can never be effectually estab- 
 lished by the adversaries of that Gospel which has first made it a 
 reality for all orders and degrees of men, so the Gospel never can 
 be effectually defended by a policy which declines to acknowledge 
 the high place assigned to liberty in the counsels of Providence, 
 and which, upon the pretext of the abuse that like every other 
 good she suffers, expels her from its system. Among the many 
 noble thoughts of Homer, there is not one more noble or more 
 penetrating than his judgment upon slavery. " On the day," he 
 says, " that makes a bondman of the free, 
 
 Wide-seeing Zeus takes half the man away." 
 
 He thus judges, not because the slavery of his time was cruel 
 for evidently it was not but because it was slavery. What he 
 said against servitude in the social order, we may plead against 
 Vaticanism in the spiritual sphere ; and no cloud of incense which 
 zeal or flattery, or even love, can raise should hide the disastrous 
 truth from the vision of mankind.' 
 
 In addition to the publication of these essays on the subject 
 of Vaticanism, Mr. Gladstone contributed a vigorous and search- 
 ing criticism upon the speeches of Pope Pius IX. to the Quarterly 
 Review for January, 1875. The writer's indignation at the Papal 
 assumptions finds full vent in this article, which reviews the chief 
 events in the career of the late Pope, and, in certain aspects, leaves 
 him exposed to the derision of humanity. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be taken for granted, that of all forms of 
 controversy the religious is the least effectual in winning converts 
 from one form of belief to another, and to those principles which 
 the respective combatants believe to be in accordance with reason, 
 truth, and justice. Many men practically decline to submit their 
 individual religion to the tests demanded of it ; and, therefore,
 
 502 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 amongst Roman Catholics, Mr. Gladstone's controversial writings 
 may have had little effect, notwithstanding the cogency of their 
 arguments. But to the rest of the world, at any rate, these essays 
 have afforded substantial aid in demonstrating the hollowness of 
 the Papal pretensions, as well as their insidious and dangerous 
 character*
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S FINANCIAL POLICY. 
 
 L'eneficial results of Mr. Gladstone's Financial Legislation Testimony of Sir 
 Stafford Northcote Review of Twenty Years of Financial Policy The Budget 
 of 1853 Compared with Sir Eobert Peel's Budget of 1842 The Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer on the Necessity for Retrenchment Exposition of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Work in Finance His Characteristics as a Financier The ex-Premier on the 
 Financial Policy of the Beaconsfield Administration Liberal and Conservative 
 Expenditure compared The General Expenditure of the Country A growing 
 Deficiency Taxes remitted by the Gladstone Administration Results of the 
 present War Policy. 
 
 THE various budgets for which Mr. Gladstone was directly respon- 
 sible have been dealt with at length in the order of their introduc- 
 tion into the House of Commons ; but it remains now to offer 
 some observations upon the general character and effect of the 
 ex-Premier's financial policy, as well as to contrast it briefly with 
 the policy pursued by his successors. In fulfilling this task, we are 
 fortunately able to fall back upon the compilations and statistics 
 of persons whose authority in matters of finance will scarcely be 
 disputed. 
 
 First, we shall call as a witness to the beneficial results of Mr. 
 Gladstone's financial legislation no less a person than his whilom 
 pupil, the present Chancellor of the Exchequer. In an able, and 
 so far as finance can be made so interesting review of twenty 
 important years of financial policy, viz., those extending from 
 1842 to 1861 inclusively, Sir Stafford Northcote shows the great 
 changes which have been effected in national finance.* Although 
 the right hon. baronet does not, for personal reasons stated, enter 
 largely into a consideration of the very important budget of 1860, 
 liis general conclusions upon the financial measures of that and 
 previous years will sufficiently answer our purpose. The period re- 
 viewed commences with Sir Robert Peel's imposition of the income- 
 tax in 1842, and extends to the repeal of the paper duties in 1861. 
 As the writer justly remarks, the fortunes of the income-tax, and 
 the work done by its aid, * give a kind of dramatic unity to this 
 period, which would alone be sufficient to make the study of it 
 
 * Twenty Years of Financial Policy. By Sir Stafford H. Northcote, Bart., M.P. 
 for Stamford. London, 1862.
 
 504 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 interesting ; but in addition to this, we have, in the course of 
 these twenty years, seen our financial system exhibited in all its 
 bearings ; and examples have been given of almost every kind of 
 financial problem.' Passing over the great financial measures of 
 1842 and 1845 with which Sir Eobert Peel's Ministry was asso- 
 ciated, and which formed the starting-point of a new financial 
 regime we will come to the year 1853, one of the most important 
 of the whole period dealt with by Sir Stafford Northcote. Mr. 
 Gladstone's analysis of the income-tax in his budget of this year 
 has already been referred to in detail. As his successor says, ' It 
 is almost impossible to condense this portion of Mr. Gladstone's 
 speech ; so consummate is the skill with which the topics are 
 arranged and presented to his audience. Wholly apart from the 
 merits of the scheme he proposes, the speech itself, and especially 
 this part of it, will repay the most careful study as a specimen 
 of persuasive reasoning.' On the general character of this remark- 
 able budget, the same writer observes, ' We miss in it the caution, 
 which is perhaps the most striking feature of the financial plans 
 of Sir Eobert Peel ; while in its place we meet with a boldness of 
 conception, a love of effect, and a power of producing it, such as 
 we do not find even in the remarkable budget of 1842. Yet it 
 would be unjust to Mr. Gladstone to find fault with him on this 
 account. When we look at the circumstances of the case, we 
 cannot but feel that it was of the utmost importance to the finan- 
 cial prosperity of the country that a stand should be made against 
 that of which Mr. Disraeli had so justly complained the tendency 
 of the leaders of public opinion to decry and render impossible 
 every mode of raising the necessary revenues ; and ... we may 
 well believe that nothing less than a striking scheme like that 
 which Mr. Gladstone brought forward would at that time have 
 sufficed to save the finances from the most serious confusion.' 
 Moreover, ' had not events occurred which led to a large increase 
 of our expenditure before the arrival of 1860, his calculations 
 would have been nearly or quite verified ; that is, provided the 
 House had abstained for the whole seven years from demanding 
 any new remissions of taxation.' With regard to the Crimean 
 War, Sir S. Northcote observes that it revealed to us many imperfec- 
 tions in our military system ; but the strain on our finances brought 
 to light nothing but their soundness and their vigour. * Could 
 we have borne that strain as we did,' he asks, * if it had not been 
 for the life which Sir Robert Peel first infused, and which Mr. 
 , Gladstone afterwards renewed, in our fiscal system, and but for 
 which 1854 might have found us struggling with an overwhelm- 
 ' ing deficiency, or inextricably entangled in the toils which must 
 attend a reconstruction of the income-tax? It was well for
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S FINANCIAL POLICY. 505 
 
 England, in this respect at least, that we had set our house in order 
 before the day of trial came upon us.' The ex-Premier could 
 desire no better tribute than this to his capacity as a Finance 
 Minister. In assessing the general result of the financial policy 
 pursued from 1842 to ]861 in which Mr. Gladstone had so large 
 a share Sir Stafford Northcote arrives at the conclusion that the 
 condition of every portion of the community has been greatly 
 improved by the new policy. 
 
 The Beaconsfield Administration will be distinguished in the 
 records of posterity for (inter alia) its lavish expenditure of public 
 money. We therefore commend to the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer in 1879 the following admirable passage on the necessity 
 for retrenchment written by Sir Stafford Northcote in 1862 : 
 
 ' Mr. Gladstone, in his budget speech of 1860, pointed out that between 1842 and 
 1859 the wealth of the country had increased about 28g per cent, and the expendi- 
 ture in the same time about 27 per cent. Now this is a serious consideration ; and it 
 is made the more serious when we remember that Mr. Gladstone at the same 
 time showed that the increase in the expenditure had been advancing at a greatly 
 accelerated rate of speed in the last six years of the term of which he was speaking, 
 and that the portion of the public expenditure which is, so to speak, optional and 
 subject to the control of the public, had in those years risen by no less than 58 per 
 cent. Nothing can be more natural than that a nation should, like an individual, 
 increase its expenditure as its wealth increases ; but it is to be borne in mind that 
 while nothing is easier or pleasanter than to expand one's outlay upon the necessaries 
 and conveniences of life, nothing is more painful or more difficult than to contract, 
 it ; and that should our prosperity encounter any check, the habit of large expendi- 
 ture which we have allowed to gain upon us may prove a very inconvenient one.' 
 
 The maintenance of the honour of England must ever be one 
 of the paramount aims of our statesmen, but if it be even now 
 denied that a large portion of the national expenditure during 
 the past four or five years has been unnecessary and unjustifiable, 
 what will history have to say upon the subject ? Sir Stafford 
 Northcote, too, has departed, in many respects notably in regard 
 to the methods of meeting our liabilities from principles which 
 have received the sanction of all the ablest English financiers. 
 
 One of the clearest expositions of Mr. Gladstone's work in finance 
 appeared some years ago in the Fortnightly Review.* The writer, 
 Mr. Griff en, points out that before 1842 ' the condition of the 
 country was alarming, in a way we cannot easily imagine. 
 Successive deficits in the revenue were but a feeble index to the 
 complaints of suffering which arose from every quarter. The 
 country was standing still with a vast gulf between the rich 
 and the poor, and political discontent assuming the most threaten- 
 ing forms. The visible beginning of a change was the Free Trade 
 experiment the abolition of the burdens which those concerned 
 at the time felt to be hindering their business.' Statesmen were 
 
 * ' Mr. Gladstone's Work in Finance.' By Eobert Giffen. Fortnightly Review, 
 Jan. 1869.
 
 506 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 called upon to consider the assistance to be given by finance in 
 ameliorating the condition of the masses of the community. Pre- 
 mising that if a financier can increase the wealth of the mass of 
 the community by reducing taxation, or by other means in his 
 power, he should bend all his energies to the task, Mr. Giffen 
 thus proceeded to answer the question what share Mr. Gladstone 
 had taken in the reduction of the national burdens : 
 
 ' The respective merits of the financiers of the time can almost be measured by 
 the bulk of their contributions to the work. Tried in this manner, Mr. Gladstone's 
 contributions are confessedly the largest of the whole twenty-six years since 1842. 
 All that is characteristic in the last sixteen is exclusively his. There have been 
 other Chancellors of the Exchequer Sir George Lewis, Mr. Disraeli, and Mr. Ward 
 Hunt but, as fortune or management would have it, they have contributed 
 almost nothing among them to the work of the period. Mr. Disraeli's insignificant 
 contribution in the budget of 1867 is literally almost the only thing which Mr. 
 Gladstone cannot claim. It is obvious, too, that a very large share of the work 
 has been got into these sixteen years. Of the four great stages into which the 
 whole period may be divided, two at least are included in the later time. To Sir 
 Robert Peel belongs the first step in 1842, and the second step in 1845 ; but the stages 
 of 1853 and 1860 were marked with equal distinctness, and were hardly of less im- 
 portance. To take the test of the amount of taxation reduced, it appears that in the 
 years 1842-52 the balance of remission was 7,000,000, while in 1853-66 the balance is 
 J613,000,000, This, too, was in spite of the fact that the expenditure in the former 
 years was only between fifty and fifty-two millions ; whereas in the latter period 
 it has been between sixty-five and seventy millions. The proportionate merit of 
 Mr. Gladstone is not so great as the figures show, because all our figures are now 
 bigger, and the taxes reduced would not have been so productive when they 
 came to be reduced but for Sir Robert Peel. They are proof, nevertheless, that a 
 great deal was done ; and when the details are looked at the conclusion is not less 
 favourable. To the first period necessarily belongs the redress of the worst evils 
 in the old system the abolition of export duties, of import duties on the raw 
 material of manufacture, and of certain oppressive excise duties, such as that on 
 glass ; above ah 1 , the destruction of the Corn Laws, with the reduction of duties on 
 other articles of food. Still, how incomplete the work would have been without 
 Mr. Gladstone's contribution. There were no export duties left for him to touch, 
 but every other feature of Sir Robert Peel's work is found in his. The abolition of the 
 excise on soap and on paper released two home industries of the first magnitude, 
 and were quite as important measures in that kind as the repeal of the duty on 
 glass. Mr. Gladstone, again, first reduced yet further the customs on articles of 
 food, and finally abolished every duty of that kind, with the single exception of 
 the shilling duty on corn. Sir Robert Peel, besides, only began the total abolition 
 of duties, his main steps being merely to make reductions. Mr. Gladstone has 
 swept the tariff clear, leaving only certain charges on great articles of consump- 
 tion, with supporting duties on a few articles besides.' 
 
 The writer gives the palm, on the whole, to Mr. Gladstone's work, 
 as being one of greater complexity ; and observes that ' where 
 the indications were less sure, the personal merit of success was 
 proportionately greater.' Sir Robert Peel wrought with the one 
 lever of the income-tax, while Mr. Gladstone devised more than 
 one subsidiary aid, like the extension of the succession duty to 
 real and settled property, and the increase of the spirit duties. 
 Mr. Giffen shows the fallacy of the popular impression that the 
 progressive increase in the revenue is the whole secret of success ; 
 when financiers have surpluses to give away, it is thought they 
 cannot go far wrong. Mr. Gladstone's great merit has been the
 
 MB. GLADSTONE'S FINANCIAL POLICY. 507 
 
 discovery of new sources of income of a comparatively unobjection- 
 able kind, which solved the problem of meeting the high expendi- 
 ture of the years that were to come, without stopping the work 
 of reform. The extension of the succession duty to real and settled 
 property was an idea belonging exclusively to Mr. Gladstone, and a 
 like proposal had not been made since the days of Mr. Pitt. With 
 respect to the peculiar qualities of the ex-Premier as a financier, 
 the same writer observes that ' it is a remarkable alliance with 
 love of subtlety and detail, and with abounding activity and 
 energy, which has introduced into Gladstonian budgets those 
 brilliant devices from which common people are apt to revolt. 
 But Mr. Gladstone, with all his foundation of common-placeness 
 and steady popular judgment, would yet have been very little in 
 finance without his love of detail and wonderful knowledge of 
 expedients. To a very large extent this only means that he has 
 the enthusiasm of his occupation. People succeed in nothing 
 unless they give their days and nights to it, and Mr. Gladstone 
 has given to finance the sweat and toil of many years of his life. 
 People rather like in him an exposition of minute detail whicls 
 hardly another financier could make tolerable.' The prosperity oi 
 the country was largely aided by Mr. Gladstone's financial legis- 
 lation, and the legitimate developments of that prosperity and that 
 legislation, were those extensive remissions of taxation which dis- 
 tinguished his occupancy of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. 
 With regard to the financial policy which has prevailed since 
 Mr. Gladstone's retirement from office, the right hon. gentleman 
 himself has recently described it in an article entitled 'The 
 Country and the Government.' * Complaining of the pretensions 
 and theatrical policy of the existing Administration, he remarked 
 that it could not be had without paying heavily for the decora- 
 tions and stage accompaniments. ' The stock of courage which 
 our Ministers possessed was lavishly expended, partly in act and 
 partly in word, for the management of their transactions beyond 
 sea. The consequence has been that for domestic duties, and for 
 the first of all domestic duties, after allegiance to the Throne 
 namely, the duty of maintaining a just balance between income 
 and charge, and of relieving the future at least by moderate 
 present sacrifices they have not so much as an ounce of courage 
 left. The result has been a financial policy such as all the Minis- 
 tries of the last forty years would have disdained ; and, what is even 
 worse, the invention of a group of false financial doctrines, un- 
 known to our annals, to cover the shortcomings, the miscarriages, 
 and the malpractices of recent finance.' Mr. Gladstone also pointed 
 out that in some cases the advocates of the Ministry had resorted 
 * See the Nineteenth Century for August, 1879.
 
 508 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 to the simple but effectual plan of pure falsification. One 
 journal^ for example, stated that the expenditure of 1873-4 was 
 77,044,852, and the income 76,788,167 thus showing a defi- 
 ciency of 256,685 ; whereas the expenditure was 76,466,000 V 
 and the revenue 77,335,000, showing a surplus of 869,000. 
 Another journal affirmed that since the Conservatives had been 
 in office they had paid in Alabama claims 3,196,875 ; whereas 
 the Alabama claims were paid in 1873-4, the last year of Liberal 
 finance. A table had also been constructed and it had even 
 been employed by a Minister of State showing, not the com- 
 parative expenditure, but the comparative taxation of the Liberal 
 and Conservative Governments since the year 1869. This table 
 gave as the amount of taxation per head for the five years during 
 which the Liberal Government were in office 10 7s. Ofd., and 
 the amount per head for the five years during which the present 
 Government has been in office as 10 3s. Ofd., leaving a balance 
 of 4s. per head in favour of Lord Beaconsfield. ' Upon this prin- 
 ciple,' wrote Mr. Gladstone, ' any scapegrace in St. James's-street, 
 with a small annual allowance, and an immeasurable length of 
 unpaid bills, could prove himself, by showing the small amount 
 he had paid from year to year, to be the most thrifty of men. 
 The economy of a State is to be measured not by the liabilities it 
 discharges, but by the liabilities it incurs.' The writer further 
 pointed out that the Liberal Government began with a high 
 taxation because of the high scale of charge it inherited from the 
 Tories, and of the four millions or thereabouts due for the 
 Abyssinian war, which was also handed over to them. ' This rate 
 of taxation they Deduced by more than two shillings per head, while 
 applying large sums to the reduction of debt ; while encountering 
 the highest price for supplies that had ever been known ; and 
 while meeting a large increase of military expenditure in 1870, 
 which was forced upon them solely by the policy of two great 
 foreign powers.' The Tories, on the contrary, began with a low 
 taxation, and reversed the policy ; and since they came into office 
 in 1874 the rate of taxation per head has steadily gone up year 
 by year. Had the table, moreover, been drawn upon the true 
 basis viz., that of expenditure the real increase of charge since 
 the first year of the present Government would have been about 
 4s. per head. 
 
 Let us . now look at the general expenditure of the country. 
 In 1873-4 less the Alabama claims, which had no connection 
 with the transactions of the year the gross annual expenditure 
 stood at 73,270,000 ; in 1878-9 it stood at 85,407,000. Ex- 
 cluding charges of collection, the amount for 1873-4 was 
 66,800,000, and for 1878-9, 77,457,000 ; showing an increase of
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S FINANCIAL POLICY. 509 
 
 10,657,000. Looking only to that portion of the charge which 
 is both annual and subject generally to the option of Parliament, 
 Mr. Gladstone stated the case thus : Last year of Liberal expen- 
 diture, less Alabama claims, 1873-4, 41,853,000 ; last year of 
 Tory expenditure, 1878-9, 51,817,000 showing an increase of 
 9,964,000, or, in round numbers, ten millions of money, 'mainly 
 due to the policy and the profusion of the Ministry.' This sum 
 represents a proportional augmentation of nearly twenty per 
 cent., or one-fifth, in five years. ' Aided by the heavy fall in the 
 prices of all materials requiring to be purchased for the public 
 service to the extent of 1,600,000, the Government at the com- 
 mencement of the year presented military and naval estimates 
 which showed reductions of 2,008,000, and 1,524,000 respec- 
 tively ; desirous obviously that the gray hairs of this Parliament 
 might go down to the grave in better odour than that which 
 environed it in the days of its vigour. But it is now evident that 
 the demands of the Zulu war must dissipate the fond expectations 
 thus raised. The charge (still unknown) for 1879-80 is more 
 likely to exceed than to fall short of that for 1878-9, and the 
 choice before us seems to lie between heavy and discreditable 
 deficit, and fresh taxation. The annual surpluses available for 
 the reduction of debt, which averaged more than three and a 
 quarter millions during the five years of the late Government, 
 sank during the first three years of the present Ministry to half 
 a million, during the two last have been replaced by deficits 
 of 2,640,000 and 2,292,000 respectively. 
 
 Such is, in brief, Mr. Gladstone's financial indictment against 
 the Beaconsfield Administration, drawn up from the Statistical 
 Abstracts and Parliamentary Papers. But the Economist, a 
 recognised authority on questions of finance, is equally damaging 
 in its criticisms, though it writes from a somewhat different point 
 of view. 'A certain deficiency at the end of the year 1879 of six 
 and a half millions,' says this journal, ' and the possibility of a 
 still larger shortcoming, is what we have to look forward to. Sir 
 Stafford Northcote's schemes for gradually reducing the floating 
 debt have thus all come to nought. Instead of a diminution, 
 each year sees an augmentation of the uncovered balances. In 
 April, 1 878, the amount unprovided for was about 2,000,000 ; ID 
 April, 1879, it had grown to 5,350,000 ; and now it is reaching 
 up to nearly 7,000,000. This is the result of the new system 
 of postponing liabilities, and in the face of this experience the 
 resolution of Sir Stafford Northcote to raise the nominal deficit 
 for the year by the issue of another 1,200,000 Exchequer bonds 
 is much to be regretted. Already the practice of meeting the 
 cost of the little wars to which we are always exposed, by
 
 510 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 additions to debt, instead of out of revenue, has burdened us 
 with a mass of floating liabilities, which in certain conditions of 
 the money market may prove a source of danger. It has 
 betrayed us, moreover, into acts of national meanness of which 
 we may well feel ashamed. No one can doubt but that- for the 
 unsatisfactory condition of our finances, India would never have 
 been saddled with the expense of a war which those by whom it 
 was originated have declared to be waged for Imperial purposes, 
 and should therefore have been met out of Imperial funds. The 
 sooner we get back to the old practice of meeting the expenditure 
 of each year out of that year's revenue, the better will it be in every 
 way.' This has always been Mr. Gladstone's cardinal financial 
 principle, but the present Government are in favour of a procras- 
 tinating policy, forgetting that if the Liberals should ultimately 
 have to make good their defects, and to bring back the country 
 to sound principles of finance, the obloquy must still attach to 
 themselves. The ostrich does not save himself from impending 
 danger by hiding his head in the sand. 
 
 The money saved during Mr. Gladstone's Administration 
 enabled a reduction of twelve and a half millions to be made in 
 the annual taxation, such remissions being a notorious cause of 
 national prosperity and an elastic revenue. The increase of 
 public expenditure since the Conservatives came into power in 1874 
 has been at the average rate of nearly three millions annually. 
 But not only did the five Liberal budgets of the Gladstone Adminis- 
 tration remit taxes to the amount of nearly 13,000,000, but 
 there was left for the Conservatives a surplus of several millions. 
 The" Conservatives, on the other hand, in the five years they have 
 held office, have imposed charges to the amount of upwards of 
 5,000,000 beyond the amount of the Liberal remissions. The 
 deficit which has been created is enormous, and we have not yet 
 arrived at its culminating point. According to the Statistical 
 Abstract of the United Kingdom, published by the Board of 
 Trade, the following figures show the actual amount of national 
 expenditure for which the Liberals were responsible during five 
 years of power under Mr. Gladstone : 1870, 68,864,752 ; 1871, 
 69,548,539; 1872, 71,490,020; 1873, 70,7 14,448; and 1874, 
 76,456,510. The expenditure for 1874 embraced a sum of 
 upwards of 3,000,000 paid In settlement of the Alabama claims. 
 The expenditure during five years of Tory rule has been as follows: 
 -1875, 74,328,040; 1876, 76,620,773; 1877, 78,125,227 ; 
 L878, 82,403,495 ; and 1879, 85,407,789. In lieu of Mr. 
 Gladstone's magnificent surpluses, moreover, we have (as already 
 remarked) a large deficit, now amounting to several millions. The 
 army and navy estimates during the Liberal regime that is, from
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S FINANCIAL POLICY. 511 
 
 1869 to 1873 yield a total of 149,273,630 ; the same estimates 
 during the Conservative regime viz., from 1874 to 1878 gave a 
 total of 166,013,989. Nor does this excess of nearly seventeen 
 millions include the enormous sums recently voted for war pur- 
 poses. In thirteen years during which the Liberals held office, 
 between 1857 and 1878, they repealed or reduced taxes to the 
 amount of 42,816,329, and laid on taxes to the amount of 
 only 3,050,086, showing abalance in their favour of 39,766,243. 
 The Conservatives, in their nine years of power during the 
 same period, reduced taxation by 6,270,123 only ;* while 
 they imposed new taxes to the amount of 12,374,050, thus leav- 
 ing a balance against them of 6,193,927. Now we do not mean 
 to imply that all the recent enormous additions to the public 
 expenditure could have been averted ; the Tories have in some 
 respects been unfortunate since they came into office; but a Liberal 
 Administration would in all probability have saved us from much 
 of this expenditure. There has been a reckless profusion in con- 
 sequence of the war spirit that has obtained such dominance over 
 us, and it is not alone in the burdens of taxation we are feeling 
 it ; industry must be crippled for a long period as a consequence 
 of this policy. Apart from the moral aspects of the question, 
 hunting Zulus is an expensive pursuit ; and as regards our Afghan 
 difficulties, it may yet unfortunately be discovered that we are 
 only on the threshold of grave and terrible events. All will wel- 
 come a settlement of our foreign complications favourable to our- 
 selves ; but it is the opinion of many that, in happier seasons, and 
 when the results of ' Imperialism ' are calmly reviewed, our recent 
 policy will receive the strongest condemnation. 
 
 Meanwhile, it would be well if the above facts and figures could 
 reach the entire body of the people of the three kingdoms. If 
 they like the picture, and do not object to the enormous loss of 
 blood and treasure involved in wars which might probably have 
 been avoided, and which are certainly not amongst the most 
 creditable wars in which England has engaged, the responsibility 
 lies with them. But the financial history of the past twenty 
 years should surely have taught the nation the vast superiority of 
 a policy of peace, progress, and retrenchment, over that of a 
 'spirited foreign policy.' War is sometimes necessary for the . 
 maintenance of national rights and the vindication of national 
 honour, and no true Englishman would be wanting in patriotism 
 at such a crisis ; but we again urge who would venture to affirm 
 that History will acquit E;igland of all responsibility for the wars 
 she has recently waged ?
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 
 
 Rfr. Gladstone's Views on the Eastern Question The Rising in the Herzegovina 
 The Andrassy Note Conference of the Emperors at Berlin England and the 
 Berlin Memorandum The Massacres in Bulgaria Indignation in England 
 Servia and Montenegro declare War against Turkey. The English Fleet de- 
 spatched to Besika Bay >Mr. Disraeli and the ' Bulgarian Atrocities' Mr. Baring's 
 Corroboration of the Outrages in Bulgaria Publication of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Pamphlet The Writer's Demands The ex-Premier's Address on Blackheuth 
 The Policy of Europe Necessity for Co-operation between England and Russia 
 Lord Beaconsfield at Aylesbury Turkey agrees to an Armistice The Constan- 
 tinople Conference Great Meeting at St. James's Hall on the Eastern Question 
 Speech of Mr. Gladstone Letter from Mr. Carlyle Failure of the Conference 
 at Constantinople Parliamentary Debates on the Eastern Question Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Reply to Mr. Chaplin Appeal on the General Question Protocol signed 
 at the English Foreign Office Rejected by Turkey Declaration of War by Russia 
 Great Debate in the House of Commons Mr. Glaistone's Five Resolutions 
 Eloquent Speech of the Mover The First Resolution defeated The ex-Premier 
 at Birmingham and Holyhead Elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University 
 Course of the Russo-Turkish War Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. Gladstone 
 Another Debate in the House of Commons Panic on the Stock Exchange 
 Treaty of San Stefano The Bases of Peace Objected to by England. 
 
 PERHAPS no period of Mr. Gladstone's career has been the subject 
 of so much animadversion as that in which he made his series of 
 public utterances upon the complications in Eastern Europe. 
 It has frequently been urged against the late leader of the Liberal 
 party that his views upon foreign affairs were narrow, contracted, 
 and impracticable ; and yet it was by no means unreasonable to 
 suppose that his much-canvassed ' bag and baggage ' policy with 
 regard to Turkey would prove to be the only permanent solution 
 of the Eastern Question, as it specially affected the Christian pro- 
 vinces of the Ottoman Empire. It is not our purpose, however, 
 to show either that Mr. Gladstone has invariably been right or 
 that his opponents have invariably been wrong, in the attitude 
 they have respectively assumed at the various stages of this vexed 
 and intricate question. The time is too near for a final deliver- 
 ance upon the subject, and more than any other, probably, it is 
 fine which it will be wise to leave to the unbiassed judgment and 
 the calm arbitrament of history. At the same time, we cannot 
 pass to the mere retrospect of facts which it is our intention only 
 to give, without recalling to general recollection how closely maoy
 
 THE EASTEEN QUESTION. 514 
 
 of the earliest predictions of Mr. Gladstone upon the Eastern 
 Question have been verified and fulfilled. 
 
 Before dealing with those addresses in which Mr. Gladstone 
 roused in so remarkable a degree the feelings of the English 
 people in favour of the oppressed nationalities of Turkey, we will 
 rapidly recapitulate the events which led to the great conflict in 
 the East of Europe. Turkish oppression, which had long pre- 
 vailed in its worst forms, at length resulted in an outbreak in 
 the Herzegovina. This insurrectionary movement began on the 
 1st of July, 1875, and, without tracing its gradual stages, it will 
 be sufficient to state that it ultimately led to an open and formal 
 conflict with the Ottoman Government. This movement was as 
 the letting out of waters, and in a short time the Eastern Ques- 
 tion was re-opened in all its fulness. The cruel oppression of the 
 Herzegovinian peasantry by their Mahommedan landlords, Avas 
 the first stage in the new phase of that question for which the 
 wisest diplomatic minds in Europe saw no settlement save by the 
 adoption of thoroughly root measures. Hostilities ensued, and in 
 January, 1876, the Herzegovinians gained a victory over the 
 Turks. A few days later, the Austrian statesman, Count An- 
 drassy, drew up a Note containing a scheme of reforms in favour 
 of the insurgents of Herzegovina ; and this being communicated 
 to the Porte by the Austrian, Kussian, and German Ambassadors, 
 it was accepted by the Sultan's Government on the 6th of 
 February. Early in May, however, another insurrection broke 
 out in several Bulgarian villages, and this was followed a week 
 afterwards by the atrocities at Batak, committed by Bashi- 
 Bazouks atrocities which sent a thrill of horror throughout 
 Europe. Affairs had become so serious that on the llth of May, 
 the Emperor of Kussia, accompanied by Prince Gortschakoff, 
 arrived at Berlin to confer with Count Andrassy, the Emperor 
 William, and Prince Bismarck, on the Eastern Question generally. 
 On the 22nd, in both Houses of the English Parliament, Ministers 
 announced that they had been unable to concur in the Memo- 
 randum drawn up at the Berlin Conference an intimation which 
 caused considerable surprise throughout the country. The. public 
 feeling was not calmed when it became known two days later that 
 the British fleet in the Mediterranean had been ordered to Besika 
 Bay. By the 28th of June the insurrection in Bulgaria was sup- 
 pressed, and on the 10th the Sultan Abdul Aziz was deposed at 
 Constantinople. He was succeeded by Murad V., who issued an 
 imperial Hatt, stating that he desired a Government which should 
 best guarantee the liberties of all. In consequence of the changed 
 condition of affairs, on the 9th of June Mr. Disraeli stated in 
 the House of Commons that the Berlin Memorandum would not 
 
 L L
 
 514 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 be presented, and that the steps taken by her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment in Turkish affairs were such as he believed would lead to 
 the maintenance of an honourable peace. 
 
 How far these optimist views were j ustified was speedily shown 
 by events which we now look back upon with horror. Within 
 a fortnight only from Mr. Disraeli's declaration, England was 
 moved with indignation at the revelations published in the 
 Daily News from its correspondent at Constantinople, respecting 
 the massacres in Bulgaria by the Moslems. Thousands of 
 innocent men, women, and children, it was stated, had been 
 slaughtered ; at least sixty villages had been utterly destroyed ; 
 the most terrible scenes of violence had been committed ; and a 
 district once the most fertile in the empire had been completely 
 ruined. Crimes had been committed on a scale unknown in 
 Europe for many years. Forty girls were shut up in a straw loft 
 and burnt, and outrages of the most fearful description were 
 committed upon hundreds of unfortunate captives. 
 
 While the whole heart of Great Britain was stirred, it was left 
 for an English Prime Minister to grow jocular upon cruelties 
 and sufferings almost unparalleled in the world's history. In 
 the House of Commons, in answer to an interpellation upon the 
 Bulgarian massacres, Mr. Disraeli expressed his belief that the 
 outrages committed by the Turkish troops had been exaggerated ; 
 while as to the torture of impalement (which had caused 
 universal disgust and anger), he had only to remark that an 
 Oriental people generally terminated their connection with 
 culprits in a more expeditious manner ! Mr. Disraeli's belief, 
 however, was as unfounded as his witticism was callous and 
 heartless, for the substantial accuracy of the statements in the 
 Ddily News was afterwards duly attested. 
 
 Before the end of June, Prince Milan left Belgrade and joined 
 his army on the frontier. In a proclamation issued to his 
 people, he declared that, since the insurrection broke out in 
 Bosnia and Herzegovina, the situation of Servia had become 
 intolerable. Notwithstanding his neutral attitude, the Porte had 
 continued to send military forces and savage hordes to the 
 Servian frontier. ' To remain longer in moderation,' said the 
 Prince, ' would be weakness.' The Montenegrins next united 
 with Servia in declaring war against Turkey. The Servians 
 were defeated near Novi Bazar, in Bosnia, on the 6th of July, 
 with considerable loss. It is unnecessary to follow the fortunes 
 of the warfare now set on foot between Turkey and the 
 insurrectionary provinces. Debates in the House of Com- 
 mons on the progress of events in the East were of frequent 
 occurrence, and on the 30th of July in answer to Mr. Glad-
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 515 
 
 stone, who had defended the Crimean War, and expressed his 
 strong desire for the restoration of the European concert in the 
 East Mr. Disraeli explained that the despatch of the Fleet to 
 Besika Bay implied no threat to anybody : it was not sent to pro- 
 tect the Turkish Empire, but the British Empire. On the follow- 
 ing day Mr. Gladstone again returned to the subject, and Mr. 
 Disraeli rejoined that the Berlin Memorandum had nothing to do 
 with the present war, which was one of aggression. The policy 
 of the English Government, he said, had been approved by the 
 other Powers. Lord Derby and other members of the Ministry 
 had previously defined this policy as one of strict neutrality. On 
 the llth of August Mr. Disraeli made his last speech in the House 
 of Commons. It was one distinguished by much of his old brilli- 
 ancy and power, and was delivered during the debate raised by 
 Mr. Evelyn Ashley on the Eastern Question. He explained that he 
 had not denied the existence of the ' Bulgarian atrocities,' but that 
 he had no official knowledge of them. In answer to Sir W. Har- 
 court, he affirmed that we were not responsible for what occurred in 
 Turkey, nor were the Turks our especial proteges. The Premier 
 announced that the duty of the Government at that critical 
 moment was to maintain the Empire of England, and they would 
 never agree to any step that hazarded the existence of that Empire. 
 On the morning after this speech it was publicly announced that 
 Mr. Disraeli would immediately be elevated to the peerage under 
 the title of Earl of Beaconsfield. 
 
 Parliament was prorogued on the 15th of August, and shortly 
 afterwards appeared the official report of Mr. W. Baring, 
 corroborating the reported outrages in Bulgaria. After strict 
 investigation, Mr. Baring came to the conclusion that no fewer 
 than 12,000 persons had perished in the sandjak of Philippopolis ! 
 But the most fearful tragedy during the whole insurrection was 
 the one at Batak. A large number of people, probably about 
 1,000 or 1,200, took refuge in the church and churchyard. The 
 church was a solid building, and resisted all attempts by the 
 Bashi-Bazouks to burn it from the outside. They consequently 
 fired in through the windows, and, getting upon the roof, tore 
 off the tiles, and threw burning pieces of wood and rags dipped 
 in petroleum among the mass of unhappy human beings inside. 
 At last the door was forced in, the massacre completed, and the 
 inside of the church burnt. Hardly any one escaped out of 
 the fatal walls. The scene for some time afterwards beggared 
 description. The massacre at Batak was the most heinous crime 
 which has stained the history of the present century ; and Mr. 
 Baring added that for this exploit the Turkish leader, Achmet 
 Agha, had received the Order of the Medjidie. 
 
 LL 2
 
 516 WILLIAM EWAKT GLADSTONE. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone deemed it high time that the voice of England 
 should be heard upon these infamous deeds, and in September 
 published a pamphlet entitled Bulgarian Horrors, and the 
 Question of the East. He urged that England should aim at 
 the accomplishment of three great objects, in addition to the 
 termination of the war, viz., 1. To put a stop to the anarchical 
 misrule, the plundering, the murdering, which still desolated 
 Bulgaria ; 2. To make effectual provision against the recurrence 
 of the outrages recently perpetrated under the sanction of the 
 Ottoman Government by excluding its administrative action for 
 the future not only from Bosnia and the Herzegovina, but also, 
 and above all, from Bulgaria ; 3. To redeem by such measures 
 the honour of the British name, which in the deplorable events 
 of the year had been more gravely compromised than he had 
 known it to be at any former period. * Let us insist,' he said, 
 ' that our Government, which has been working in one direction, 
 shall work in the other, and shall apply all its vigour to concur 
 with the other States of Europe in obtaining the extinction of 
 the Turkish Executive power in Bulgaria. 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 their Yuzbachis, their Kaimakams and their 
 Pashas, one and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out 
 from the province they have desolated and profaned. ... If 
 it be allowable that the executive power of Turkey should renew 
 at this great crisis, by permission or authority of Europe, the 
 charter of its existence in Bulgaria, then there is not on record, 
 since the beginnings of political society, a protest that man has 
 lodged against intolerable misgovernment, or a stroke he has 
 dealt at loathsome tyranny, that ought not henceforward to be 
 branded as a crime.' 
 
 A few days later. Mr. Gladstone followed up his pamphlet by an 
 address to his constituents on Blackheath. This speech not only 
 furnished a watchword for the campaign which followed, but is 
 amongst the most eloquent and impassioned of the ex-Premier's 
 political orations. The speaker was received with the greatest 
 enthusiasm, and at various points in his address the meeting was 
 literally carried away by the strength of its emotions. Eeferring 
 to the massacre at Glencoe, the atrocities of Badajoz, the revolt 
 of Cephalonia, and the more recent revolt in Jamaica, Mr. Glad- 
 stone said, ' To compare those proceedings to what we are now 
 dealing with, is an insult to the common-sense of Europe. They 
 may constitute a dark page in British history, but if you could 
 concentrate the whole of that page, or every one of them, into a 
 single point and a single spot, it would not be worthy to appear
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 6*7 
 
 upon one of the pages that will hereafter consign to everlasting 
 infamy the proceedings of the Turks in Bulgaria.' With regard 
 to the policy to be pursued, and the terms to be offered to the 
 Turk, he would say to the latter, ' You shall receive a reasonable 
 tribute ; you shall retain your titular sovereignty ; your empire 
 shall not be invaded ; but never again while the years roll their 
 course, so far as it is in our power to determine, never again shall 
 the hand of violence be raised by you ; never again shall the dire 
 refinements of cruelty be devised by you for the sake of making 
 mankind miserable in Bulgaria.' Passing on to the question how 
 this effectual prevention was to be secured, Mr. Gladstone said it 
 could only be done with safety by the united action of the Powers 
 of Europe. The mind and the heart of Europe must be one in 
 this matter. The assent of Russia, Germany, Austria, France, 
 England, and Italy was not only important, but indispensable, 
 to entire success and satisfaction. Yet there were two Powers 
 whose position was such that they stood forth far before the rest 
 in authority, in the means of effectually applying that authority, 
 and in responsibility upon this great question, viz., England and 
 Russia. Enlarging still further upon this point, Mr. Gladstone 
 observed : 
 
 ' I am far from supposing I am not such a dreamer as to suppose that Kussia, 
 more than any other country, is exempt from selfishness and ambition. But she 
 has also within her, like other countries, the pulse of humanity, and, for my own 
 part, I believe it is the pulse of humanity which is now throbbing almost ungovern- 
 ably in her people. Upon the concord and hearty co-operation not upon a mere 
 hollow truce between England and Russia, but upon their concord and hearty 
 cordial co-operation depend a good settlement of this question. Their power is 
 immense. The power of Russia by land for acting upon these countries as against 
 Turkey is perfectly resistless ; the power of England by sea is scarcely less impor- 
 tant at this moment. For I ask you what would be the condition of the Turkish 
 armies if the British Admiral now in Besika Bay were to inform the Government 
 of Constantinople that from that hour, until atonement had been made until 
 punishment had descended, until justice had been vindicated not a man, nor a 
 .ship, nor a boat should cross the waters of the Bosphorus, or tl}> cloudy Euxine, or 
 i he bright JEgean, to carry aid to the Turkish troops ? ' 
 
 This address drew forth a reply from Lord Beaconsfield. Speak- 
 ing at Aylesbury, he admitted that the Ministerial policy was 
 unpopular, but went on to describe the conduct of his opponents 
 us worse than any Bulgarian atrocity : he strongly condemned the 
 * designing politicians who take advantage of sublime sentiments, 
 and apply them for the furtherance of their sinister ends.' This 
 language, though endorsed in some quarters, was warmly denounced 
 as painful and extraordinary trifling in others. 
 
 Lord Derby directed Sir Henry Elliot, our ambassador at 
 Constantinople, to lay the results of Mr. Baring's inquiry into the 
 Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria before the Sultan and to demand 
 the punishment of the offenders. This demand, however, prac-
 
 518 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 tically went unenforced. On the 1st of November, Turkey, under 
 pressure from Kussia, agreed to an armistice of eight weeks. On 
 the 2nd, the Emperor of Russia pledged his sacred word of honour 
 to the English ambassador, in the most serious and solemn manner, 
 that he had no intention of acquiring Constantinople ; and that, 
 if necessity compelled him to occupy a portion of Bulgaria, it 
 would only be provisionally, and until the peace and safety of the 
 Christian population were secured. He desired the ambassador 
 to dispel the cloud of suspicion and distrust which had gathered 
 in England against Russia. Notwithstanding these pacific assur- 
 ances, on the 9th Lord BeaconsSeld delivered a warlike speech at 
 the Ministerial banquet at the Guildhall. Apprised of the tenor 
 of his speech, the Czar stated on the following day at Moscow that, 
 if the Porte did not accede to his demands, Russia would be 
 prepared to act independently. 
 
 Lord Salisbury arrived at Constantinople on the 5th of 
 December, to attend the Conference, and on the 8th a great 
 meeting took place at St. James's Hall, for the purpose of discuss- 
 ing the Eastern Question. The Duke of Westminster occupied 
 the chair at the afternoon conference, which was addressed by 
 representative men connected with the army, with letters, and 
 with religion, including Mr. Anthony Trollope, Professor Bryce, 
 Mr. Richard, Sir T. F. Buxton, Sir G. Campbell, the Rev. Dr. 
 Allon, and Sir H. Havelock. The evening meeting, which was 
 presided over by Lord Shaftesbury, was addressed by the ex-Premier, 
 Canon Liddon, Lord Waveney, Mr. Trevelyan, Mr. Fawcett, Mr. 
 E. A. Freeman, and others. Mr. Freeman, referring to one inter- 
 pretation of the doctrine of British interests, said, * Perish the 
 interests of England, perish our dominion in India, sooner than 
 we should strike one blow, or speak one word on behalf of the 
 wrong against the right.' Professor Fawcett said they had been 
 enjoined to * forgive and forget,' but they could never forget that 
 England's present rulers had done all that they could do to 
 associate the name of England with the most abominable cruelties 
 that ever disgraced Europe, and with the most detestable Govern- 
 ment that ever afflicted mankind. There was one Minister at 
 least who ought never to be forgiven, and that was the present 
 Prime Minister. The chief interest of the proceedings, however, 
 centred in the speech which it was known that Mr. Gladstone 
 would deliver. When the right hon. gentleman rose, he was 
 received (as at Blackheath) with almost unbounded demonstra- 
 tions of applause. After declaring that no change of the public 
 sentiment of England had taken place on this question, and 
 repudiating the assertion that the conveners of that meeting hid 
 any desire to embarrass the Government, he expressed what he
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 519 
 
 believed to be the general feeling and knowledge of the Conference 
 that the power and reputation and influence of England had, 
 for a long period of time within the past twelve months, and 
 in regard to that enormous question, been employed for 
 purposes and to an effect directly at variance with the convictions 
 of the country. Lord Beaconsfield, he observed, had made 
 several speeches, but it was not until his latest utterance at 
 Aylesbury that he appeared conscious that England had duties 
 to perform towards the Christian populations of Turkey. ' In 
 that speech I recognise first of all this admission, that we had 
 duties towards the subject populations an acknowledgment which 
 we were never able to obtain during the session. Not one word, 
 not one syllable, to that effect, could we draw from the lips of 
 the Minister. The first declaration of it, if I remember aright, 
 was made by Sir Stafford Northcote, in some speech in the north, 
 in which he said, " Of course, we are all aware of our duties to 
 the Christian populations ot Turkey." I am extremely glad 
 that they were aware of it ; but I am not the less sorry that 
 during the whole session of Parliament, and during the whole of 
 the correspondence that filled the Blue-books, the recognition 
 of that obligation is, so far as I know, nowhere to be found.' 
 
 After making this effective point, Mr. Gladstone turned to the 
 Conference, and expressed a fervent hope that Lord Salisbury's 
 instructions were not in accordance with the Guildhall speech, 
 but that his lordship's own clear sight and generous instincts would 
 have free scope at Constantinople. He also trusted that the 
 Plenipotentiaries would insist on the future independence of the 
 provinces, or at least of such a mediate autonomy as would insure 
 them against arbitrary inj ustice and oppression. The speaker, in 
 his peroration, referred to the work indicated, not merely as a 
 worthy deed, but as an absolute duty. ' It is a case of positive 
 obligation, and, under the stringent pressure of that obligation, 
 I say that, if at length long-suffering and long-oppressed humanity 
 in these provinces is lifting itself from the ground, and beginning 
 again to contemplate the heavens, it is our business to assist the 
 work. It is our business to acknowledge the obligation, to take 
 part in the burden, and it is our privilege to claim for our country 
 a share in the honour and in the fame. This acknowledgment of 
 duty, this attempt to realise the honour, is what we at least shall 
 endeavour to obtain from the Government; and with nothing IT-SS 
 than this shall we who are assembled here be, under any circ um- 
 stances, persuaded to say " Content." ' 
 
 Mr. Carlyle, who had been invited to join the Conference, 
 wrote a letter in which he said, ' The only clear advice I have' to 
 give is, as I have stated, that the unspeakable Turk should b&
 
 620. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 immediately struck out of the question, and the country left to 
 honest European guidance, delaying which can be profitable or 
 agreeable only to gamblers on the Stock Exchange, but distress- 
 ing and unprofitable to all other men.' One excellent effect of 
 this public agitation had been to convince the Government of 
 the reality of the grievances of the Christian populations of 
 Turkey, and of the necessity for stronger measures than they had 
 at first contemplated. The Conference at St. James's Hall would 
 have had an even deeper and wider influence, however, but for 
 the fact that the result of the diplomatic Conference at Con- 
 stantinople was being awaited with considerable anxiety, and yet 
 at the same time strong hopefulness, by the English people. 
 
 The Constantinople Conference met on the 23rd of December, 
 and just as a stringent scheme of reform and guarantees bad 
 been..drawn up, the Plenipotentiaries were informed of the pro- 
 mulgation of a new Ottoman constitution. On the 30th, the 
 Porte announced that it had a counter-proposition to make. 
 This was not then produced, and matters dragged their slow 
 length along until the 20th of January, 1877, when the 
 Conference closed. The Turkish Government had rejected the 
 proposals of the European Powers. These proposals had been 
 reduced to two, viz., an International Commission nominated by 
 Europe without executive powers, and the appointment of Valis 
 (governors-general) by the Sultan for five years, with the approval 
 of guaranteeing Governments. Less than these demands the 
 Powers would not accept, but they were rejected by the Ottoman 
 Government as 'contrary to the integrity, independence, and 
 dignity of the Empire.' 
 
 During the recess Mr. Gladstone spoke on several occasions 
 upon the all-absorbing topic then agitating the public mind. 
 At Hawarden he dwelt upon the condition of Turkey, and 
 pleaded that it was the wretched Turkish system, and not the 
 Turks themselves, whom we should judge. He hoped that a 
 remedy might be found for the existing melancholy condition of 
 things. When the Constantinople Conference failed, the right hon. 
 gentleman, alluding to this ' great transaction and woeful failure,' 
 threw the responsibility of the situation on the Government. In 
 an address to the electors of Frome he referred strongly to the 
 tremendous responsibility of Ministers ; and in a speech at the 
 Taunton Railway-station, he said, with reference to the injunc- 
 tion to himself and his friends to mind their own business, that 
 the Eastern Question was their own business. As to the treaties 
 of 1856 being in force, his opinion upon this point was given in 
 one sentence Turkey had entirely broken those treaties and 
 trampled them under foot. If the treaties were in force, we were
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 521 
 
 bound to Turkey by a several as well as a joint guarantee. But 
 it was ridiculous to say that these treaties were in force as 
 between Turkey and ourselves. 
 
 Parliament opened on the 8th of February. In the House of 
 Lords, in reply to a powerful speech by the Duke of Argyll, the 
 Premier said he believed that any interference directed to the 
 alleviation of the sufferings of the Turkish Christians would only 
 make their sufferings worse. He asked for a calm, sagacious, and 
 statesmanlike consideration of the whole subject, never forget- 
 ting the great interests of England, if it was to have any solution 
 at all. In the House of Commons, during the debate on the 
 Address, . Mr. Gladstone said that he was prepared to stand by 
 every statement he had made in the autumn ; and on the 16th 
 he initiated a debate upon the Eastern Question generally, but 
 with special reference to our treaty obligations. The right hon. 
 gentleman demanded the entire freedom of England from any 
 obligation to the Porte, and enlarged upon the contradictory 
 declarations of recent negotiations, Foreign Office documents, 
 Queen's Speech, and Ministerial orations. The country, he main- 
 tained, must be left absolutely free to act upon the dictates of 
 policy, justice, and humanity. Mr. Gathorne Hardy said that 
 if the Eastern knot were difficult to untie, the time had not yet 
 arrived for England to apply the sword to cut it. The Govern- 
 ment, without being obliged to go to war with Turkey, were 
 pledged to maintain the faith of treaties which they had no right 
 to violate. 
 
 During the animated debate which ensued, Mr. Gladstone 
 furnished another proof of his claim to be accounted, perhaps, 
 the readiest and most effective debater of his time. Having 
 been taken to task by Mr. Chaplin, he retorted in an impromptu 
 speech, which, for incisiveness and effect, can never be forgotten 
 by those who listened to it. Mr. Chaplin complained that Mr. 
 Gladstone and a certain portion of the Liberal party had endea- 
 voared to regulate the foreign policy of the country by pamphlets, 
 by speeches at public meetings, and by a so-called National 
 Conference, instead of leaving it in the hands of the Executive 
 Government. One of two things he maintained the right hon. 
 gentleman must do he must either make good or withdraw his 
 assertions ; there was no other course which it was open to a man 
 of honour to follow. The Speaker, being appealed to, ruled that 
 the last expression exceeded the limits of Parliamentary dis- 
 cussion. The hon. member withdrew it, but concluded by express- 
 ing his regret that the right hon. member for Greenwich had, 
 during the recess, done so much to impair that respect and esteem 
 which they on all sides felt for him in that House, and to shake
 
 522 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 to its foundation the great and splendid reputation of a man 
 whom England had long learnt to regard, and as he and all 
 admitted him to be, among the greatest of her sons. He moved 
 the adjournment of the debate. 
 
 Mr. Chaplin speedily discovered how profound had been his 
 mistake in bearding the lion of debate. Mr. Gladstone at once 
 rose ; and, in seconding the motion for adjournment, expressed his 
 surprise that for the first time in a public career extending over 
 nearly half a century, he should be accused of a disinclination 
 to meet his opponents in fair fight. Why had not the hon. 
 gentleman attended those public meetings of which he com- 
 plained ? As far as he (Mr. Gladstone) was concerned, it was 
 perfectly well known to Liberals and Tories alike that he had 
 shrunk from meeting the public on this question. ' But such is 
 the depth and strength of the sentiment which has taken 
 possession of the mind and heart of England in reference to this 
 question that I, in my poor and feeble person, simply because I 
 have been associated with that sentiment, have felt it almost 
 impossible to avoid the manifestation of this almost unexampled 
 national and popular feeling.' After a scathing rebuke of Lord 
 George Hamilton, who had twice interrupted the course of his 
 speech, Mr. Gladstone thus returned to Mr. Chaplin : * He says, 
 sir, that I have been an inflammatory agitator, and that, as soon 
 as I have got into this House, I have no disposition to chant in 
 the same key. But before these debates are over before this 
 question is settled the hon. gentleman will know more about my 
 opinions than he knows at present, or is likely to know to-night. 
 I am not about to reveal now to the hon. gentleman the secrets 
 of a mind so inferior to his own. I am not so young as to think 
 that his obliging inquiries supply me with the opportunities 
 most advantageous to the public interest for the laying out 
 of the plan of a campaign. By the time the hon. member 
 is as old as I am, if he comes in his turn to be accused 
 of cowardice by a man of the next generation to himself, he pro- 
 bably may find it convenient to refer to the reply I am now 
 making, and to make it a model, or, at all events, to take from 
 it hints and suggestions, with which to dispose of the antagonist 
 that may then rise against him.' Mr. Gladstone was glad that 
 there was a tremendous feeling abroad upon this Eastern Question. 
 He had been told that by the pamphlet he wrote, and the speech 
 he delivered, he had done all this mischief, and agitated Europe 
 and the world ; but if that were the case, why did not the hon. 
 gentleman, by writing another pamphlet, and delivering another 
 speech, put the whole thing right ? If he (the speaker ) had done 
 anything, it was only in the same way that a man applies a match
 
 THE EASTEEN QUESTION. 523 
 
 to an enormous mass of fuel which had been already prepared. 
 Before his pamphlet appeared, Lord Derby had telegraphed to Sir 
 Henry Elliot that the outrages committed by the Turkish troops 
 had roused an universal feeling of indignation in all classes of 
 English society. It was the nation that led the classes and the 
 leaders in this matter, and not the classes and leaders who led 
 the nation. * I will tell the hon. gentleman,' continued Mr. 
 Gladstone, ' something in answer to his questions, and it is that 
 I will tell him nothing at all. I will take my own counsel, and 
 beg to inform him that he shall have no reason whatever to 
 complain, when the accounts come to be settled and cast up at 
 the end of the whole matter, of any reticence or suppressions on 
 my part.' As to what he (the speaker) had told the people of 
 Taunt on, it was briefly this that it was absolutely necessary to 
 watch the policy of the Government ; that in the acts, in the 
 language, and in the tendency of Lord Salisbury he had great con- 
 fidence ; but that he did not know whether the Government had 
 one policy or two policies. Mr. Gladstone concluded his spirited 
 retort with this appeal upon the general question : 
 
 ' We have, I think, the most solemn and the greatest question to determine that 
 has come before Parliament in my time. It is only under very rare circumstances 
 that such a question the question of the East can be fully raised, fully developed 
 n nd exhibited, and fully brought home to the minds of men with that force, with 
 that command, with that absorbing power, which it ought to exercise over them. In 
 t he original entrance of the Turks into Europe, it may be said to have been a turning 
 point in human history. To a great extent it continues to be the cardinal question, 
 the question which casts into the shade every other question, and the question which 
 is now brought before the mind of the country far more fully than at any period of 
 our history, far more fully than even at the time of the Crimean War, when we 
 were pouring forth onr blood and treasure in what we thought to be the cause of 
 justice and right. And I endeavoured to impress upon the minds of my audience at 
 Taunton, not a blind prejudice against this man or that, but a great watchfulness, 
 and the duty of great activity. It is the duty of every man to feel that he is bound 
 for himself, according to his opportunities, to examine what belongs to this ques- 
 tion, with regard to which it can never be forgotten that we are those who set up 
 the power of Turkey in 1854 ; that we are those who gave her the strength which has 
 been exhibited in the Bulgarian massacres ; that we are those who made the treaty 
 arrangements that have secured her for twenty years from almost a single hour of 
 uneasiness brought about by foreign intervention ; and that, therefore, nothing can 
 be greater and nothing deeper than our responsibility in the matter. It is incum- 
 bent upon us, one and all, that we do not allow any consideration, either of party 
 or personal convenience, to prevent us from endeavouring to the best of our ability 
 to discharge this great duty, that now, at length, in the East, has sprung up ; and 
 that in the midst of this great opportunity, when all Europe has been called to 
 collective action, and when something like European concert has been established 
 when we learn the deep human interests that are involved in every stage of the 
 question as far as England at least is concerned, every Englishman should strive 
 to the utmost of his might that justice shall be done.' 
 
 These eloquent words were followed by protracted cheering 
 cheering at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself said 
 he could not feel surprised. Another debate on the Eastern 
 Question took place before the recess, on a motion, by Mr. Faw- 
 cett, affirming the necessity of obtaining adequate securities for
 
 KM WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 
 
 the better government of Turkey. Sir H, Drummond Wolfif read 
 extracts from speeches by Mr. Gladstone on the Crimean Wai 
 and the Cretan Insurrection, to show that whereas he now refused 
 the Turks even a twelvemonth's respite, and acknowledged none 
 but humanitarian motives, he then contemplated Turkish reform 
 must be the work of a generation, and that the duty of neutrality 
 was superior to that of humanity. Upon this Mr. Gladstone 
 showed that his assailant had used garbled extracts from old 
 speeches, which were susceptible of a different interpretation 
 being put upon them. In a correspondence with Sir Henry 
 Elliot, Mr. Gladstone also vindicated himself from an erroneous 
 interpretation that had been put on his ' bag and baggage ' 
 declaration, which, he explained, did not mean turning the Turks 
 out of Europe, but that all the civil, military, and police 
 authorities should leave the country. 
 
 A Protocol was signed at the English Foreign Office, on the 
 31st of March, stating that the Powers proposed to watch care- 
 fully, by means of their representatives at Constantinople, and 
 their local agents, the manner in which the promises of the Otto- 
 man Government were carried into effect. If their hopes should 
 once more be disappointed, and if the condition of the Christian 
 subjects of the Sultan should not be improved in a manner to pre- 
 vent the return of the complications which periodically disturbed 
 the peace of the East, they thought it right to declare that such 
 a state of affairs would be incompatible with their interests, and 
 those of Europe in general. The Turkish Government replied 
 that it was not aware how it could have deserved so ill of justice 
 and civilisation as to see itself placed in a humiliating position 
 without, example in the world. On the 24th of April war was 
 declared by Russia, the Czar's manifesto giving as the reasons 
 for this step the refusal of guarantees by the Porte for the pro- 
 posed reforms, the failure of the Conference, and the rejection of 
 the Protocol. England, France, and Italy issued proclamations, 
 on the 1st of May, enjoining strict neutrality in the war then 
 pending between Turkey and Russia. 
 
 On the 7th, a great debate was opened in the House of Com- 
 mons by Mr. Gladstone. Disappointed with the course of the 
 negotiations, and incensed at the attitude of Turkey, he had given 
 notice that he should move the following resolutions : 
 
 ' First : That this House finds just cause of dissatisfaction and complaint in the 
 conduct of the Ottoman Porte with regard to the despatch written by the Earl 
 of Derby on September 21, 1876, and relating to the massacres in Bulgaria. 
 Second : That until such conduct shall have been essentially changed, and guaran- 
 tees on behalf of the subject populations other than the promises or ostensible 
 measures of the Porte shall have been provided, that Government will be deemed by 
 this House to have lost all claim to receive either the material or the moral support
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 525 
 
 of the British Crown. Third : That in the midst of the complications which exist, 
 and the war which has actually begun, this House earnestly desires the influence of 
 the British Crown in the Councils of Europe to be employed with a view to the 
 early and effectual development of local liberty and practical self-government in 
 the disturbed provinces of Turkey, by putting an end to the oppression which they 
 now suffer, without the imposition upon them of any other foreign dominion. 
 Fourth : That bearing in mind the wise and honourable policy of this country in 
 the Protocol of April, 1826, and the Treaty of July, 1827, with respect to Greece, this 
 House furthermore earnestly desires that the influence of the British Crown may 
 be addressed to the promoting the concert of the European Powers in exacting 
 from tho Ottoman Porte, by their United authority, such changes in the Govern- 
 ment of Turkey as they may deem to be necessary for the purposes of humanity 
 and justice, for effectual defence against intrigue, and for the peace of the world. 
 Fifth : That a humble Address, setting forth the prayer of this House, according to 
 the tenor of the foregoing resolutions, be prepared and presented to her Majesty.' 
 
 These Resolutions were, of course, on the face of them, hostile 
 to the Government, and it was found that many members of the 
 Liberal party declined to give them their support on the ground 
 that they pledged England to a joint policy offeree with Russia. 
 When the time came for moving them, therefore, Mr. Gladstone 
 announced that he accepted a verbal amendment of the second 
 resolution, which in its amended form simply declared that Turkey 
 had forfeited all claim to support, moral and material. The last 
 three resolutions would not be proceeded with. Sir John Lubbock, 
 who had given notice to move the ' previous question,' now said 
 he should not do so, but would cordially support the amended 
 resolutions. A long preliminary discussion ensued upon the altered 
 condition of affairs, but ultimately the standing orders were 
 postponed, and Mr. Gladstone rose to propose his resolutions in 
 their altered form. 
 
 He began by alluding to the enormous number of manifesta- 
 tions of the opinion of the country, reports of nearly one hundred 
 meetings having reached him that morning. With regard to 
 the resolutions passed at these meetings, in more than nineteen 
 cases out of twenty their general scope had been in correspondence 
 not merely with the first two of his resolutions, but with the 
 whole. Coming then to the general question, Mr. Gladstone, 
 with clear and tempered eloquence, discussed the resolutions in 
 their entirety, affirming their justice. He exposed the different 
 views prevailing in the Cabinet, though the Government had never 
 disclaimed their ill-omened phrase of promised 4 moral support ' to 
 Turkey. The conduct of the Government for eighteen months 
 back had been more deplorable than the conduct of any Govern- 
 ment since the Peace of Vienna, and its position had been most 
 ambiguous. The public mind had been prepared for war, and 
 Lord Derby's answer to the Gortschakoff Circular was redolent 
 with the old odious doctrine of * moral support.' With regard 
 to our expostulations and remonstrances, the Porte, which well 
 understood the force of words, knew that our expostulations
 
 526 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 began in words and that they ended in words ; and it was time 
 that the people of England and the people of Turkish Christian 
 provinces should begin to understand as much. If we went no 
 further than this, the work must pass into the hands of others. 
 Reviewing the history of the atrocities, Lord Derby's despatch, 
 and the existing deplorable condition of the provinces, he 
 insisted that the guilt must be fixed, not on the minor instru- 
 ments, but on the Turkish Government, which had caused and 
 encouraged the massacres. The Christian subjects of the Porte 
 had been led by the conduct of the British Government to look 
 upon Russia as their best friend, and we had forced upon the 
 Czar the task of redeeming them from oppression. Mr. Gladstone 
 next showed how firmly and vigorously a Liberal Government 
 had acted in the case of the Syrian massacres ; and giving what 
 he believed to be the true interpretation of the treaty of Kainardji, 
 he contended that the Crimean War deprived the Christians 
 of a safeguard which we were bound to make good to them. 
 He steadfastly adhered to the whole of his resolutions, but, though 
 he could not understand why they should not in their entirety 
 receive the support of Lord Hartington, he liad come to the con- 
 clusion that it would not be expedient or becoming in him to 
 ask the Speaker to go through the idle form of putting each of 
 them in succession from the chair. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone asked, in conclusion, whether, with regard to 
 the great battle of freedom against oppression then going on, we 
 in England could lay our hands upon our hearts, and in the face 
 of God and man say, c We have well and sufficiently performed 
 our part ' ? Then came this noble peroration : 
 
 ' Sir, there were other days when England was the hope of freedom. Wherever 
 in the world a high aspiration was entertained or a noble blow was struck, it was 
 to England that the eyes of the oppressed were always turned to this favourite, 
 this darling home of so much privilege and so much happiness, where the people 
 that had built up a noble edifice for themselves would, it was well known, be ready 
 to do what in them lay to secure the benefit of the same inestimable boon for 
 others. You talk to me of the established tradition and policy in regard to Turkey. 
 I appeal to an established tradition, older, wider, nobler far a tradition not which 
 disregards British interests, but which teaches you to seek the promotion of these 
 interests in obeying the dictates of honour and justice. And, sir, what is to be the 
 end of this ? Are we to dress up the fantastic ideas some people entertain about 
 this policy and that policy in the garb of British interests, and then, with a new 
 and base idolatry, fall down and worship them ? Or are we to look not at the 
 sentiment, but at the hard facts of the case which Lord Derby told us fifteen 
 years ago viz., that it is the populations of those countries that will ultimately 
 possess them that will ultimately determine their abiding condition ? It is to 
 this fact, this law, that we should look. There is now before the world a glorious 
 prize. A portion of those unhappy people are still as yet making an effort to 
 retrieve what they have lost so long, but have not ceased to love and to desire. 
 I speak of those in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another portion a band of heroes 
 such as the world has rarely seen stand on the rocks of Montenegro, and are 
 ready now, as they have ever been during the 400 years of their exile from their 
 fertile plains, to sweep down from their fastnesses, and meet the Turks at any
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 527 
 
 odds for the re-establishment of justice and of peace in those countries. Another 
 portion still, the 5,000,000 of Bulgarians cowed and beaten down to the ground, 
 hardly venturing to look upwards, even to their Father in Heaven, have extended 
 their hands to you ; they have sent you their petition, they have prayed for your 
 help and protection. They have told you that they do not seek alliance with Russia 
 or with any foreign Power, but that they seek to be delivered from an intolerable 
 burden of woe and shame. That burden of woe and shame the greatest that 
 exists on God's earth is one that we thought united Europe was about to remove, 
 but to removing which, for the present, you seem to have no efficacious means of 
 offering even the smallest practical contribution. But, sir, the removal of that 
 load of woe and shame is a great and noble prize. It is a prize well worth compet- 
 ing for. It is not yet too late to try to win it. I believe there are men in tho 
 Cabinet who would try to win it if they were free to act on their own beliefs and 
 aspiration. It is not yet too late, I say, to become competitors for that prizej but 
 be assured that whether you mean to claim for yourselves even a single leaf in that 
 immortal chaplet of renown, which will be the reward of true labour in that cause, 
 AT whether you turn your backs upon that cause and upon your own duty, I 
 believe for one that the knell of Turkish tyranny in these provinces has sounded. 
 So far as human eye can judge, it is about to be destroyed. The destruction may 
 not come in the way or by the means that we should choose ; but come this boon 
 from what hands it may, it will be a noble boon, and as a noble boon will gladly 
 be accepted by Christendom and the world.' 
 
 The debate was continued for five days. In the course of it, 
 Mr. Cross stated that now that war had broken out, absolute 
 neutrality was the rule of the Government, and neither side 
 would have either moral or material support from England. 
 Conscious of their strength, the Government would watch the 
 course of events, and, if an opportunity offered for interposing 
 their good offices, they would not allow it to pass. These Minis- 
 terial assurances appeared to satisfy a large party in the House 
 and the country. The speakers for and against the resolutions 
 included most of the able men of both parties. Mr. Courtney, Mr. 
 Chamberlain, and other advanced Liberal members spoke strongly 
 against the Government, and Mr. Walter strongly regretted that 
 they had not used the power of coercion earlier, affirming that 
 public opinion would have enforced it if only the Bulgarian mas- 
 sacres had preceded the Berlin Memorandum. Mr. Koebuck (type 
 of Liberals so-called) rendered a service to the Government which 
 was gratefully accepted, and delivered a speech against the resolu- 
 tions. The one sentence in this address, perhaps, which is now 
 best worth preserving is that in which he described Mr. Gladstone 
 as ' a man whom the country has believed to be one of its greatest 
 and most deserving and most patriotic Ministers at one time or 
 another a man endowed with great ability, with vast power, 
 with a winning manner, and whose influence in this House has 
 been almost illimitable.' Men like Sir Robert Peel and Mr. 
 Roebuck failed to perceive that in this Eastern Question (as in 
 many others in the past) it was his high moral courage and 
 loftiness of purpose which had given Mr. Gladstone this ' almost 
 illimitable ' influence, and that were now urging him forward in 
 ' the cause of oppressed humanity.'
 
 528 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer insisted that all idea of con- 
 certed action was now out of the question ; but Lord Hartington 
 maintained that the resolutions pointed to the only true policy 
 that ought to guide the action of the Government. In summing 
 up the debate, Mr. Gladstone passed in review many of the speeches 
 delivered, and pointed out that Mr. Cross's assurances (of which 
 he approved) were in direct contradiction to Lord Derby's 
 despatch. He did not believe that the time for an authoritative 
 interference by combined Europe had gone by. Such an inter- 
 ference was the only satisfactory settlement that could be arrived 
 at. He denied emphatically that coercion meant war. The shortest 
 way to put an end to the conflict and stop bloodshed would be by 
 drawing a naval cordon round Turkey, and neutralising the 
 Turkish fleet. In concluding, the right hon. gentleman said : 
 
 ' We are engaged in a continuous effort ; we roll the stone of Sisyphus against the 
 slope, and the moment the hand shall be withdrawn, down it will begin to run. 
 However, the time is short ; the sands of the hour-glass are running out. The longer 
 you delay, the less in all likelihood you will be able to save from the wreck of 
 the integrity and independence of the Turkish Empire. If Kussia should fail, her 
 failure would be a disaster to mankind, and the condition of the suffering races, for 
 whom we are supposed to have laboured, will be worse than it was before. If she 
 succeeds, and if her conduct be honourable, nay, even if it be but tolerably prudent, 
 the performance of the work she has in hand will, notwithstanding all your 
 jealousies and all your reproaches, secure for her an undying fame. When that 
 work shall be accomplished, though it be not in the way and by the means I would 
 have chosen, as an Englishman I' shall hide my head, but as a man I shall rejoice. 
 Nevertheless, to my latest day I will exclaim Would God that in this crisis the 
 voice of the nation had been suffered to prevail ; would God that in this great, this 
 holy deed, England had not been refused her share ! ' 
 
 For Mr. Gladstone's first resolution there appeared 223 ; 
 against, 354. Six Liberals voted with the Government, and only 
 one Conservative (Mr. Newdegate) against them. Sixteen Con- 
 servatives were absent, and twenty Liberals ; while nineteen Home 
 Rulers voted with the Government, and eleven with Mr. Glad- 
 stone. It was matter of complaint that English statesmanship at 
 this time was not at a very high level, but the country generally 
 was for the moment content with a policy of watchfulness and 
 strict neutrality. 
 
 Before the session closed Mr. Gladstone addressed a large meet- 
 ing at Bingley Hall, Birmingham, on the Eastern Question and 
 the present condition of the Liberal party, and in the autumn he 
 paid a visit to Ireland. On his return to Holyhead, in obedience 
 to the demand of those who had gathered to receive him, he 
 leieneJ to the great question yet uppermost in the minds of the 
 people. He still expressed his belief that Turkey would have 
 yielded to the concerted action of Europe, and noticed the change 
 in the tone of the Government, which was shown by the careful 
 omission in the Premier's speech of the old phrase, l the indepen-
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 529 
 
 dence of Turkey.' Again he protested strongly against the country 
 being dragged into war, and warmly eulogised the Nonconformists 
 for the consistency and unanimity with which they had insisted 
 on justice to the Eastern Christians. Political feeling at this 
 time entered into everything ; but Scotland remained true to Mr. 
 Gladstone. It was not without significance, perhaps, that in 
 November he was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University by 
 a large majority in all the nations, his opponent being the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer. Lord Beaconsfield was the retiring Lord 
 Eector, and the Conservatives nominated Sir Stafford Northcote 
 as his successor. The polling gave the following result For 
 Mr. Gladstone, 1,153; for Sir S. Northcote, 609. 
 
 We shall not follow the course of the Russo-Turkish.war, which 
 is matter of familiar history. The splendid bravery of Osman 
 Pasha and other Turkish generals could not avert the fortunes of 
 war, which, speaking generally, may be said in this instance to 
 have resulted righteously. The Russians were doubtless guilty of 
 atrocities, most of which were, perhaps, inseparable from Oriental 
 warfare,, yet none the less to be deplored ; but nothing can for one 
 moment be alleged against them to compare with the deliberate 
 and continuous system of massacre and outrage pursued by the 
 Turks when as yet there was not even the poor excuse of open war 
 to plead in their behalf. And there would probably have been 
 fewer even of these Russian outrages had it not been for the senti- 
 ments of indignation and retaliation which it is difficult at such 
 times, and under the influence of vindictive feelings, altogether 
 to repress. Turkey suffered irremediable defeats by the fall of 
 Kars and Plevna, and the Russian capture of the Schipka Pass. 
 On the 23rd of January, the Turkish Plenipotentiaries at Adrian- 
 . ople received instructions from the Porte to accept the bases of 
 peace as submitted to them in writing by the Grand Duke 
 Nicholas. 
 
 At a meeting of Oxford undergraduates, held on the 30th of 
 January, 1878, to celebrate the formation of a Liberal Palmerston 
 Club, Mr. Gladstone strongly condemned the sending of the 
 British Fleet into the Dardanelles. He was afraid it would be 
 found that it was a breach of European law. He had been 
 accused of being an agitator, and with regard to the last eighteen 
 months that was true. To his own great pain, a nd with infinite 
 reluctance, but under the full and strong conviotion, he might 
 say of political old age, for the last eighteen moiilhs he might 
 be said to have played the part of an agitator. His purpose had 
 been to the best of his power, day and night, week by week, 
 month by month, to counterwork what he believed to be the 
 purposes of Lord Beaconsfield. The proposed vote of credit, 
 
 M M
 
 530 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone said, was the most indefensible proposition that 
 in his time had ever been submitted to Parliament. Lord 
 Beaconsfield, replying to this and other speeches of his rival, at 
 a banquet held at the Hiding School at Knights bridge, described 
 him as ' a sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance 
 of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination 
 that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent 
 series of arguments to malign his opponents and to glorify 
 himself.' This description of Mr. Gladstone's eloquence bears no 
 inconsiderable resemblance to a passage in Lord Macaulay's 
 Edin burgh Review article, but the language of the former lacks 
 the clearness and simplicity which distinguish that of the great 
 Whig historian.* 
 
 The Government having asked for a vote of credit, a long dis- 
 cussion ensued in the House of Commons early in February. Mr. 
 Gladstone, while willing to allow bygones to be bygones, said that 
 the vote could not possibly give the Government the strength 
 of an undivided nation. He regretted having to play such a 
 prominent extra-Parliamentary part, and, though he had never 
 impugned anybody's motives, not a single speech had been made 
 in which the worst motives were not attributed to himself. The 
 vote would not strengthen the hands of the Government, nor was 
 it needed for any endangered British interests, and with ordinary 
 military estimates of 26,000,000, we were surely already on a 
 footing of equality with other Powers. The vote was, moreover, 
 a complete violation of the constitutional rule that no burden 
 should be placed on the people without its necessity being proved. 
 Besides, to usher in a Conference with the clash of arms would 
 destroy its peaceful character. He next specified the points upon 
 which the Government should insist at the Conference, and in 
 which they would have the support of the Opposition. Interfer- 
 ence with the freedom of the Danube, by a cession of Roumanian 
 territory, should be resisted; the claims of the subject races to 
 freedom and good government should be supported ; but there was 
 no reason why Bulgaria should not be content to pay a tribute, 
 seeing that she had relied on the efforts of others for her liberty. 
 Great Britain ought to act as the champion of the Hellenic pro- 
 vinces, and the Government should be content to join with the 
 other Powers in regard to the Straits. In order to secure unity 
 and concord, and to unite a now divided nation, Mr. Gladstone 
 
 * In this Knightsbridge speech, also, Lord Beaconsfield strongly attacked Mr 
 Gladstone for his alleged personalities. Being courteously requested by his rival to 
 furnish references to these personalities, his lordship excused himself for searching 
 over the speeches of two years and a half, but admitted that the word ' devilish ' 
 had not been used by Mr. Gladstone, either in the Oxford speech or elsewhero. 
 This was the only reparation Mr. Gladstone could obtain.
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 531 
 
 suggested that the Government should postpone the proposed vote 
 for a time, with liberty to renew it if the Government thought 
 fit ; and he added that an address should be presented to her 
 Majesty from both Houses, expressing their readiness to support 
 the Government in bringing about a permanent peace at the Con- 
 ference, recognising the promise which the Government had given 
 to obtain good terms for Turkey, but expressing a hope that the 
 influence of the country would be used to obtain liberty and good 
 government for the Christian subjects of the Porte. 
 
 Before the debate closed, a serious panic occurred on the Stock 
 Exchange, in consequence of a report that the Russians were 
 advancing on Constantinople. On the 7th, however, the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer read a telegram from Prince Gortschakoff, 
 declaring that there was not a word of truth in the telegrams, 
 but that orders had been given to the Russian troops in Europe 
 and in Asia to stop all hostilities. Next day it was announced 
 that a portion of the British Mediterranean fleet had been 
 despatched to Constantinople. The vote of credit was ultimately 
 carried by 328 against 124. The Marquis of Hartington and 
 other prominent Liberals refrained from voting. On the 3rd of 
 March a treaty of peace between Russia and Turkey was signed 
 at San Stefano. The treaty consisted of twenty-nine articles, of 
 which the following were the chief: Turkey agreed to pay a 
 large war indemnity ; Servia and Montenegro were to acquire 
 their independence, and to receive accessions of territory ; Bul- 
 garia was to be formed into a new Principality with greatly 
 extended boundaries, and to be governed by a prince elected by 
 the inhabitants ; the navigation of the Straits was declared free 
 for merchant vesssels both in time of peace and war ; fifty 
 thousand Russian troops would occupy Bulgaria for about two 
 years, until the formation of a Bulgarian militia, whose strength 
 would be fixed by Russia and Turkey ; Batoum, Ardahan, Kars, 
 and Bayazid, with the territories comprised, were to be ceded to 
 Russia; a treaty was to be concluded between Turkey and 
 Roumania, and the latter was to demand her indemnity from 
 the Porte ; and finally, Russia, not wishing to annex territory, 
 was to receive the Dobrudscha, in order to cede it to Roumania 
 in exchange for the Roumanian portion of Bessarabia. 
 
 These terms were regarded as oppressive by her Majesty's 
 Government, who demanded that the wholte treaty should be 
 submitted to the proposed Congress at Berlin. 
 
 MM 2
 
 CHAPTEK XXVIII. 
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY 1878-79. 
 
 Calling out of the Reserve Forces Circular to Foreign Courts Results of the Berlin 
 Congress Reception of the English Plenipotentiaries in London 'Peace with 
 Honour ' Despatch of Indian troops to Malta ; The Act condemned by Mr. 
 Gladstone as unconstitutional Dangers of Government Policy Mr. Gladstone 
 at Bermondsey The Anglo-Turkish Treaty an ' Insane Covenant ' Debate on 
 Eastern Affairs in the House of Commons Speech of the ex-Premier Work of 
 the Berlin Congress reviewed English Hostility to Greece Our Responsibilities 
 in Asiatic Turkey Lord Beaconsfield's Imperial Policy Mr. Gladstone at Rhyl 
 Lord Beaconsfield at the Lord Mayor's Banquet A ' Scientific Frontier ' in 
 India The Frontier criticised by Mr. Gladstone The Representation of Green- 
 wich Farewell Visit of the ex-Premier Important Speech at Plumstead 
 'Personal Government' The Afghan War Its Origin Responsibility for the 
 War It is debated in the House of Commons The War eloquently condemned 
 by Mr. Gladstone Proposed Vote of Censure on the Government defeated 
 Debate on the Greek Question Mr. Gladstone advances the Claims of Greece 
 Speeches on Prerogative On the Zulu War The Speaker and the Privileges of 
 Parliament Corporal Punishment in the Army Mr. Gladstone attacks the 
 Financial Policy of the Government The Gladstone and Beaconsfield Adminis- 
 trations compared. 
 
 TOWARDS the close of March, 1878, the chances of the meeting of 
 the Berlin Congress seemed to be very shadowy, and the public 
 uneasiness in England was intensified by the step which the 
 Government took of calling out the reserve forces of the country. 
 In consequence of this decision of the Cabinet, Lord Derby resigned 
 his position as Minister for Foreign Affairs. Explaining his reasons 
 at length in the House of Lords, his lordship said that although 
 the conclusions at which the Cabinet had arrived were of a grave 
 and important nature, they did not, in his opinion, necessarily 
 and inevitably lead to a state of war. Three days afterwards, the 
 Marquis of Salisbury, the new Foreign Minister, issued a circular 
 to Foreign Courts, in which he said, ' Neither the interests which 
 her Majesty's Government are specially bound to guard, nor the 
 well-being of the regions with which the Treaty deals, would be 
 consulted by the assembling of a congress whose deliberations 
 were to be restricted by such reservations as those which have 
 been laid down by Prince Gortschakoff in his most recent com- 
 munication.' A long diplomatic correspondence ensued, but at 
 length the Congress met at Berlin on the 30th of June, the English 
 Plenipotentiaries being the Earl of Beaconsfield and the Marquis
 
 FOREIGN POLICY 1878-79. 533 
 
 of Salisbury. One month later, the Treaty of Berlin was signed, 
 and the Congress closed. Some modifications were effected on 
 the original Treaty of San Stefano. The Balkan mountains formed 
 the southern frontier of Bulgaria, and to Austria was entrusted 
 the task of occupying Bosnia and the Herzegovina in the interests 
 of Europe. Full liberty was left to Austria in regard to the organi- 
 sation of the provinces. Montenegro received the seaport of Anti- 
 vari, and a considerable increase of territory. Servia's frontier 
 was also extended ; and the Porte was requested to negotiate a 
 rectification of the Greek frontier. Russia was to receive that 
 portion of Bessarabia detached by the Treaty of 1856, and to cede 
 in return the Dobrudscha to Roumania, including Silistria and 
 Magnolia. Batoum, Kars, and Ardahan were ceded to Russia ; 
 and a war indemnity of 47,500,000 was to be charged after 
 guaranteed loans and anterior hypothecations. 
 
 For their share in negotiating this treaty, the English represen- 
 tatives received a popular ovation on arriving in England, and 
 rewards from the Sovereign followed. Addressing the crowd from 
 a window of the Foreign Office on his arrival in London, Lord 
 Beaconsfield said, ' Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you 
 back peace, but a peace, I hope, with honour, which may satisfy 
 our Sovereign and tend to the welfare of the country.' It has 
 been pointed out, however, that at this very time the envoy of 
 Russia (whose policy we believed ourselves to be circumventing) 
 was entering the Afghan capital ; so that, although there was 
 peace on the Bosphorus, as a direct result of our Eastern policy 
 war broke out in Afghanistan. The phrase i peace with honour ' 
 became the watchword of the Conservatives, but it became also 
 the occasion of much ridicule subsequently, in consequence of the 
 disturbed state of Europe, and the difficulties which arose in the 
 fulfilment of the Berlin Treaty. Certainly, if any Power had 
 reason to congratulate itself upon the result of the Berlin Con- 
 gress it was Russia, who had substantially obtained her demands. 
 The Greeks, whom we ought to have supported, were practically 
 left in the hands of Turkey, with what result is well known. 
 
 Though Mr. Gladstone had retired from the leadership of the 
 Liberal party, the Government found in him a sleepless critic of 
 every development of its Eastern policy. During the debate on 
 the calling out of the Reserves, he recapitulated arguments which 
 he had used out of doors against the retrocession of Roumanian 
 Bessarabia, and against other points of the treaty. But he saw 
 no ground for war, nor any reasons for declining to attend the 
 Congress. 
 
 The very day after Parliament had adjourned for the Easter 
 recess, it was announced that the Ministry had ordered the Indian
 
 534 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Government to despatch some 7,000 native troops to Malta. 
 This important proceeding gave rise to every kind of controversy, 
 political, legal, and constitutional. In deciding upon this step, 
 Lord Beaconsfield had undoubtedly strained the Statute, which 
 required that a vote of Parliament should provide for the outlay in 
 the employment of these troops. His lordship, however, depended 
 upon the action of the majority to endorse his policy ; and this 
 docility the majority continued to show under other circumstances, 
 and upon other questions. The employment of the Indian troops 
 was warmly debated in the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone, 
 in an animated speech, declared that the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer had been guilty of an unconstitutional act in concealing 
 in his budget a heavy item of expense which he knew was to be 
 incurred. Government also ought to have consulted the House 
 upon the expenditure before incurring it ; they had violated the 
 Bill of Eights and the Indian Government Act. The right hon. 
 gentleman thus exposed the dangers of the Government policy : 
 
 4 The Crown obtains from Parliament the right to raise 135,000 and odd men, and 
 is strictly limited as to the use of those men. But within two or three hours, by 
 telegram, she has in another quarter of the world 200,000 or 300,000 men, which, 
 if the Government like, may be doubled, with no control from voting the number, 
 and no control from voting the money, and no control from a Mutiny Act to 
 expire next April. This vast force, having none of these restraints, and unlimited 
 in respect of number and backed by a treasury filled with more than fifty millions 
 a-year, is at the will of those gentlemen on the benches opposite, without their 
 saying why or wherefore. Is that to be the state of things under which we live ? 
 I do not listen for a moment to the plea that there is no practical danger Will 
 we consent to part with the securities that the Constitution gives us? The 
 question is not whether we will rush right into the midst of danger, but whether 
 we will tread within an inch of it. Do we think that liberty is a thing so safe at all 
 times, and under all circumstances, that the sentinels of the Constitution may 
 occasionally go to sleep ? Is that the view entertained by the House of Commons ? 
 It may be that this division will prove that we have less liberty now than we had 
 in 1865 or even in 1775. ... I think it is our duty, from generation to 
 generation, not to abandon or suffer to be impaired the ancient and ancestral 
 liberties of the country, and to regard with the utmost jealousy every security 
 which has been thought wise by the great sages of the community in past times 
 for the purpose of guaranteeing the maintenance of the Constitution. The 
 majority in favour of these proceedings will be an historical fact of cardinal 
 importance, and it is our duty to run the risk of a vote. It will be a great evil 
 and a national calamity, but there is one evil greater one calamity deeper still, 
 and that is, that the day should come when at any rate the minority of the 
 House of Commons should shrink from its duty and fail to use every effort in its 
 power to bring to the knowledge of the people the mode in which, and the circum- 
 stances under which, its liberties are being dealt with by its representatives.' 
 
 The men who complained that Mr. Gladstone strained the 
 Constitution by the Purchase Warrant, supported in overwhelm- 
 ing numbers this far clearer violation of the Statute. There 
 voted for the Government, 347 ; against, 226. The Ministerial 
 majority (which had been puzzled by the publi cation in the 
 Globe of the famous Anglo-Russian Agreement, and by the course 
 of diplomacy generally) could not allow its faith in the Beacons-
 
 FOREIGN POLICY 1878-79. 535 
 
 field Administration to be shaken by anything-^not even by this 
 latest exhibition of a high-handed policy, in ordering the Indian 
 troops to Malta. For a member to differ from this policy was 
 almost to incur the imputation of caring nothing for the honour 
 of his country. The Marquis of Salisbury compared his relative 
 and predecessor, the Earl of Derby, to Titus Gates ; and Mr. 
 Hanbury gravely brought a charge of treason against Mr. Glad- 
 stone for an article in the Nineteenth Century. The right hon. 
 gentleman said he was ' not greatly concerned ' in the matter ; and 
 the Conservative party itself thought Mr. Hanbury was going a 
 little too far in his abortive motion. 
 
 Gn the 20th of July Mr. Gladstone addressed a meeting of 
 Liberals in the Drill Hall, Bermondsey. In the outset he pointed 
 out the importance of working on such a plan of organisation as 
 that upon which the Southwark Liberals had based their action, 
 and showed that the Liberal party had failed to pay such atten- 
 tion to this subject as it deserved. Too many amongst them 
 were actuated by mere sectional views. There never had been a 
 time when the differences between the various sections were more 
 broadly pronounced, or more plainly declared. While they had 
 the opportunity, and before the Dissolution, which could not be 
 very long postponed, they ought to take measures for obtaining 
 what they thought they did not now possess, viz., a fair repre- 
 sentation in Parliament of the party to which they belonged. 
 Glancing back over the legislation of the past five sessions, he 
 contended that the Liberals were now fully justified in judging 
 the Government by its acts ; and the time had come Avhen it 
 would be well for the people to have the opportunity of express- 
 ing an opinion upon them. Coming to the Anglo-Turkish 
 Treaty, Mr. Gladstone pointed out the serious obligations which 
 devolved upon England under it, and added, * There is but one 
 epithet which, I think, fully describes a covenant of this kind. 
 I think it is an insane covenant. I have known well the most 
 eminent statesmen of the last forty years. I ha^je known them 
 on both sides of politics. I was in my early life a follower of Sir 
 Robert Peel and of the Duke of Wellington, and of Lord Aber- 
 deen ; and although I regret some things that I did, and have 
 altered some opinions that I then held, yet, in point of honour 
 and public duty, I am not in the least ashamed of any act of 
 my public life. I do not think that the country ever had more 
 honourable public servants ; and, moreover, I will venture to say, 
 particularly of Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen, that I have 
 known under the name of Liberals men much less Liberal than 
 they. But, gentlemen, what I wish to say is this, that having 
 known them on the other side and having known well and
 
 536 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 worked with such men as Lord Russell, Lord Palmerston, Lord 
 Lansdowne, and many more now called to their account I do 
 not believe that there is one of those I am perfectly confident 
 that there never was one of those men who, under any circum- 
 stances, would have been induced to put his hand to such an 
 arrangement as that which to our shame, as I think now, has 
 gone forth under the name of the Anglo-Turkish Convention.' 
 Stronger language, however, followed as Mr. Gladstone described 
 the course of the English Government upon the subject of the 
 treaty : 
 
 ' It is perfectly well known that if Russia is to attack India, which I for one 
 believe to be a perfectly chimerical idea, she must attack India through the heart 
 of Asia, and that is not through Asia Minor it is on the other side of the Caspian, 
 on the other side of Persia, far away from Asia Minor, and our defending Turkey 
 in Asia Minor against Russia has no imaginable connection with driving Russia 
 off the road to India, so that the absurdity of the arrangement is gross ; but it has 
 other qualities worse than its absurdity its duplicity. I say that it has been a 
 work of duplicity, and what I tell you here I hope to restate next week that this 
 is an act of duplicity of which every Englishman should be ashamed. Why, what 
 have we been doing ? Why has the country been kept in hot water since the 
 Treaty of San Stefano was signed? Because we insisted that no part of that treaty 
 could be established without the consent of Europe unless it affected the interior 
 of the Turkish Empire, and we must have it brought before Europe. It was 
 brought before Europe, accordingly, without reserve, and at that very time we our- 
 selves, without the consent of Europe, were framing a secret engagement with 
 Turkey which interfered at every point with the Treaty of San Stefano an act of 
 duplicity which, I am sure, has never been surpassed, and, I believe, has rarely 
 been equalled in the history of nations.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone said he had heard the remark that the Turkish 
 Convention was concluded because it was necessary to do some- 
 thing. Possibly it was necessary to do something for the credit 
 of the Government, and it remained for the people to decide 
 whether the credit of the Government ought to be sustained at 
 such a price. He rejoiced to think that these most unwise, 
 extravagant, unwarrantable, unconstitutional, and dangerous 
 proceedings had not been the work of the Liberal party ; but 
 he grieved to think that any party should have been found in 
 England to perform such transactions. 
 
 Shortly before the close of the session a great debate arose in 
 the House of Commons, extending over the whole range of Eastern 
 affairs, the Treaty of Berlin, the Anglo-Turkish Convention, the 
 acquisition of Cyprus, the claims of Greece, &c. The Marquis of 
 Hartington opened this debate by proposing the following resolu- 
 tion : ' That, whilst this House has learned with satisfaction that 
 the troubles which have arisen in the East of Europe have been 
 terminated by the Treaty of Berlin, without a further recourse to 
 arms, and rejoices in the extension of the liberty and self-govern- 
 ment of some of the populations of European Turkey, this House 
 regrets that it has not been found practicable to deal in a satisfac-
 
 FOREIGN POLICY 1878-79. 537 
 
 tory manner with the claims of the kingdom of Greece, and of 
 the Greek subjects of the Porte ; that by the assumption, under 
 the Anglo-Turkish Convention, of a sole guarantee of the integrity 
 of the remaining territories of Turkey in Asia, the military lia- 
 bilities of this country have been unnecessarily extended ; that the 
 undefined engagements entered into by her Majesty's Government 
 in respect of the better administration of these provinces have 
 imposed heavy responsibilities upon the State, whilst no sufficient 
 means have been indicated for securing their fulfilment ; and that 
 such engagements have been entered into and responsibilities 
 incurred without the previous knowledge of Parliament.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's speech on this occasion, delivered on the second 
 night of the debate, has been described as ' a long and eloquent 
 address, unsurpassable for its comprehensive grasp of the subject, 
 its lucidity, point, and the high tone which animated it through- 
 out.' After some reference to the observations of the preceding 
 speaker, Lord Sandon, Mr. Gladstone referred to the Premier's 
 attack upon him at Knightsbridge, observing that he reflected 
 with considerable pleasure and comfort upon the fact that it gave 
 a much better account of him than was given in a speech delivered 
 by the same noble earl at Aylesbury about two years ago. He 
 (the speaker) admitted that he had strongly denounced the Minis- 
 try, but he denied that the fact that he had declared the policy 
 of the Government to be a dishonouring policy for the country 
 constituted a personal provocation, or could be rightly regarded 
 as a personal attack. If criticism of this kind was forbidden, they 
 might as well shut the doors of the House. 4 The liberty of speech 
 which we enjoy, and the publicity which attends our political life 
 and action are, I believe, the matters in which we have the greatest 
 amount of advantage over some other countries of the civilised 
 world. That liberty of speech is the liberty which secures all 
 other liberties, and the abridgment of which would render all other 
 liberties vain and useless possessions.' 
 
 Passing now to graver matters, Mr. Gladstone said that he had 
 been unable to discern for many months past any danger to the 
 existence of the peace which was re-established at San Stefano, 
 excepting in the opinions and the warlike preparations of her 
 Majesty's Government. Sketching in general outline the work 
 accomplished by the Congress at Berlin, the right hon. gentleman 
 said that before the late war there were not less than 1 7,000,000 of 
 people who were subjects of the Ottoman Empire, in absolute or 
 qualified subordination; and out of these not less than 11,500,000 
 had undergone a total change in their relations. After this it 
 was a little difficult to lay down the doctrine that there had been 
 no partition of Turkish territory. ' We have, indeed, been told
 
 638 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 that the rule of the Sultan in Europe has been concentrated 
 exactly in the same sense in which a man's body is concen- 
 trated when his limbs have been amputated. It is reduced, 
 curtailed ; it is hemmed in on every side by absolute or quali- 
 fied freedom. If that be concentration, it is concentrated ; but 
 not otherwise.' Taking the whole of the provisions of the Berlin 
 Treaty together, he thankfully and joyfully acknowledged 
 that great results had been achieved in the diminution of 
 human misery, and towards the establishment of human hap- 
 piness and prosperity in the East. Yet he could not shut his 
 eyes to the fact that the Sclavs, looking to Kussia, had been freed ; 
 while the Greeks, looking to England, remained with all their 
 aspirations unsatisfied. Russia had obtained the sanction of Europe 
 to her territorial conquests, and established, free from all European 
 interference, her title to a large war indemnity. Discussing the 
 conduct of the British Plenipotentiaries at the Congress, he found 
 that, as a general rule, they took the side opposed to that of 
 freedom : 
 
 ' I say, sir, that in this Congress of the Great Powers the voice of England has not 
 been heard in unison with the institutions, the history, and the character of England. 
 On every question that arose and that became a subject of serious contest in the 
 Congress, or that could lead to any important practical result, a voice had been heard 
 from Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury which sounded in the tones of Metternich 
 and not in the tones of Mr. Canning, or of Lord Palmerston, or of Lord Russell. I do 
 not mean that the British Government ought to have gone to the Congress deter- 
 mined to insist upon the unqualified prevalence of what I may call British ideas. 
 They were bound to act in consonance with the general views of Europe. But 
 within the limits of fair difference of opinion, which will always be found to arise 
 on such occasions, I do affirm that it was their part to take the side of liberty ; 
 and I do also affirm that as a matter of fact they took the side of servitude.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone complained that there had been a persistent hos- 
 tility, limited only by the more favourable desires of others, on the 
 part of England to the pretensions of Greece. With regard to the 
 agreement made between Lord Salisbury and Count Schouvaloff, 
 he should be glad to know in what manner the Government recon- 
 ciled the conclusion of that agreement with the distinct professions 
 upon which they had been standing for three or four months 
 before in the face of Europe, or with that perfect good faith which 
 ought to prevail in all the transactions of the Powers. Coming 
 to the Anglo-Turkish Convention, the right hon. gentleman said 
 it appeared to him that the acquisition of Cyprus was the Alpha 
 and the Omega of that convention. With regard to the English 
 responsibilities in Asiatic Turkey devolving upon us through the 
 convention, he asked what were the reasons for this unheard-of, 
 this mad undertaking. Not one of the leading English statesmen 
 of the last forty years, from the Duke of Wellington downwards, 
 would for one moment have consented to look at such a scheme
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY 1878-79. 539 
 
 as had been contrived and accomplished in the dark by the present 
 Government. The cession of Cyprus violated both the letter and 
 the spirit of the Treaty of Paris ; and if Turkey was entitled to 
 give Cyprus to England by secret treaty, was she forbidden to 
 give over Mitylene to Eussia by another and equally secret agree- 
 ment? We had altered the Treaty of 1856, behind the back of 
 Europe, by establishing a sole protectorate, and a single-handed 
 right of intervention in Asiatic Turkey, and by assuming the 
 administration and occupation of the island of Cyprus. The Powers 
 of Europe had reason to complain of our conduct. Dealing next, 
 with the treaty-making power of this country, as bearing upon 
 the dignity and the rights of Parliament, Mr. Gladstone said it had 
 been endured because it had been uniformly used with modera- 
 tion, with careful regard to precedent, with a just estimate of the 
 rights of the people, and with due knowledge of the existing sense 
 and convictions of the people. But when it ceased to be so used, 
 it was a power that became intolerable. These most recent pro- 
 ceedings of the Administration, if persevered in, would undoubt- 
 edly end in raising controversies with respect to that power 
 which all should be desirous to avoid. Mr. Gladstone thus 
 concluded his speech : 
 
 We are perplexed with the apprehension that as long as these proceedings 
 continue to be sustained by a majority in this House, and as long as the country has 
 had no opportunity of passing its final and conclusive judgment, they will be 
 repeated and renewed, from time to time, as may seem good to the Ministers in 
 power. More and more damage will thus be done both to the great name and 
 honour of this country, and to the prerogatives and rights of Parliament, bound 
 up, as they are, with the liberties of the people. First, we have the setting up of 
 British interests, not real but imaginary. Then, we have the prosecution of those 
 supposed British interests, by means of strange and unheard-of schemes, such as 
 never occurred even to the imagination of statesmen of other days. Then we have 
 those strange and unheard-of schemes, prosecuted in a manner which appears, as I 
 conceive, to indicate a very deficient regard to the authority of the law of Europe, 
 and to that just respect which is due to all foreign Powers. Then we have, 
 associated with this grievous lack, a disregard, a neglect it may, perhaps, even be 
 said a contempt for the rights of Parliament. Lastly, along with all this, we 
 create a belief, rather strengthened than weakened by the evident absence of any 
 eagerness on the part of her Majesty's Government to give us financial information, 
 that the result of those operations of the Government, so unsound in their founda- 
 tion, so wild in their aims, is likely to be an increase of responsibility, with no 
 addition, but rather a diminution of strength ; a loss of respect abroad ; a shock 
 to constitutional instincts and practices at home ; and also an augmentation of the 
 burdens which are borne with such exemplary patience by a too confiding people.' 
 
 Notwithstanding this powerful speech, when the vote came to 
 be taken it was found that the Ministerial phalanx was un- 
 broken. The numbers were For Lord Hartington's resolution, 
 195; against, 338. Amongst other descriptions of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's address, the Spectator said it was 'a terse and vivid 
 specimen of statement, argument, and denunciation,' and added, 
 upon the debate generally, that * reason, prudence, and patriotism
 
 540 WILLIAM ' EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 have hardly ever in our time been voted down with so little show of 
 argument, or even of plausible suggestion.' ' For the first time 
 in a hundred years,' said the same journal in reviewing the session, 
 ' at a very great crisis of English history, Parliament has been 
 treated as Napoleon III. used to treat his Senate and Corps 
 Legislatif, as a mere supplement to the Crown and Administra- 
 tion, instead of as the keystone of the Constitution.' The 
 Government was omnipotent; and the Conservative majority 
 performed its bidding with unwavering patience and submission. 
 Lord Beaconsfield's Imperial policy proceeded apace.* Russia 
 had been successful in Europe, but the Government conceived a 
 plan by which they hoped to checkmate her in Asia. When we 
 say that a war was forced upon Afghanistan, we are endeavouring 
 to use the impartial language which we believe will be used by 
 history. With regard to this unhappy country. England repeated 
 her oppressive policy of forty years ago. Acting upon the impres- 
 sion that Shere Ali was the secret friend of Russia, we sought 
 grounds for quarrelling with him. A strong nation never lacks 
 pretences of affront when it has to deal with a weak one, and 
 England was not long in precipitating hostilities with the Afghans 
 upon grounds miserably weak and inadequate. It was the war of 
 1838-41 which rankled in the minds of the rulers of Afghanistan, 
 and made them steadily resolve to refuse British Residents, which 
 they had a perfect right to do. The rejection of Sir Neville Cham- 
 berlain's Mission, so far from being unprovoked, was the reply of 
 the Ameer to English policy, which had long projected an advance 
 into his territory. In furtherance of this policy, on the part of 
 Lord Beaconsfield's Government, the Viceroy was instructed to 
 find some pretext for despatching a Mission to the Ameer. The 
 result of our subsequent proceedings is well known. Even when 
 the Ameer was ready to make concessions, the opportunity was 
 denied him. We went to war with Afghanistan ; Shere Ali lost 
 his life ; we concluded the Treaty of Gandamak with his succes- 
 
 * Various are the renderings and definitions of -an ' Imperial 'policy ; but we may 
 supplement the observation of the Spectator, given above, by the following passage 
 from Mr. S. Laing's address to his constituents, which is doubtless representative of 
 Liberal opinion generally on this matter : ' When I talk of an Imperial policy I 
 attach a distinct meaning to the words. I mean a policy which in its fundamental 
 ideas and modes of proceeding resembles that of the last French Empire, a policy 
 which trades upon national vanity and national prejudices, and seeks by a series 
 of national surprises to divert attention from domestic matters, and prop up the 
 fortunes of a dynasty or a Ministry.' Mr. Laing further remarked that since Lord 
 Derby's retirement from the Cabinet, the history of England had ' read like the 
 chapters of a sensational novel or the scenes of a stirring melodrama ; ' and he 
 added that he had done what he could ' to assert the foreign policy of Canning 
 against that of Castlereagh, of Gladstone against that of Beaconsfield.' These 
 words are the more significant as coming from one who a few 3 r ears ago opposed 
 Mr. Gladstone, and they demonstrate, moreover, a close approximation of sentiment 
 amongst the various classes of Liberals throughout the country.
 
 FOREIGN POLICY 1878-79. 541 
 
 sor, Yakoob Khan, whereby the English Government secured its 
 demands. But the old and ineradicable hatred of the Afghans 
 to the British led ostensibly through other pretexts, of course 
 to the massacre of Sir Louis Cavagnari and his escort at Cabul. 
 We have now discovered that the people of Afghanistan do not 
 receive us as deliverers from their own rulers ; and although we 
 may take swift vengeance upon them for recent events, and procure 
 a temporary settlement of affairs, what policy can we adopt to 
 ensure that such settlement shall be a lasting and a permanent 
 one ? India may not only prove fatal to the existence of the 
 present Ministry which is responsible for the late and present 
 Afghan wars but may yet bring the severest chastisement which 
 our national pride has received. All Englishmen hope that such 
 a catastrophe may be averted ; but if Justice be immutable, and 
 it be impossible to divert her from her course, we have yet much 
 to answer for in regard to Indian policy. 
 
 With respect to the war waged with Shere Ali, Lord Lawrence 
 who in this case may be fairly taken as the representative of 
 those most thoroughly acquainted both with this and other Indian 
 questions appealed to the Government to arrest their action ; 
 but Lord Beaconsfield replied that the press was not the place in 
 which to discuss these matters, although the Premier himself had 
 conduced to this by his Parliamentary reticence. Mr. Gladstone, 
 however, could not remain quiescent under the adventurous policy 
 of the Premier. Speaking at Ehyl, he condemned the Ministerial 
 action which, having first made the Queen an empress, then 
 manipulated the prerogative in a manner wholly unexampled in 
 this age, and employed it in inaugurating policies about which 
 neither the nation nor the Parliament had ever been consulted. 
 
 The right hon. gentleman went on to say that he did not throw 
 upon the Government the full responsibility for those times of 
 almost unexampled depression from which England suffered in 
 1878-9 : but he contended that the erratic policy of the Govern- 
 ment had greatly aggravated the hardness of those times. He 
 asked how commerce could flourish when no exporter knew whether 
 war might not break out before his merchandise reached the port 
 to which it was consigned: and he asserted that every 10,000,000 
 spent unproductively in needless military or naval expenditure 
 really represented a loss of double the amount for 10,000,000 
 productively invested would have produced another 10,000,000 
 worth of wealth and something more. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's arguments, however, might as well have been 
 addressed to empty air. The Conservative majority did not feel 
 or felt it by comparison only in an infinitesimal degree the 
 pressure of the times, and they had imbibed an idea that the
 
 542 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 honour of England must be protected. By many persons it was 
 considered that it had never really been assailed ; but the 
 Beaconsfield Administration having on several occasions declared 
 it to be in danger, there was no lack of readiness to vote men 
 and money to defend it. So the order was given for distant 
 peoples to be attacked, English blood to be spilt, the burdens of 
 the people (already too heavy) to be swollen, and the future 
 liabilities of this country to be enormously increased. 
 
 At the Lord Mayor's Banquet, in November, Lord Beaconsfield 
 explained, with regard to our Indian difficulties, that the Govern- 
 ment were not apprehensive of any invasion of India by ita north- 
 western frontier ; but the frontier was a * haphazard and not a 
 scientific one,' and the Government were desirous of obtaining a 
 really satisfactory frontier. It is difficult now to understand Lord 
 Beaconsfield's desire to obtain a ' rectification of frontier ' except 
 on the ground of buttressing up his Administration, and, by keep- 
 ing the nation in a fever of excitement, thus to prevent a fierce 
 introspective light from being brought to bear upon his policy. 
 Mr. Gladstone, in writing to the Bedford Liberal Association, 
 pertinently asked the question, why, if an invasion from the north- 
 west were considered impracticable, the frontier there should be 
 described as unscientific, and how any foe could so embarrass and 
 disturb our dominion as to put us to great expense on a frontier 
 which it was impossible for him to invade ? The right hon. gentle- 
 man thus continued : ' What right have we to annex by war or 
 to menace the territory of our neighbours, in order to make 
 " scientific " a frontier which is already safe ? What should we 
 say of such an act if done by another Power ? Our frontier, we 
 are told, causes anxiety to our Viceroys. I ask, which among the 
 Viceroys who have taken and quitted office, and sometimes life, 
 with so much honour, since we reached our North- Western Fron- 
 tier, have recommended such a rectification ? Upon the whole, I 
 must say that the great day of " sense and truth," instead of 
 relaxing the reserve unhappily maintained, has added a new, and, 
 to all appearance, a dangerous, mystery to those which before pre- 
 vailed ; has left us more than ever at the mercy of anonymous 
 paragraphs ; and is, so far, likely to increase rather than dispel 
 the gloom which is settling on the country. That we are bound 
 to observe and promote the observance of the Treaty of Berlin 
 there is no doubt. We should do it with better grace if we had 
 not ourselves broken the Treaty of Paris, and violated the honour- 
 able understanding under which the Powers met in Congress, by 
 the Anglo-Turkish Convention.' Mr. Gladstone went on to observe 
 that the best barrier against Kussia was to be found in the estab- 
 lishment of local liberties that men will value, and will fight for,
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY 1878-9. 513 
 
 and will not willingly surrender either to Russia or to any other 
 Power. He also referred to the apparent inaction of the Govern- 
 ment in relation to the report of the Rhodope Commission, and 
 regretted their indifference to a commercial distress greatly inten- 
 sified by their own reckless expenditure. But the only effective 
 criticism upon the Government, he observed, would be the 
 criticism of the polling booths. 
 
 To that appeal, however, the Government did not submit them- 
 selves. England was shortly afterwards at war with Shere Ali, 
 the Ameer having declined to receive an English mission. This 
 was no new decision, however, as we have seen, nor ought it fairly 
 to have been construed as an insult to us, seeing that the Ameer 
 had always protested against receiving a British Envoy. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone having announced his intention of retiring from 
 the representation of Greenwich at the next election, on the 30th 
 of November he paid a farewell visit to his constituency. At a 
 luncheon given at the Ship Hotel by the Liberal Association, the 
 right hon. gentleman proposed the toast of ' Prosperity to the 
 Borough of Greenwich Liberal Association,' and in doing so 
 enlarged upon the necessity for Liberal union. The Liberals, 
 owing to their dissensions, gave twenty-six votes to their opponents 
 in 1 874. Now when they remembered that Governments had been 
 carried on for years with a smaller majority than twenty-six, they 
 would see how important the subject of organisation became. 
 With regard to the Birmingham plan, he warned Liberals against 
 its precipitate or imperfect adoption. Whenever a minority only 
 of the party in any town joined such an association, it was plain 
 that that town was not yet ripe for the introduction of the new 
 system ; and if the plan continued to be forced under those cir- 
 cumstances, more harm than good must result from the false 
 application of the principle. In the evening Mr. Gladstone 
 attended a great public meeting in the Plumstead Skating Rink. 
 On his entrance the whole audience rose and cheered for several 
 minutes. An address was presented to the ex-Premier expressing 
 regret at the severance of his connection with the borough of Green- 
 wich, and the pride which the borough would ever feel at having 
 been associated with his name and fame. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone began his reply by an allusion to Lord Beacons- 
 field's phrase of five years ago, respecting ' harassed interests.' 
 At present he (the speaker) knew of only one harassed interest, 
 viz., the British nation. The question how the country was to 
 be governed should occupy the people at the next election. 
 Although he protested against the words ' personal government * 
 being taken to imply that the Sovereign desired to depart from 
 the traditions of the Constitution, he charged her Majesty's
 
 544 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 advisers with having insidiously begun a system intended to 
 narrow the liberties of the people of England, and to reduce 
 Parliament to the condition of the French parliaments before the 
 great Revolution. Replying to the charge that he and his 
 supporters were the friends of Russia, Mr. Gladstone showed that 
 it was the Government who had been the real friends of that 
 Power, having brought her back to the Danube, from which she 
 was driven in 1856$ left it in her power to make herself the 
 liberator of Bulgaria ; and, by the device of creating the province 
 of Eastern Roumelia, had given her an opportunity for intriguing 
 pretty effectively among that portion of the Bulgarians still left 
 under the rule of the Sultan. 
 
 The Afghan war was dwelt upon with great fulness. Mr. 
 Gladstone, having expressed his fear that it was a wholly unjust 
 war, pointed out that it had been waged by the Government in 
 furtherance of a settled intention on its part to force the Ameer 
 to receive European Residents in his cities, contrary to the treaty 
 ;irrangements entered into with him, and in opposition to his 
 known preference for native agents. He denied that the late 
 Government had refused to give conditional assistance to the 
 Ameer, and also that the Viceroy was instructed to postpone the 
 subject. In 1874, as was proved from a despatch by Sir R. 
 Pollock, the Ameer leaned as much as ever on the British Govern- 
 ment. The Ameer gave as his reason for refusing to receive 
 an English mission at all four letters which had been addressed 
 to him in a threatening tone by the Commissioner of Peshawur, 
 at the instance of the Viceroy ; and' these letters were omitted 
 from the Blue-book. If Russia sent a Mission to Cabul, why had 
 we not called Russia to account ? asked Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 ' If an offence has been committed, I want to know whose has been the greater 
 share of that offence ? The Ameer was under no covenant that he was not to receive 
 a Russian Mission ; we were under a covenant with him not to force on him a 
 British Mission. He was under no covenant not to receive a Eussian Mission ; 
 Russia was under a covenant with us to exercise no influence in Afghanistan. If 
 there was an offence, whose was the offence ? The offence, if any, was committed 
 by the great and powerful Emperor of the North, with his eighty millions of 
 people, with his 1,400,000 or 1,500,000 soldiers, and fresh from his recent victories, 
 and not by the poor, trembling, shuddering Ameer of Afghanistan, with his few 
 troops, over which he exercises a precarious rule. But now, having received from 
 the Czar of Russia the greater offence, we sing small to Russia, and ask her to 
 withdraw her Mission ; and when she says it is only a Mission of courtesy, we 
 seemingly rest content, but we march our thousands into Afghanistan. Anything 
 so painful and so grievous has not come under my notice.' 
 
 The responsibility for this war he threw absolutely upon the 
 Cabinet ; but Parliament would shortly be asked what it thought 
 of these transactions, and he was not sanguine as to the reply. 
 However, the appeal to Parliament was not the final appeal. Mr. 
 Gladstone maintained that we had departed from the manners of
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY 1878-9. 545 
 
 our forefathers ; the policy of the present Government was not 
 that which had been adopted by Lord Chatham and Mr. Burke, 
 and by Lord Derby when he appealed to both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment in 1857. Mr. Gladstone thus forcibly concluded his 
 address : 
 
 ' This question cannot be settled by injunctions to be dumb ; it cannot be settled 
 by the production of garbled evidence ; it cannot be settled by a chorus of leading 
 articles written to-day, and forgotton, or contradicted, or disavowed to-morrow ; it 
 cannot be settled by military success for, thank God, the arbitrament of the 
 sword is not the supreme or the sole arbitrament of the affairs of civilized nations ; 
 it cannot be settled by Parliamentary majorities. But that responsibility, which at 
 this moment is an undivided responsibility, resting upon ten or twelve men, will 
 next week or the week afterwards very likely be divided between them and the two 
 Houses of Parliament, and within no long period it may be within a very short 
 period the people of England will have to say whether they will take upon 
 themselves their share of that responsibility. And remember that, if they do, their 
 share will be the largest of all. They are the tribunal of final appeal. Upon them, 
 upon every constituency, upon every man in every constituency, who gives his 
 sanction to an unjust war, the guilt and the shame will lie. No ; there is something 
 a great deal higher than all those external manifestations by which we are apt to 
 be swayed and carried away ; something that is higher, something that is more 
 inward, something that is more enduring. External success cannot always silence 
 the monitor that lies within. You all know the noble tragedy of our great Shakespeare, 
 in which Lady Macbeth, after having achieved the utmost external success, after 
 having waded through blood to a crown, and that crown at the moment seemingly 
 undisputed, yet is so troubled with the silent action of conscience residing within the 
 breast that reason itself is shaken in its seat, and she appears at night wandering 
 through the chambers of her castle. What does she say ? There she had nothing to 
 warn her from without, nothing to alarm her. Her success had been complete. She 
 had reached the top of what some think to be human felicity, and what nil admit to 
 be human authority. What does she say in that condition ? " Here's the smell of 
 the blood still ; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." And 
 the physician appointed to wait on her, in the few simple pregnant words of the 
 poet, says, "This disease is beyond my practice." Yes, gentlemen, the disease of an 
 evil conscience is beyond the practice of all the physicians of all the countries hi 
 the world. The penalty may linger ; but, if it lingers, it only lingers to drive you 
 on further into guilt, and to make retribution when it comes more severe and 
 more disastrous. It is written in the eternal laws of the universe of God that sin 
 shall be followed by suffering. An unjust war is a tremendous sin. The question 
 which you have to consider is whether this war is just or unjust. So far as I am 
 able to collect the evidence, it is unjust. It fills me with the greatest alarm lest it 
 should be proved to be grossly and totally unjust. If so, we should come under 
 the stroke of the everlasting law that suffering shall follow sin ; and the day will 
 arrive come it soon or come it late when the people of England will discover 
 that national injustice is the surest road to national downfall.' 
 
 A brief sitting of Parliament was held in December, when a 
 long debate ensued upon the war in Afghanistan. Mr. Whitbread 
 moved the following amendment to the Address: 'That this 
 House disapproves the conduct of her Majesty's Government, 
 which has resulted in the war with Afghanistan.' 
 
 Mr. Gladstone followed up his vigorous speech to his con- 
 stituents by one quite worthy of it from his place in the House of 
 Commons. There were three points, he said, on which the public 
 decision as to the nature of this war ought to rest. First, the 
 extraordinary confusion and inconsistencies of the evidence on 
 which the Government had framed their case for this unjust and
 
 5U: WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 disastrous war ; secondly, the extraordinary and prolonged secrecy 
 in which a policy had been enveloped, the earlier disclosure of 
 which would have put Parliament on its guard, and elicited 
 remonstrances which must, in all probability, have stopped the 
 war ; thirdly, the direct evidence of injustice in relation to the 
 origin of the war, the deliberate breach with the policy of 
 forbearance towards Afghanistan, the alarming menaces addressed 
 to the Ameer of Afghanistan both by words and deeds, the mild- 
 ness of the remonstrance with Eussia, into whose arms we had 
 driven the Afghan prince, and the severe retribution which we 
 were visiting upon the protege, whilst we complacently accepted 
 the explanations of the patron, on condition, of course, that we 
 were permitted to flog the protege without interference from the 
 patron. The right hon. gentleman then drew a striking picture 
 of the miseries and perils to which the last Afghan war had led, 
 and pressed home, with renewed force, the chief conclusions of 
 his PJumstead speech. In answer to Lord John Manners, who 
 had declared that the war must be prosecuted until Shere Ali 
 had made due submission, Mr. Gladstone asked what would be 
 done if the Ameer, instead of making submission, followed 
 precedent, and disappeared ? In that case, how long should we 
 have to keep an army of occupation ? The principal official 
 documents contained the most gross misstatements of facts, 
 involving reckless negligence. There was no ground whatever 
 for alleging that at the Peshawur Conference it became evident 
 that the Ameer was dissatisfied with his relations with us. So 
 far from being discontented, he begged us to let things alone. 
 Such was the position of affairs up to the end of 1876 ; and if the 
 papers relating to the Peshawur Conference had "been laid before 
 Parliament shortly after its close, he ventured to say we should 
 have had no Afghan war. When the Ameer was ready to make 
 concessions, the opportunity was denied him, the Conference was 
 hastily closed, the promises of Lords Mayo and Northbrook were 
 revoked, measures of hostility were adopted, Quettah was occupied, 
 and our native agent was withdrawn from Cabul. Lastly, not 
 *Jie least discreditable act of the English Government was their 
 treating the reception of the Russian Mission as an offence, and 
 their visiting it with punishment at the very time when they 
 had accepted the transparent pretext of Russia that their Mission 
 to Cabul was within the meaning of the arrangement made with 
 the late Government. The Russians forced the Mission upon 
 Shere Ali, who unwillingly accepted it. The Russians, however, 
 asked permission before sending their envoy ; but we did not do 
 so, and the Ameer's subordinates had no authority to let our 
 Mission pass Now Ministers called that an insult which was
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY 1878-79. 547 
 
 merely the result of the grossest blundering. Further, they had 
 tamely acquiesced in Eussia's new and unfounded claim to send 
 to Cabul missions of courtesy under the convention with the late 
 Government. Mr. Gladstone, in his peroration, spoke earnestly 
 and eloquently upon the historical and moral aspects of the 
 question : 
 
 ' You have made this war in concealment from Parliament, in reversal of the 
 policy of every Indian and Home Government that has existed for the last twenty- 
 Jive years, in contempt of the supplication of the Ameer, and in defiance of tlie 
 advice of your own agent, and all for the sake of obtaining a scientific frontier. We 
 jiade war in error upon Afghanistan in 1838. To err is human and pardonable. But 
 we have erred a second time upon the same ground and with no better justification. 
 This error has been repeated in the face of every warning conceivable and imaginable, 
 and in the face of an unequalled mass of authorities. May heaven avert a repetition 
 of the calamity which befell our army in 1841 ! . . . I remember a beautiful 
 description of one of our modern poets of a great battle-field during the Punic, wars, 
 in which he observed that for the moment Nature was laid waste and nothing but 
 the tokens of carnage were left upon the ground ; but day by day and hour by hour 
 she began her kindly task, and removed one by one and put out of sight those 
 hideous tokens, and restored the scene to order, to beauty, and to peace. It was 
 such a process that the Viceroys of India had been carrying on for years in 
 Afghanistan. I now ask is all this to be undone? The sword is drawn, and misery 
 is to come upon this unhappy country again. The struggle may perhaps be short. 
 God grant that it may be short ! God grant that it may not be sharp ! But you, 
 having once entered upon it, cannot tell whether it will be short or long. You have 
 again brought in devastation and again created a necessity which, I hope, will be 
 met by other men, with other minds, in happier days ; that other Viceroys and 
 other Governments, but other Viceroys especially such men as Canning, Lawrence, 
 Mayo, and Northbrook will undo this evil work in which you are now engaged. 
 It cannot be undone in a moment, although the torch of a madman may burn 
 down an edifice which it has taken the genius, the skill, the labour, and the lavish 
 prodigality of ages to erect. ... I should have hope of this division if I 
 really believed that many hon. members had made themselves individually masters 
 of the case which is disclosed in the recesses of those two volumes of Parliamentary 
 papers. They have not done, and cannot do this, and, therefore, this vote will go as 
 other votes have gone. You will obtain the warrant of Parliament and the triumph 
 of military success for the moment. That military success has not been quite so 
 unchecked up to the present, but it has in substance corresponded to that which 
 led us on in 1838, and blinded us to the perilous nature of the step which we were 
 taking. Be that as it may, however, you will probably obtain sanction and the war- 
 rant which you seek. The responsibility, which is now yours alone, will be shared 
 with you by the majority of this House ; but many who will decline to share in it 
 will hope for the ultimate disapproval and reversal of your course by the nation. 
 But even if the nation should refuse such reversal, those members of this House who 
 oppose your course will believe that they have performed a duty incumbent upon 
 men who believe that truth and justice are the only sure foundations of interna- 
 tional relations, and that there is no possession so precious, either for peoples or 
 for men, as a just and honourable name.' 
 
 This powerful speech greatly impressed both sides of the House, 
 but the majority not, it was believed, without some compunction 
 endorsed the policy of the Grovernment. In the course of the 
 debate, Mr. Leatham made a witty comparison. The Cabinet, 
 he said, reminded him of the gentleman who, seeing his horses 
 run away, and being assured by his coachman that they must drive 
 into something, replied, ' Then smash into something cheap ! ' 
 The discussion closed with very able speeches by Lord Hartington 
 and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the vote of censure was 
 
 NN 2
 
 548 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 defeated by 328 votes to 227. On a motion by the Government 
 that the revenues of India should be applied for the purposes of the 
 war, Mr. Fawcett moved an amendment to the effect that it would 
 be unjust that the revenues of India should be applied to defray 
 the extraordinary expenses of the military operations being carried 
 on against the Ameer of Afghanistan. Mr. Gladstone seconded 
 the motion, and observed that it was the people of England who 
 had had all the glory and all the advantage which had resulted 
 from the destruction of the late Government, and the accession 
 to office of the present Administration ; and it was they who must 
 measure all the pros and the cons, and who must be content, after 
 having reaped benefits so immeasurable, to encounter the dis- 
 advantage of meeting charges which undoubtedly the existing 
 Administration would leave behind it as a legacy to posterity. 
 For Mr. Fawcett's amendment there voted 125 ; against, 235 
 majority for the Government, 110. 
 
 England gained her ends in the Afghan war, and humiliated 
 Russia ; but there are those who naturally predict that the direct 
 result of our policy will be further Russian advances in Central 
 Asia. Russia, they urge, will never rest until she has strongly 
 established herself upon the Afghan frontier. Meanwhile, we 
 may repress the Afghans by force, but hostile measures will never 
 make them friendly to us.* 
 
 Early in the session of 1879 the Greek question came before 
 the House of Commons on the following motion by Mr. Cart- 
 wright : * That, in the opinion of this House, tranquillity in the 
 East demands that satisfaction be given to the just claims of 
 Greece, and no satisfaction can be considered adequate that does 
 not ensure execution of the recommendations embodied in Pro- 
 tocol 13 of the Berlin Congress.' Mr. Gladstone, in supporting 
 this motion, said he was sanguine enough to believe that even in 
 the present House of Commons there might be found a disposition 
 on the part of many hon. members to encourage the first legiti- 
 mate aspirations on the part of the Hellenic races after freedom, 
 and he hoped that the declaration of the Government would be 
 such as to give satisfaction to the House and to the country. The 
 Treaty of Berlin contained recommendations which were valuable 
 and important in the interests of the liberty and happiness of 
 Greece, and, so far as he knew, there was yet no evidence what- 
 ever that the English Government the whole of whose tradi- 
 
 * As to the value of our scientific frontier, it has been pointed out that, so far is 
 it from facilitating an invasion of Afghanistan, it has already cost the Indian 
 Government the services of four good brigades. On the Candahar, Khurum, and 
 Khyber routes we have a total army of 33,000 men to be maintained and accoutred, 
 while the force really fighting its way to Cabul will not number 10.000, and will 
 only have one line of retreat or communication.
 
 FOREIGN POLICY 1878-79. 549 
 
 tions were connected, inseparably connected, with freedom 
 had acted energetically in support of the provisions of that 
 treaty. The Porte had gone back upon its usual resources of 
 craft, and inert but obstinate resistance, and every device that 
 ingenuity could suggest had been used to evade giving effect to 
 the recommendations of the Treaty of Berlin. Our Government 
 had given a pledge to the Government of Greece to support and 
 to advance, within reasonable limits, the territorial claims of 
 Greece. That pledge, down to the present time, remained entirely 
 unredeemed ; but there was time for us to redeem it. It certainly 
 rfas not redeemed at the Congress. There was now no one of the 
 European Powers antagonistic to the claims of Greece. France 
 laboured, and had always consistently and energetically done so, to 
 promote them, and their complete success depended upon the con- 
 duct of her Maj esty's Government. He (Mr. Gladstone) wished to 
 convey to the House his opinion that the claims on the part of the 
 Greek Kingdom and the Greek races were a very strong claim 
 indeed. We had now got rid of the superstition that all these 
 Greek and Christian populations of Turkey would fling themselves 
 into the arms of Russia. The time that had elapsed for the fulfil- 
 ment of our promise to Greece was already too long, and there 
 was no justification for it. After reviewing the greatly improved 
 condition of Greece with its free press, an increasing population, 
 a trade and a marine enormously augmented, and a flourishing 
 University Mr. Gladstone said, ' I do not contend that the civili- 
 sation of Greece is effective for all purposes ; on the contrary, the 
 Greeks are behindhand, and have so much to do that their resources 
 may be strained in the accomplishment of their objects. The 
 Government will not give countenance, I hope, to coloured and 
 unfair representations of the condition of Greece, but will join us 
 in deprecating them.' 
 
 The character of England was undoubtedly tied to the redemp- 
 tion of its pledge given to Greece, but the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer said the matter was one which was engaging, and 
 which would continue to engage, the earnest sympathy and full 
 attention of her Majesty's Government, and he trusted that this 
 assurance would satisfy the House. The motion was rejected, 
 and Greece still awaits the fulfilment of her legitimate aspirations. 
 
 In the course of a debate raised by Sir Charles Dilke, towards 
 the close of July, on the obligations of Turkey under the treaty 
 of Berlin, Mr. Gladstone again earnestly enforced the claims of 
 Greece. The right hon. gentleman observed that ' Greece, weak 
 as she may be, is yet strong in the principles on which she rests. 
 She has the assertions made by the Turkish Government: she 
 has the strong sympathy of the populations concerned : she has
 
 550 \VILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 the assertion of the uselessness of these populations to the Sultan ; 
 she has on record the engagements by this country, now some 
 thirteen months ago, promising our careful consideration, which 
 is well known to mean the favourable consideration of some of her 
 territorial claims.' The recent course of England upon the Greek 
 Question furnishes a very unsatisfactory chapter in our history. 
 Our duty to the Hellenic race was clear, and more strenuous 
 efforts should have been made for its fulfilment So long as this 
 question remains unsettled, what but war can be expected between 
 Turkey and Greece ? But there are even wider aspects in which 
 this Greek question may be viewed. Panhellenism would 
 unquestionably be a powerful counteracting force in Eastern 
 Europe to Pan slavism. The dream, no doubt, is sanguine, but 
 a Greece which should include the present territory, together 
 with Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, and the Archipelago as far as 
 the shores of Anatolia, has always received the sympathy and 
 adhesion of a large section of Greek patriots. Such a programme 
 no English Ministry would at present support ; but Greece has, 
 notwithstanding, reasonable ground of complaint over the defeat 
 of her hopes at the Berlin Congress. 
 
 Several other discussions of importance, in which Mr. Gladstone 
 took part, arose during the session. In the middle of May, Mr. 
 Dillwyn introduced a motion affirming the necessity of more 
 strict observance of the mode and limits of the action of the Pre- 
 rogative, in order to prevent the growing abuse and extension of 
 it by her Majesty's Ministers, under cover of the supposed personal 
 interposition of the Sovereign. Commenting upon the chequered 
 history of the resolution, Mr. Gladstone said that to put such a 
 motion ultimately on the paper in the morning, and to ask the 
 House to vote it in the evening, was so entirely contrary to the 
 rules of Parliamentary procedure that he declined to have any- 
 thing to do with it. There was no connection, he further pointed 
 out, between the abuse of the Prerogative and the supposed inter- 
 vention of the Sovereign. Though he had not been backward in 
 assailing the undue use of the Prerogative under the existing 
 Government, in every case it had been sustained by large majori- 
 ties, and the censure, if there was to be any, ought to be directed 
 against the majority, which had assumed the responsibility. 
 
 In the debate on the Zulu War, Mr. Gladstone expressed con- 
 sideration and sympathy for Sir Bartle Frere in the difficulties in 
 which he was placed ; and though he did not agree with him in 
 his views upon South Africa, he was convinced that when he 
 returned to this country he would continue to attract to himself 
 the admiration of his fellow-countrymen. He further maintained 
 that our relations with Cetewayo must be regulated by his rela-
 
 FOREIGN FOLICY 1878-79. 551 
 
 tions to ourselves, and not by his cruelties to his own people ; and 
 he agreed that when the safety of the colony was assured, the 
 Government ought to be guided by considerations of moderation 
 and mercy. He believed, however, that it might be difficult for 
 the Government to make any declarations at that time. 
 
 The Speaker having ordered notes to be taken, for his own pri- 
 vate use, of the proceedings and debates of the House, the Home 
 Rulers interpreted his action as being aimed specially against 
 themselves. Mr. Parnell accordingly brought forward a resolu- 
 tion that this proceeding was without precedent, was a breach of 
 the privileges of Parliament, and a danger to the liberty and 
 independence of debate. Rising during the discussion, Mr. Glad- 
 stone said that he had sat in the House during the rule of five 
 different Speakers, and this was the first occasion upon which he 
 could recollect the submission of a motion to the House impugn- 
 ing in any way the conduct of the gentleman who filled the chair. 
 It was a very grave occasion ; but he noticed that there had been 
 withdrawn from the motion the words that the act of the Speaker 
 constituted a danger to the liberty of debate. Now, the Speaker 
 either possessed their confidence or he did not ; and while no one 
 could regard with pleasure an occurrence of this kind, it brought 
 with it this satisfaction, that in the discharge of his weighty duties 
 the Speaker would find his hands not weakened but strengthened. 
 Strange, indeed, would be their position if the House now made 
 a condemnation of the practice which had undoubtedly been within 
 the knowledge of many of the leading members of the House from 
 time to time, and had never yet attracted a word of disapproval. 
 The best thing to do would be to subject the motion to a direct 
 negative. Addressing the Speaker direct, the right hon. gentle- 
 man said there could be but one sentiment, viz., that he was 
 desirous of discharging his functions in the most efficient manner ; 
 and they therefore desired to reciprocate that feeling by every 
 declaration in their power. The House demonstrated, by 292 
 votes to 24, its confidence in the Speaker. 
 
 On the consideration of the Report of the Army Discipline Bill, 
 Lord Hartington moved a resolution to the effect that no bill 
 could be satisfactory which provided for the permanent retention 
 of corporal punishment. In the course of the debate, Mr. Glad- 
 stone, arguing for the abolition of the punishment of flogging, 
 said the Government had never contradicted the statement that 
 at one time they had arrived at the decision to abolish flogging, 
 nor had they once stated that the punishment was necessary for 
 the maintenance of discipline. After what had recently occurred, 
 it could not be retained long, and, believing this degrading punish- 
 ment to be contrary to our recent policy of raising the character
 
 ii52 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 of the army in every possible way, he gave his cordial support to 
 the resolution. 
 
 In the end, notwithstanding, the retention of the punishment 
 was voted by 289 votes to 183. 
 
 The financial policy of the Government intimately connected 
 as it was with its course on foreign affairs was formally arraigned 
 upon Mr. Rylands's motion on the national expenditure. Mr. 
 Gladstone, in supporting it, said that the Ministry was not now 
 charged with not meeting the necessities of the year by imposing 
 additional taxation, but with the great increase in the national 
 expenditure. He objected to it both in regard to quantity and 
 quality ; and under the first head he showed that the augmenta- 
 tion of the military charges amounted to over six millions, while 
 with regard to the reduction in the present year's estimates, he 
 characterised it as ' a death-bed repentance.' He next proceeded 
 to challenge the causes of the expenditure from first to last, 
 vigorously denouncing the foreign policy of the last few years, 
 and asserting that it had neither increased the power of the country 
 nor improved our relations with a single country in the world. 
 He further objected to the mode of balancing the public accounts, 
 by which he maintained that the real deficiency was concealed 
 from the country. The Exchequer bonds were an essential part 
 of the deficiency of the year, and as to the estimated surplus of 
 3<S1 ,900,000, it had no existence at all. The Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer ought to have presented an estimate of the expenses of the 
 Zulu war ; and in speaking of it in a mere general way as a charge 
 which could not be calculated, he had departed from universal 
 precedent. By bringing in two budgets every year, Sir Stafford 
 Northcote was destroying the control of Parliament over the 
 expenditure and income, and was reversing the best financial pre- 
 cedents of our history. So also his via media of meeting the 
 deficiency by Exchequer bonds was a financial revolution, and 
 was at daggers drawn with the principles of Sir Robert Peel. The 
 primary rules of that great financier were to make proper estimates 
 for the charge of the year, and to bring the income of the year 
 up to the charge ; to let the public have the benefit of the bulk 
 of the surpluses when they occurred ; and, if new wants arose, to 
 meet them, not by increased taxes, but by savings in other direc- 
 tions. In conclusion, Mr. Gladstone observed, ' If the country 
 approves this financial revolution, that as I have shown by 
 hard facts and figures is in progress, the countiy is its own 
 master, and can return again a Parliament like-minded with 
 the present, to perpetuate an Administration under which we 
 enjoy such bounteous store of financial as well as other bles- 
 sings. I do not undertake to predict what this Parliament will
 
 FOREIGN POLICY 1878-79. 553 
 
 do, or what the nation will do, in considering its own interest, 
 and in making provision for its own future ; but, unless I am 
 mistaken, the doctrines that are now promulgated on the part of 
 the Government are financial delusions, and, if so they be, I can 
 only say I am convinced of this, that the longer they last, the 
 more complete sway they obtain for a time under the administra- 
 tion and influence of the party opposite, the sharper will be the 
 reaction when it comes, the more complete the reversal of your 
 momentary triumph, and the more severe the retribution politi- 
 cally inflicted upon the party that has invented these erroneous 
 doctrines, and that has too fatally carried them into effect.' At 
 a later stage in the consideration of the budget, Mr. Gladstone 
 contrasted the financial history of 1860 with that of 1879, and 
 showed that the former afforded no justification for the budget of 
 the later year. In 1860 new taxes were imposed, and there was, 
 therefore, a real distribution of charge between the present and 
 future ; but the budget of 1879 imposed no new taxes, so that no 
 fair parallel could be drawn between them. In 1860, so far from 
 there being remissions of taxation almost exceeding the new taxes 
 by two millions and more as the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 had stated Mr. Gladstone pointed out that while 2,415,000 
 had been remitted, the war rates of tea and sugar had been con- 
 tinued, the income-tax had been raised by 5d., other duties had 
 been increased, and in all fresh taxes had been imposed to the 
 amount of 8,775,000, leaving a balance of 6,360,000 of increased 
 taxation in that year. This was the justification for borrowing 
 money on terminable annuities for the fortifications ; but no such 
 plea could now be advanced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's denunciations of the Government have to 
 some appeared unmeasured and unwarrantable ; but those who thus 
 judge him forget that, whether rightly or wrongly, his successors 
 have traversed every political and financial principle to which 
 he has steadfastly adhered through a public career extending 
 over nearly half a century. Those who most differ from him on 
 questions of foreign policy cannot deny that, with regard to 
 financial and domestic measures, the country has exhibited a 
 confidence in him rarely paralleled in our political annals. The 
 great acts of his Administration, and his beneficent fiscal reform, 
 stand almost alone; and they appear all the nobler and the 
 greater when contrasted with the policy of his successors. The 
 country has not yet ventured to look the results of the Con- 
 servative financial policy in the face ; when it does so, it cannot 
 but bitterly regret the decision which, in 1874, deprived it of the 
 services of the greatest of living statesmen and financiers. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be asked, What are the real results of
 
 554 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 the ' brilliant foreign policy ' which the present Government has 
 pursued ? Sir Bartle Frere perversely and precipitately forced 
 upon us the Zulu war a war which many of the usual supporters 
 of the Ministry have condemned. The war, happily, is now 
 virtually over, and we have captured the brave Zulu king. But 
 what is to be the end of our interference in South Africa ? If 
 Federation should ultimately be established, we cannot reflect 
 with satisfaction upon some of the means by which this object 
 will have been gained. Whatever may be the final outcome 
 of the Ministerial policy in South Africa, the unjust war with 
 the Zulus forms a dark spot in our history. Coming to India, 
 what do we find ? The treaty of Grandamak is shrivelled 
 up ; and although we may hope for a settlement of actual, and 
 perhaps yet greater impending difficulties, it is almost hoping 
 against hope. England, too, though a great and a rich nation, 
 is neither all-powerful nor inexhaustible in wealth. The question 
 must sooner or later arise, How long can the people bear th& 
 drain upon it which an Imperial policy involves ? When that 
 limit arrives, there will be a strong and irresistible revulsion of 
 national feeling, with a consequent reversal of the policy of an 
 Administration whose name is written in blood. It may be that 
 this time is close upon us. Even in the midst of the Saturnalia 
 over our foreign triumphs, the handwriting begins to appear 
 upon the wall.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS, ETC. 
 
 Characteristics of Mr. Gladstone's Essays Articles on the Life of the Prince Con- 
 sort The County Franchise ' Kin Beyond Sea' Personal and Literary Essays 
 Estimates of Macaulay and Tennyson Wedgwood and his Work Mr.' Gladstone 
 on Art Its Relations to English Manufactures Historical and Speculative Essays 
 Ecce Homo Articles on Foreign Questions Germany, France, and England 
 The Hellenic Factor in the Eastern Problem Aggression in Egypt Miscel- 
 laneous Essays Comparison between Greece and Palestine ' England's Mission' 
 Mr. Gladstone on the Policy of the Ministry Home Questions awaiting Settle- 
 meat Speech at Chester Charges against the Government Effects of the 
 Premier's ' Imperial ' policy Close of the Survey of Mr. Gladstone's Literary and 
 Political Career. 
 
 THE plenitude and variety of Mr. Gladstone's intellectual powers 
 have been the subject of such frequent comment that it would be 
 superfluous to insist upon them here. On the political side of 
 his career his life has been as unresting and active as that of any 
 other great party leader ; and, if we regard him in the literary 
 aspect, we are equally astonished at his energy and versatility. 
 Putting out of view his various works upon Homer, his miscel- 
 laneous writings of themselves, with the reading they involve, 
 would entitle their author to take high -rank on the score of 
 industry with the majority of the literary craft. As a writer, 
 indeed, fluency may be said to be his besetting sin. Great ideas 
 do not come either to the world or to individuals in battalions ; 
 they are the product of thought, action, comparison. So, while 
 we stand amazed at the infinity of topics which have received 
 Mr. Gladstone's attention, we do not always acquire from his 
 essays that high dry light which it is the privilege of the greatest 
 critics to shed upon the subjects and the men they undertake to 
 interpret. 
 
 A recent reviewer, while scarcely doing Mr. Gladstone justice 
 in certain respects, furnishes some apposite observations or par- 
 tially apposite, at least upon the general character of his essays 
 as well as their style. ' It is,' he says, * the light they throw on 
 Mr. Gladstone and upon his habits and modes of thought, far 
 more than any light they throw upon the special subjects they 
 deal with, that gives these essays their strongest claim. And
 
 556 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 this internal umty of thought and temperament is made the 
 more prominent by the comparative absence of any corresponding 
 unity of style. Indeed, of a style, in the strict sense of the term, 
 Mr. Gladstone has almost little or none, and the reader is almost 
 startled to find how well he gets along without it. Sometimes 
 we have a sentence so long and involved that nothing but a pas- 
 sionate intensity of meaning and a profuse vocabulary could have 
 averted a disastrous collapse. Elsewhere, as for instance in his 
 controversy with Mr. Lowe, the " Tempter," as Mr. Gladstone 
 might say, leads him to imitate, with very partial success, the 
 nimble dialectics of his skilful opponent. His writing, it is true, 
 is often vigorous and trenchant, his phrases not unfrequently 
 happy and well turned ; but a distinctive style, such for instance as 
 Lord Macaulay's, he most certainly has not.' * The essays remind 
 the reader more of the flowing eloquence and the declamation of 
 a Burke than of the massiveness, the dignity, and the majesty 
 of a Bacon. 
 
 The whole of Mr. Gladstone's miscellaneous writings with the 
 exception of essays of a strictly controversial and classical kind 
 have recently been collected in a uniform edition, f The first 
 volume has no fewer than four articles upon the life and character 
 of the Prince Consort, two of them being based upon Mr. Martin's 
 life. The critic writes sympathetically upon the \irtues of the 
 Prince, who was deserving of the eulogy passed upon him, and 
 who undoubtedly raised the life of the Court, and the influ- 
 ence and usefulness of our highest institution, to their highest 
 point. He also laments the loss which society has sustained from 
 the slackening of that beneficial action to which the Prince so 
 powerfully contributed. These essays are followed by three papers 
 on the County Franchise, being a response to the deliverances of 
 Mr. Lowe upon this subject. Mr. Gladstone claims to regard this 
 question with strict impartiality, for he looks upon it as one which 
 calls upon him for adhesion as an individual, but not for the 
 guidance of others in any larger capacity. He warns Englishmen, 
 however, against one of the greatest moral dangers that can beset 
 the politics of a self-governed country the danger of having a 
 great question insincerely dealt with. The Conservatives are 
 ready to step in between the Liberal leaders and their work, and ; 
 to do the exact opposite of that which was done by Sir Robert 
 Peel in 1829 and 1846 : 'They will handle the subject, to the 
 best of their judgment, as one which may legitimately be used, 
 either by adoption or by a faint and procrastinating repulse, as 
 shall best suit the interests of their party.' The speech of the 
 
 * The Athenaum, Feb. 1879. 
 
 t Gleanings of Past Years. In seven volumes. London: 1879.
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 557 
 
 present majority will say one thing, while its heart conceals another. 
 In legislating upon this subject, Mr. Gladstone is not afraid that 
 we shall fall down the precipice into national ruin, inasmuch as 
 we fell down a much greater precipice in 1832, and another one 
 in 1867, and are none the worse for it. His arguments upon the 
 whole question are well worthy of study. 
 
 The last essay in this volume, ' Kin Beyond Sea,' is one for 
 which Mr. Gladstone was taken severely to task by many 
 English journals, on its appearance originally in the North 
 American Review for September, 1878. Reading through this 
 essay now after the excitement it created has calmed down, it 
 seems to us to contain much food for reflection for Englishmen. 
 Mr. Gladstone is not alone in taking the following view of the 
 future of America, and we should do well to heed the advice with 
 which he closes : * She will probably become what we are now, 
 the head servant in the great household of the world, the 
 employer of all employed ; because her services will be the most 
 and ablest. We have no more title against her than Venice, or 
 Genoa, or Holland has had against us. One great duty is 
 entailed upon us, which we, unfortunately, neglect ; the duty of 
 preparing, by a resolute and sturdy effort, to reduce our public 
 burdens, in preparation for a day when we shall probably have 
 less capacity than we have now to bear them.' Again, 'the 
 England and the America of the present are probably the two 
 strongest nations in the world. But there can hardly be a doubt, 
 as between the America and the England of the future, that the 
 daughter, at some no very distant time, will, whether fairer or 
 less fair, be unquestionably yet stronger than the mother.' Mr. 
 Gladstone argues in support of this position from the concentrated 
 continuous empire which America possesses, and the enormous 
 progress she has made within a century. The writer's brief 
 review of the British Constitution, and his summary of possible 
 dangers which may beset the mother-country, are deserving of 
 careful consideration, especially when we reflect that these things 
 have driven one who is perhaps better acquainted with them 
 than most students of the Constitution to this general con- 
 clusion : ' We of this island are not great political philosophers : 
 and we contend with an earnest but disproportioned vehemence 
 about changes which are palpable, such as the extension of the 
 suffrage, or the re-distribution of Parliamentary seats, neglecting 
 wholly other processes of change which work beneath the surface, 
 and in the dark, but which are even more fertile of great organic 
 results.' 
 
 The second volume consists of essays exclusively personal and 
 literary. The author discourses both pleasantly and profitably
 
 558 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 upon such differently constituted beings as Blanco White, Giacomo 
 Leopardi, Bishop Patteson, Dr. Norman Macleod, Macaulay, 
 Tennyson, and Wedgwood. While we could willingly linger over 
 each of these names, it is only the last three to which we can give 
 some attention. In treating of Macaulay, Mr. Gladstone is not 
 so incisive as some other English critics Mr. John Morley, for 
 example ; but the essay is written with admirable temper and a 
 certain largeness of spirit. ' Prosperous and brilliant, a prodigy, 
 a meteor, almost a portent, in literary history,' the great Whig 
 historian is described, and yet withal there was much of the com- 
 monplace about him ; while his fierceness as an advocate prevented 
 him from attaining to that atmosphere of calm impartiality which 
 surrounds the greatest historians. An accurate man, in the long 
 run, is of more service to the world than a fascinating man, 
 though the latter may in the outset absorb all the honours ; and 
 this rule will, we think, be found to hold good in all kinds of 
 intellectual effort. Mr. Gladstone observes that ' as the serious 
 flaw in Macaulay's mind was want of depth, so the central defect 
 with which his productions appear to be chargeable, is a per- 
 vading strain of more or less exaggeration.' The truth is that 
 * Macaulay was not only accustomed, like many more of us, to 
 go out hobby-riding, but, from the portentous vigour of the 
 animal he mounted, was liable, more than most of us, to be run 
 away with.' Once more in drawing a comparison between 
 Macaulay and Thucydides, the latter of whom was greatly admired 
 by the modern historian ' Ease, brilliancy, pellucid clearness, 
 commanding fascination, the effective marshalling of all facts 
 belonging to the external world as if on parade ; all these gifts 
 Macaulay has, and Thucydides has not. But weight, breadth, pro- 
 portion, deep discernment, habitual contemplation of the springs 
 of character and conduct, and the power to hold the scales of 
 human action with firm and even hand, these must be sought in 
 Thucydides, and are rarely observable in Macaulay.' Yet with all 
 his defects and they are nearly as pronounced and conspicuous 
 as his excellences Macaulay remains one of the most considerable 
 figures in English literature in the nineteenth century. 
 
 The merits of Mr. Tennyson, as a poet, excite less controversy. 
 As the essayist remarks, * from his very first appearance he has 
 had the form and fashion of a true poet ; the delicate insight 
 into beauty, the refined perception of harmony, the faculty of 
 suggestion, the eye both in the physical and moral world for 
 motion, light, and colour, the sympathetic and close observation 
 of nature, the dominance of the constructive faculty, and that rare 
 gift, the thorough mastery and loving use of his native tongue. 
 His turn for metaphysical analysis is closely associated with a
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 559 
 
 deep ethical insight ; and many of his verses form sayings of so 
 high a class that we trust they are destined to contribute a per- 
 manent part of the household words of England.' It is twenty 
 years since these words were written, and each of those years has 
 witnessed something towards their fulfilment. Like Wordsworth, 
 Mr. Tennyson has won his way with the public against the vati- 
 cinations of the reviewers, and this way has been a laborious one. 
 Few poets have aimed at perfection so persistently, so devotedly, 
 as Mr. Tennyson. Unquestionably fine as bis genius is, it is not 
 inspiration alone, but a spirit of unrelaxing effort which has 
 assisted in raising him to the high position he occupies amongst 
 EDglish singers. 
 
 Most valuable, perhaps, of all these gleanings of a personal 
 character is the address on Wedgwood, originally spoken at 
 Burslem, Staffordshire, on the occasion of laying the foundation- 
 stone of the Wedgwood Institute. We not only meet here with 
 many true and beautiful things about art, but with much sound 
 advice calculated to be of profit to all classes of British workmen. 
 Considering the products of industry with reference to their 
 utility, their cheapness, their influence upon the condition of 
 those who produce them, and their beauty, Mr. Gladstone con- 
 ceives it to be in the last-named department that we are to look for 
 the peculiar pre-eminence, he does not scruple to say the peculiar 
 greatness, of Wedgwood. The association of beauty with con- 
 venience is not a matter light and fanciful ; beauty is not an 
 accident of things, it pertains to their essence ; it pervades the 
 wide range of creation ; and wherever it is impaired or banished 
 we perceive proofs of the moral disorder which disturbs the world. 
 God hath made everything ' beautiful in his time.' ' Among all 
 the devices of creation, there is not one more wonderful, whether 
 it be the movement of the heavenly bodies, or the succession of 
 the seasons and the years, or the adaptation of the world and its 
 phenomena to the conditions of human life, or the structure of 
 the eye, or hand, or any other part of the frame of man not 
 one of all these is more wonderful than the profuseness with 
 which the Mighty Maker has been pleased to shed over the works 
 of his hands an endless and boundless beauty.' England has 
 long taken a lead among the nations of Europe for the cheapness 
 of her manufactures ; and Mr. Gladstone believes that if the day 
 is ever to come when she shall be as eminent in true taste and 
 beauty as she is now in economy of production, that result will 
 probably be due to no other single man in so great a degree as to 
 Wedgwood. In the words of his epitaph, he * converted a rude 
 and inconsiderable manufacture into an elegant art and an 
 important branch of national commerce.' Unaided by the national
 
 560 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 or the royal gifts which were found necessary to uphold the 
 glories of S vres, of Chelsea, and of Dresden, he produced works 
 truer, perhaps, to the inexorable laws of art, than the fine fabrics 
 that proceeded from those establishments. The lessons to be 
 deduced from a career of toil, and one devoted to the highest 
 ends, like Wedgwood's, are admirably pointed out and enforced. 
 Mr. Gladstone's address especially deserves praise for its insist- 
 ence upon the great truth that the mean and the lowly are not 
 divorced from the beautiful. ' Down to the humblest condition 
 of life, down to the lowest and most backward grade of civilisa- 
 tion, the nature of man craves, and seems even as it were to cry 
 aloud, for something, some sign or token at the least, of what is 
 beautiful, in some of the many spheres of mind or sense.' 
 
 In an address delivered at Chester,* Mr. Gladstone once more 
 spoke concerning art in its relations to English manufactures. He 
 denied that the promotion of excellence for its own sake was a 
 visionary idea ; for every excellence that was real, whether it related 
 in the first instance to utility or beauty, had got its price, its 
 value in the market. It was an element of strength. In France, 
 the standard of taste, taken as a whole, was very much higher than 
 in England. This was a great national want a want that had 
 been felt at all times, and a national want that was now specially 
 felt because of the depression of British commerce, and the 
 increased difficulties in finding a way into the markets of many 
 foreign countries. Yet it was a very significant thing that this 
 want should exist, because it was admitted that England is a 
 country which, in the production of beauty in its highest form, 
 showed no deficiency at all. The very highest form in which the 
 beautiful could be produced was that of poetry, and the English 
 poetry of the nineteenth century has been at the head of the poetry 
 of the worla. With the English people there was some deficiency 
 in that quality or habit which connects the sense of beauty with 
 the production of works of utility. ' With the English those two 
 things are quite distinct ; but in the oldest times of human indus- 
 try that is to say, amongst the Greeks there was no separation 
 whatever, no gap at all, between the idea of beauty and the idea 
 of utility. Whatever the ancient Greek produced he made as 
 useful as he could ; and at the same time a cardinal law with him 
 was to make it as beautiful as he could.' In the industrial pro- 
 ductions of America there was very little idea of beauty ; aii 
 American's axe, for example, was not intended to cut away a tree 
 neatly, but quickly. The object was to clear the ground, and that 
 is the history of American industry up to the present time. In 
 England, schools of art were producing an excellent effect upon 
 * Opening of an Art Loan Exhibition, August 11, 1879.
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 5o'i 
 
 almost every branch of industry. ' We want a workman to under- 
 stand that if he can learn to appreciate beauty in industrial pro- 
 ductions, he is thereby doing good to himself, first of all in the 
 improvement of his mind, and in the pleasure he derives from his 
 work, and likewise that literally he is increasing his own capital, 
 which is his labour.' He looked to the union of beauty and utility 
 in industrial production as the true way to ensure success in our 
 national enterprise and commerce. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's third series of essays, which are of an historical 
 and speculative character, opens with ' The Theses of Erastus and 
 the Scottish Church Establishment, 1844.' The writer strongly 
 condemns Erastianism, and though his subject is one which does 
 not profoundly concern the great body of the people, it has a 
 special interest for those who have followed the deep ecclesiastical 
 upheaval in Scotland. The articles on Ecce Homo take a wider 
 range, and are written with considerable eloquence and power. 
 That remarkable work is closely examined, with the object of 
 showing that the method and order of religious teaching may 
 vary, as between the period of first introduction, on the one hand, 
 and of established possession and hereditary transmission on the 
 other ; that there were seasons in the state of the world, at the 
 period of the Advent, for a careful and delicate regulation of the 
 approaches for the new religion to the mind of man : and that 
 in the matter and succession of the Gospels we may find a suc- 
 cinct testimony to this system of providential adjustment. He 
 next discusses what was the order or economy observed by the 
 Saviour in making known to the world the religion he had come 
 on earth to found. On the great question whether the world has 
 gained on the whole in Christian ages as compared with those of 
 heathenism, Mr. Gladstone cites social changes of a vast and wide 
 range, which decisively settle the problem in favour of Christi- 
 anity. He concludes his survey by expressing a hope ' that the 
 present tendency to treat the old belief of man with a precipitate, 
 shallow, and un examining disparagement, is simply a distemper 
 that infects for a time the moral atmosphere ; that is due, like 
 plagues and fevers, to our own previous folly and neglect ; and 
 that, when it has served its work of admonition and reform, will 
 be allowed to pass away. Towards this result the author of Ecce 
 Homo, if I read him right, will have the consolation and the 
 praise of having furnished an earnest, powerful, and original con- 
 tribution.' Seldom has the work to be effected in man by the 
 Christian religion been so felicitously expressed as in the following 
 passage : 
 
 ' No more in the inner than the outer sphere did Christ come among us as a con- 
 queror, making His appeal to force. We were neither to be consumed by the heat 
 
 O O
 
 562 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 of the Divine presence, nor were we to be dazzled by its brightness ; God was not in 
 the storm, nor in the fire, nor in the flood, but He was in the still small voice. This 
 vast treasure was not only to be conveyed to us, and to be set down as it were at 
 our doors; it was to enter into us, to become part of us, and to become that part 
 which should rule the rest ; it was to assimilate alike the mind and heart of every 
 class and description of men. While, as a moral system, it aimed at an entire 
 dominion in the heart, this dominion was to be founded upon an essential .con- 
 formity to the whole of our original and true essence. It, therefore, recognised 
 the freedom of man, and respected his understanding, even while it absolutely re- 
 quired him both to learn and to unlearn so largely ; the whole of the new lessons were 
 founded upon principles that were based in the deepest and best regions of his 
 nature, and that had the sanction of his highest faculties in their moments of calm, 
 and in circumstances of impartiality. The work was one of restoration, of return, 
 and of enlargement, not of innovation. A space was to be bridged over, and it was 
 vast : but a space where all the piers, and every foundation-stone of the connecting 
 structure, were to be laid in the reason and common sense, in the history and 
 experience of man. This movement was to be a revolutionary movement, but only 
 in the sense of a return from anarchy to order.' 
 
 The remaining essays of an historical and ecclesiastical type 
 are ' The Courses of Keligious Thought,' ' The Sixteenth Century 
 and the Nineteenth,' and ' The Influence of Authority in Matters 
 of Opinion ' the main argument of the last-named paper being 
 suggested by Sir G. C. Lewis's well-known essay upon the same 
 subject. 
 
 In the Foreign essays are to be found the letters to Lord 
 Aberdeen on the Neapolitan prisons, which have been already 
 referred to at length in another part of this work. In an article 
 upon ' Germany, France, and England,' contributed to the Edin- 
 burgh Review, in 1870, Mr. Gladstone pleads for the time when 
 nations shall do to each other as they would wish to be done by. 
 ' The greatest triumph of our time, a triumph in a region loftier 
 than that of electricity and steam, will be the enthronement of the 
 idea of Public Right, as the governing idea of European policy ; 
 as the common and precious inheritance of all lands, but superior 
 to the passing opinion of any. The foremost among the nations 
 will be that one which by its conduct shall gradually engender 
 in the mind of the others a fixed belief that it is just. In the 
 competition for this prize, the bounty of Providence has given 
 us a place of vantage ; and nothing save our own fault or folly can 
 wrest it from our grasp.' Dealing with ' The Hellenic Factor in 
 the Eastern Problem,' Mr. Gladstone traces the course of British 
 policy with respect to Greece, and redeems the memory of Lord 
 Palmerston from the wrong done it by those who believe or argue 
 that, if now alive, he would have been found to plead the obliga- 
 tion of maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman Power as 
 paramount to the duty of granting to her afflicted subjects simple, 
 broad, and effective guarantees for their personal and civil 
 liberties. In no spirit of unfriendliness to the Porte, Earl Russell 
 and Lord Palmerston wished for the assignment of Thessaly 
 and Epiras to Greece, subject to the conditions of suzerain
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 563 
 
 and tribute. Mr. Gladstone shows that there is an opportunity 
 for England to acquire the lasting gratitude of Greece. ' Of that 
 people who still fondle in their memories the names of Canning 
 and Byron, there are in the Levant, we may safely say, four 
 millions, on whose affections we may take a standing hold, by 
 giving a little friendly care at this juncture to the case of the 
 Hellenic provinces. They want not Eussian institutions, but 
 such a freedom as we enjoy. They want for their cause an 
 advocate who is not likely to turn into an adversary, one whose 
 temptations lie in other quarters ; who cannot (as they fondly 
 trust) ask anything from them ; or, in any possible contingency, 
 through durable opposition of sympathies or interests, inflict 
 anything upon them.' Such a thorough and steadfast friend 
 England has not yet proved herself. Mr. Gladstone relates, in 
 another article, the long struggle of the noble and heroic people 
 of Montenegro against their hereditary oppressors; and he has 
 further something to say anent ' Aggression in Egypt, and Free- 
 dom in the East.' * He does not hide the difficulties besetting 
 British encroachments in the East. Enlargements of the empire- 
 are for us an evil fraught with serious if not with immediate 
 danger. We have left many old tasks undone ; ' our currency, 
 our local government, our liquor laws, portions even of our taxa- 
 tion, remain in a state either positively discreditable or at the 
 least inviting and demanding great improvements ; but, for want 
 of time and strength, we cannot handle them. For the romance 
 of political travel we are ready to scour the world, and yet of 
 capital defect in duties lying at our door we are not ashamed.' 
 By way of reply to the fears and arguments of those who advocate 
 the strengthening of our position in the East, Mr. Gladstone 
 does not believe that Eussian power on the Bosphorus is a 
 practical possibility. But if the worst came to the worst, and 
 Eussia accomplished the designs attributed to her, and stopped 
 also the Suez Canal, she would have done nothing more than 
 introduce an average delay of about three weeks into our military 
 communications with Bombay, and less with Calcutta. In time 
 of war, this would not make the difference to us between life and 
 death in the maintenance of our Indian Empire. 
 
 * Egypt may yet prove a source of serious difficulty to England. It was stated 
 in a communication to the Times from Alexandria, dated August 24, 1879, 
 that when Ismail Pasha was still Viceroy of Egypt, and was being pressed to sign 
 his abdication, he used these words : ' You English have made a mistake ; what- 
 ever I have been or done, I made English interests in Egypt paramount. You 
 have the railways, the customs, the post-office, the telegraphs, and the ports 
 entirely under English Administration. To gain more you have called in the 
 French. You then hesitated, and Bismarck, who looks far ahead, pushed you on till 
 you have come to direct intervention. Mark my words, Bismarck sees what I see. 
 that Egypt will become the Schleswig-Holstein of England and France.' 
 
 002
 
 5(M WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's position on Ritualism, and his answer to the 
 question whether the Church of England is worth preserving, 
 have already been denned in a previous chapter. He has reprinted 
 the essays in which he expounded his views on these questions in 
 two volumes, which also contain papers entitled ' Remarks on the 
 Royal Supremacy,' ' Present Aspect of the Church, 1843,' ' Ward's 
 Ideal of a Christian Church,' ' On the Functions of Laymen 
 in the Church,' ' The Bill for Divorce,' and ' Italy and her Church.' 
 These essays are undoubtedly valuable as affording materials to 
 add to the general stock ' from which the religious history of a 
 critical period will have finally to be written.' They do not, how- 
 ever, possess the same general interest as the volume of miscel- 
 laneous essays which succeeds them. This volume includes the 
 admirable Inaugural Address delivered to the students of Edin- 
 burgh University in 1860; the address on the Place of Ancient 
 Greece in the Providential Order ; a Chapter of Autobiography ; 
 Probability as a Guide of Conduct, and the very entertaining 
 narrative of the parentage, progress, and issue of the Evangelical 
 movement in England.* Mr. Gladstone's strength does not lie in 
 discovering and exposing the deep roots of those great principles 
 which have governed the growth of nations in the various ages of 
 the world ; he rather, by graphic and picturesque antithesis, illus- 
 trates tne outer effects and manifestations of those principles in 
 national life. Take, for example, this comparison between Greece 
 and Palestine, extracted from the essay on the Place of Ancient 
 Greece : 
 
 ' For the exercises of strength and skill, for the achievements and for the 
 enchantments of wit, of eloquence, of art, of genius, for the imperial games of 
 politics and war let us seek them on the shores of Greece. But if the first among 
 the problems of life be how to establish the peace and restore the balance of our 
 inward being ; if the highest of all conditions in the existence of the creature be 
 his aspect towards the God to whom he owes his being, and in whose great hand 
 he stands ; then let us make our search elsewhere. All the wonders of the Greek 
 civilisation heaped together are less wonderful than is the single Book of Psalms. 
 Palestine was weak and despised, always obscure, oftentimes and long trodden 
 down beneath the feet of imperious masters. On the other hand, Greece for a 
 thousand years, 
 
 " Confident from foreign purposes," 
 
 repelled every invader from her shores. Fostering her strength in the keen air of 
 freedom, she defied, and at length overthrew, the mightiest of existing empires ; and 
 when finally she felt the resistless grasp of the masters of all the world, them, too, 
 at the very moment of their subjugation, she herself subdued to her literature, 
 language, arts, and manners. Palestine, in a word, had no share of the glories of our 
 race ; while they blaze on every page of the history of Greece with an overpower- 
 ing splendour. Greece had valour, policy, reason, genius, wisdom, wit ; she had 
 all, in a word, that this world could give her ; but the flowers of Paradise, which 
 blossom at the best but thinly, blossomed in Palestine alone.' 
 
 One article by Mr. Gladstone which does not appear in the 
 
 * This article on the Evangelical movement in England originally appeared in the 
 British Quarterly Revieiv.
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 565 
 
 collected edition of his essays, on account of its political and 
 controversial character still claims attention. It does so on the 
 ground of its exposition of the writer's views as to the dangers 
 attendant upon an Imperial policy. This article is entitled 
 ' England's Mission.'* The writer is alarmed by recent develop- 
 ments of English statesmanship. He maintains that * not peace, 
 not humanity, not reverence for the traditions established by the 
 thought and care of the mighty dead, not anxiety to secure the 
 equal rights of nations, not the golden rule to do to others as we 
 would fain have them do to us, not far-seeing provision for the 
 future, have been the sources from which the present Ministers 
 have drawn their strength.' On the contrary, 'they are the men, 
 and the political heirs of the men, who passed the Six Acts and 
 the Corn Laws ; who impoverished the population, who fettered 
 enterprise by legislative restraint, who withheld those franchises 
 that have given voice and vent to the public wishes, whose policy, 
 in a word, kept the Throne insecure and the empire weak ; and 
 would, unless happily arrested in 1832, and again in 1846, have 
 plunged the country into revolution.' They have abandoned 
 all idea, such as inspired Sir Robert Peel, that G-overnment should 
 live by great measures of legislation framed for the national 
 benefit, and have substituted a careful regard to interest and class, 
 from bishops down to beer-houses. This inglorious existence 
 being unable to bear the concentrated force of criticism, however, 
 they sought out a vigorous foreign policy. The first care of the 
 Liberal party has been held to be the care of her own children 
 within her own shores, the redress of wrongs, the supply of needs, 
 the improvements of laws and institutions; but against this 
 doctrine, ' the present Government appears to set up territorial 
 aggrandisement, large establishments, and the accumulation of a 
 multitude of fictitious interests abroad, as if our real interests 
 were not enough. Mr. Gladstone deprecates the multiplication 
 of British possessions beyond the sea, and especially condemns such 
 acquisitions as that of Cyprus, which can never become truly 
 British in character. As every possible road to India threatens 
 to become a British interest, he observes that there is no saying 
 what preposterous guarantees may be proposed for Khiva, or 
 Bokhara, or Badakshan. Nay, as China is a possible road to India, 
 why should it not also have a guarantee ? All the old doctrines 
 <if statesmanship which should have been jealously guarded by 
 Ministers have been left to the advocacy of unofficial persons. 
 The writer maintains that the Government have, on the whole, 
 opened up and relied on an illegitimate source of power ; and 
 that one of the damning signs of the politics of the schocl is theii 
 * See the Nineteenth Century for Sep? ember, 1878.
 
 566 WILT JAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 total blindness to the fact that the central strength of England 
 lies in England. He further complains that * we have undertaken 
 in the matter of Governments far more than ever in the history 
 of the world has been previously attempted by the children of men. 
 None of the great continuous empires of ancient or modern times 
 ever grappled with such a task.' Meanwhile, during the preva- 
 lence of this lust of empire, what has become of domestic legisla- 
 tion ? Mr. Gladstone supplies the following list of questions 
 not (so far) grappled with, and * the neglect of which amounts, 
 in not a few instances, to positive scandal : ' London Municipal 
 Keform ; County Government ; County Franchise ; Liquor Laws ; 
 Irish Borough Franchise ; Irish University Question ; Opium 
 Kevenue ; Criminal Law Procedure ; Eesponsibility of Masters for 
 Injuries to Workmen ; Eeduction of Public Expenditure ; Pro- 
 bate Duty ; Indian Finance ; Working of the Home Government 
 of India ; City Companies ; Burial Laws ; Valuation of Property ; 
 Law of the Medical Profession ; Law of Entail and Settlement ; 
 Corrupt Practices at Elections ; Expenses of Election ; Reorganisa- 
 tion of the Revenue Departments ; and the Currency. In a later 
 article, entitled ' The Country and the Government,' Mr. Glad- 
 stone added to these subjects waiting to be dealt with, the Laws 
 of Bankruptcy, of Banking, of Distress, of Charities, and Mort- 
 main, Loans for Local Purposes, Game, Distribution as well as 
 Redistribution of Seats, Savings Bank Finance, and the Bright 
 Clauses of the Irish Land Act. Instead of dealing with these 
 matters, the Government of Lord Beaconsfield had raised up as 
 from a virgin soil a whole forest of new questions, in themselves 
 enough to occupy a Parliament and a State which had nothing 
 else to do. Of these new and thorny subjects, he gave the 
 following enumeration, which, while probably incomplete, might 
 suffice for present purposes : 1. Eastern Roumelia ; 2. The Greek 
 Frontier ; 3. Crete and the other European Provinces of Turkey ; 
 4. The Armenians ; 5. Turkey in Asia ; 6. Cyprus ; 7. Suez Canal 
 Shares and Management ; 8. Egyptian Debt ; 9. Egyptian Suc- 
 cession; 10. North-west Frontier of India; 11. Supervision of 
 Afghanistan; 12. East Indian Finance ; 13. Arms Act, Press Act, 
 and Taxing Legislation of India ; 14. Cape Annexation of the 
 Transvaal : the act of the present Administration ; and 15. Cape 
 Zulu War : the result of the mission of Sir Bartle Frere. Of 
 these, the first three come under the Treaty of Berlin ; the fourth, 
 fifth, and sixth under the Anglo-Turkish Convention ; the seventh, 
 eighth, and ninth are assumed to result from the purchase of shares 
 in the Suez Canal ; while the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thir- 
 teenth result from the mission of Lord Lytton. After reviewing 
 the home and foreign policy of the Government, the right hon.
 
 ME. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WETTINGS. 567 
 
 gentleman compared its claims with those of its predecessor, and 
 said that though there had been times when men of ardent minds 
 had complained that they could scarcely distinguish between one 
 party and another, assuredly no such complaint could now be made, 
 and the nation must choose between them in the light afforded 
 by the experience of the last six years. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has supplemented this indictment by other 
 charges in a speech at Chester.* He maintained, as he had 
 assured the electors of Midlothian, that at no period of his public 
 life had the issues inviting the judgment of the nation been of 
 such profound importance including the management of finance, 
 the scale of expenditure, and the constantly growing arrears of 
 legislation as now. ' I hold,' he continued, ' that the faith and 
 honour of the country have been gravely compromised by the 
 tbreign policy of the Ministry ; that by the disturbance of con- 
 i idence, and lately even of peace, which they have brought about, 
 ; hey have prolonged and aggravated public distress ; that they 
 have augmented the power and interest of the Kussian Empire, 
 even while estranging the feelings of its population ; that they 
 have embarked the Crown and people in an unjust war ; that 
 their Afghan war is full of mischief, if not of positive danger, to 
 India ; and that by their use of the treaty-making and war- 
 making powers of the Crown they have abridged the just rights 
 of Parliament, and have presented its prerogatives to the nation 
 under an unconstitutional aspect, which tends to make it inse- 
 cure.' Mr. Gladstone added that these were the characters he 
 had inscribed on his colours, and he had nailed them to the mast. 
 He again reiterated his charge that the Ministry had played the 
 frame of Kussia, and had enabled her to take the part which be- 
 longed to our forefathers and which ought to have belonged to us 
 that of promoting the interests of liberty and justice. Further, 
 although it was perfectly well known that we had invaded the 
 country of the Zulus, Lord Salisbury, the Foreign Secretary who 
 ought to be among the best informed men had lately announced 
 that we had engaged in a war in South Africa which was brought 
 upon us in order to repel an attack made by savages upon our colo- 
 nial dominions. It was coolly asserted by a responsible Minister of 
 the Crown that the people of the country which we invaded invaded 
 us. The Zulus, denounced as savages by Lord Salisbury, showed 
 us an evidence of the right feeling which was rather to have been 
 expected from a Christian people, and refused to cross the little 
 thread of a stream that separated their land from ours, being 
 simply contented to await within their own territories a renewal 
 of our wanton, unprovoked, mischievous, and deplorable attacks. 
 * Delivered August 19, 1879.
 
 568 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Describing our latest acquisition, Mr. Gladstone said, * You know 
 what Cyprus is. It is a small island, but it is a great imposture.' 
 In that great and wonderful arsenal which was to contain an army 
 that would frighten Russia out of its wits, there were now three 
 hundred English soldiers, and so inadequate were they even to the 
 duty of keeping the people in order that, notwithstanding the 
 promise given that Cyprus should not cost a shilling for civil 
 government, one of the last acts of the Administration had been 
 to carry a vote through Parliament for the support of the civil 
 police of the island. With regard to financial matters, Mr. Glad- 
 stone said that at the beginning of the year the deficiency stood 
 at six millions sterling, and there would be a deficiency of three 
 and a half millions more at the end of the financial year. It 
 would be a great stroke for the Government if they could postpone 
 the presentation of the bill for expenses until after the dissolution. 
 From the Liberal party had proceeded all the measures which had 
 made the country so great and so strong, that had led to the pros- 
 perity which lasted in an unbroken term for such a number of 
 years until this crisis had arrived a crisis so unhappily prolonged 
 and aggravated as the present crisis had been unhappily prolonged 
 and aggravated by the financial extravagance of the Government, 
 and by that want of confidence which they had introduced into 
 their relations with the different countries of the globe. When 
 the dissolution came, if they did their duty, there was no fear for 
 the Liberals. 
 
 Thirf address by the ex-Premier, delivered in his seventieth 
 year, exhibited all the energy and vigour usually associated with 
 a political chief of fifty. It demonstrated that, though he had 
 retired from the leadership of his party, he answered the call to 
 the political battle as the war-horse scents the conflict from afar. 
 
 A final word remains to be said upon the Anglo-Turkish 
 Convention and the Ministerial policy generally. The acquisi- 
 tion of Cyprus was Lord Beaconsfi eld's set-off against the 
 territorial cessions to Russia under the Treaty of Berlin. It 
 was deemed necessary for England to do something at this 
 juncture, and, to obtain Cyprus, the Premier even pledged 
 England to that immense responsibility (whose results no man 
 can possibly foresee), the Protectorate over the Turkish domi- 
 nions in Asia. Lord Beaconsfield had fixed his attention upon 
 Cyprus some time before its cession to Great Britain, for Lord 
 Derby, in explaining the reasons for his secession from the 
 Cabinet, said, * When I quitted the Cabinet I did so mainly 
 because it was said that it was necessary to secure a naval station 
 in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean ; and that, for that 
 purpose, it was necessary to seize and occupy the island of
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 569 
 
 Cyprus, together with a point upon the Syrian coast. That was 
 to be done by means of a Syrian expedition sent out from India, 
 with or without the consent of the Sultan.' The Premier has 
 not only pursued a policy now widely recognised under the term 
 ' Imperial,' but he has pursued this policy in secret, and has 
 shown so great a contempt for Parliamentary and constitutional 
 usage as to take little thought for the nation, or its represen- 
 tatives in the House of Commons. For some time back, 
 however, the sinister effects of this policy have been in 
 process of demonstration, and the country is beginning to 
 ask whether the vast concerns of this great empire should 
 continue practically to remain at the will and disposal of one 
 man. We have as all must have a genuine admiration 
 for Lord Beaconsfield's talents and genius; but we have 
 arrived at so grave a crisis in our national history that it becomes 
 the duty of every man to speak out, and with no uncertain voice. 
 What would Pym, Hampden, and their compatriots have said to 
 the system of government which now prevails in England. Yet 
 the Premier is not wholly, though chiefly, responsible for this. 
 The country should remember that he would have been powerless 
 but for the support of a majority of the House of Commons ; and 
 in order to destroy personal government, the nation must change 
 its representatives. The results of recent policy have been thus 
 described by Mr. Gladstone : ' There is not a nation upon earth 
 with which we have drawn the bonds of friendship closer by the 
 transactions of these last years, but we have played perilous tricks 
 with the loyalty of India, have estranged the ninety millions who 
 inhabit Kussia, and have severed ourselves from the Christians of 
 Turkey, Greek and Slav alike, without gaining the respect of the 
 Moslem. And all this we have done, not to increase our power, 
 ! >ut only our engagements.' A statesman who neglects every home 
 interest to boast of our power before other nations ; who enters 
 upon engagements lightly, and without thinking of the enormous 
 responsibilities they must devolve upon us in the future ; who 
 enacts the swashbuckler in foreign politics, and endeavours to 
 flatter us by a sense of our own grandeur such a statesman, 
 whatever may be his claims in other respects, is to be dreaded as 
 the most dangerous foe that England could possess. 
 
 We have now reached the close of our survey of Mr. Gladstone's 
 literary and political career. In both aspects the average reader 
 seems to toil after him in vain, so great is his fertility in resource, 
 so extraordinary his power of seizing upon and comprehending the 
 facts and bearings of our foreign and domestic policy, so copious 
 and inexhaustible the eloquence with which he illustrates and 
 enforces his views whether those views relate to the immortal
 
 570 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 works of Homer, the scandals of the Neapolitan prisons, the 
 questions raised by Ecce Homo, the details of the last budget, 
 the principles which should pervade industrial art, the dogmas 
 of the Romish Church, the duty of man in relation to education 
 and religion, or the policy of the Beaconsfield Administration. 
 The strength and vehemence of his denunciations of the Govern- 
 ment as we have already had occasion to remark have been 
 sometimes severely commented upon ; but, without defending 
 his addresses in every particular, it may be observed that strong 
 language is sometimes called for in English politics, provided 
 it be just. Moreover, in addition to the force which Mr. Glad- 
 stone's addresses have always derived from the natural ardour of 
 his temperament, they owe much of their polemical character to 
 the firm and settled conviction of the ex-Premier that the policy 
 of Lord Beaconsfield's Ministry has been derogatory to the honour 
 and interests of England, at home and abroad.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS CONCLUSION. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone and the Movements of the Time Personal Characteristics His 
 Religious Feeling His Oratory Its Scope, Variety, and Character The 
 ex-Premier's Studious Habits Surprising Intellectual Labours Nature of his 
 Pursuits at Hawarden Miscellaneous Traits Eelations with the Sovereign- 
 Principal Features of his Public Career His Strength as a Statesman Mr. Glad- 
 stone and the Future of the Liberal Party. 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY of the greatest Commoner of his time would be 
 incomplete without some reference to his personal characteristics. 
 We have had English statesmen whose claims to remembrance 
 have been confined to their eminent political services, and who, 
 beyond those limits, have scarcely possessed a personality in the 
 eyes of their countrymen. With Mr. Gladstone the case is wholly 
 different. In almost every movement of the age he has been a 
 participant, whether that movement be social, scientific, philan- 
 thropic, political, or religious ; while at some point or other his 
 sentiments and sympathies have impinged upon those of every 
 class in the State. His life, in fact, has been larger and fuller 
 than that of any of his contemporaries ; and England will fail to 
 realise in how great a degree his name is inextricably interwoven 
 with the history of the past forty years, until his eloquence is 
 silent, and his presence withdrawn from her midst. 
 
 The ex-Premier is not only the most versatile orator, the most 
 brilliant debater, and the foremost member of Parliament of his 
 age, but is pre-eminently a Christian statesman. The golden 
 thread of Christian principle runs through all his utterances. 
 There are many conscientious men who would have us believe 
 that they have sounded the heights and depths of Christianity, 
 and found it a superstition and a fable men by whom religion is 
 accounted at variance with scientific and intellectual progress ; 
 yet its power is the deepest and greatest over the individual which 
 the world has ever seen, and let no man contemn or despise its 
 influence upon the national life. Those who divorce politics from, 
 morality doubtless see in an unswerving religious belief a hin- 
 drance to the development of a statesman in the questionable 
 paths of chicane and diplomacy ; and there is another class who
 
 572 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 while not going so far still look askance upon a too rigid 
 adherence to principle in political matters. But Mr. Gladstone 
 has invariably ' worn his heart upon his sleeve,' and disposed for 
 ever of the idea that tortuousness and subterfuge are necessary to 
 the successful political leader.' In these degenerate days, when 
 we may almost adopt, politically, the language of the Prince of 
 Denmark, and say, * virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,' Mr. 
 Gladstone has demonstrated that simplicity of character, frankness 
 and unreservedness of speech, and moral sensibility are not incom- 
 patible with true political greatness. 
 
 Not content with battling against forms of error, and insisting 
 upon the supreme importance of religious truth, the ex-Premier 
 is amongst those who believe in Christianity as a living, vitalising 
 force in the individual, and he has endeavoured practically to 
 illustrate its influence. Those who are most severed from him in 
 these matters will at least do deference to his convictions. His 
 deep and unaffected piety has won for him the esteem of all the 
 various religious bodies with whom he has been brought into con- 
 tact ; and it is stated that ' even when Prime Minister of England 
 he has been found in the humblest houses, reading to the sick or 
 dying consolatory passages of Scripture in his own soft melodious 
 tones.' His earliest friends, Manning, Bishop Hamilton, William 
 Palmer, Henry Wilberforce, and others, were of a like type with 
 himself; and had Fortune so willed it, it is not impossible that 
 he who became the first of Liberal statesmen might have become 
 equally illustrious as a divine. Into his private life we shall not 
 enter, but we may mention an incident which occurred some years 
 ago as illustrative of this side of his character. The late Bishop 
 of Winchester was under a promise to give an address to the 
 divinity students of King's College, but failing to attend on 
 account of ill-health, Mr. Gladstone, at an hour's notice, took his 
 place. His address on that occasion has been described to us by 
 one who heard it as earnest and impassioned. Though not an 
 actual sermon, it was based upon the phrase in the Epistle to the 
 Romans, ' The Righteousness which is by faith.' The character 
 of that address to adopt the language of another listener, and 
 one whom it touched into a nobler view of the reality of life and 
 its higher aims indicated that the speaker possessed the ele- 
 ments of a great preacher. In enumerating the factors which go 
 to make up Mr. Gladstone's influence over his countrymen, the 
 moral and spiritual element must not be forgotten, superfluous 
 as it may appear to some in the sphere of political life. 
 
 Of his oratory we have already spoken, but something yet 
 remains to be said of its character and variety. Even while but 
 a youthful speaker at the Oxford Union, we are assured that the
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTEKISTICS. 573 
 
 earnestness and intensity of his language and bearing were some- 
 times painful ; ' conviction was stamped on every word he uttered.' 
 Yet he was by no means always confident in his own powers. 
 After the speech which virtually turned out the Derby-Disraeli 
 Ministry of 1852, he was asked by Bunsen why he did not speak 
 oftener, when he replied that he was withheld by mistrust in him- 
 .self, lest he should find too much difficulty in keeping within 
 Christian bounds of moderation in endeavouring to utter faith- 
 fully the truth, and yet avoid all that might be construed into 
 personality. This very earnestness, it will be remembered, at a 
 later period caused Mr. Disraeli to rejoice that there was a good 
 substantial piece of furniture between himself and that political 
 Achilles, his opponent. While on this point, we may brush aside 
 the groundless assertion that the ex-Premier has of late years 
 regarded Lord Beaconsfield with a personal antipathy. Such is 
 not the case : as Mr. Gladstone himself has stated, ' antipathy is 
 not a word he can admit or recognise as describing his attitude 
 at any time.' A fine tribute to Mr. Gladstone's oratory is paid 
 in Bunsen's Memoirs. After describing the young English states- 
 man as the first man in England as regards intellectual power, 
 and one who has heard higher tones than anyone else in this island, 
 Bunsen furnishes this reminiscence of his friend, who, at the time 
 referred to, was but thirty-two years of age: 'At a dinner at 
 the Star and Garter, Richmond, Mr. Gladstone proposed the toast, 
 " Prosperity to the Church of St. James at Jerusalem, and to her 
 first Bishop." Never was heard a more exquisite speech it flowed 
 like a gentle and translucent stream. As in the second portion 
 he addressed Alexander directly, representing the greatness and 
 difficulty of the charge confided to him, the latter at first covered 
 his face from emotion, but then rose and returned thanks with 
 dignity as well as feeling.' Subsequently, it is added, ' we drove 
 back to town in the clearest starlight, Gladstone continuing with 
 unabated animation to pour forth harmonious thoughts in melo- 
 dious tone.' 
 
 Of recent years the ex-Premier's oratory has been almost 
 unlimited in scope and variety. In addition to the speeches and 
 addresses already specified in their order in the course of this 
 work, it may be mentioned as illustrating his gifts of speech 
 that he has at one time lectured with much critical acumen upon 
 Sir Walter Scott ; at another addressed in homely language yet 
 withal blending the useful and the noble in its sentiments the 
 aged paupers in St. Pancras Workhouse , upon a third occasion 
 he has urged the claims of Eastern research and exploration, of 
 which he is a warm advocate ; on a fourth he has discoursed use- 
 fully and profitably upon garden cultivation to the Haw irden
 
 574 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 Horticultural Society ; and on a fifth he has addressed an assembly 
 of Nonconformist divines at the City Temple. Nor have we 
 even yet exhausted the list of his addresses. His voice is of itself 
 a great gift, being rich, full, and sonorous. Speaking generally 
 of his oratory, in certain individual respects he is inferior to Lord 
 Beaconsfield and Mr. Bright, but his eloquence altogether has 
 greater breadth, force, and versatility than that of any of his 
 contemporaries. The memory of other speeches may grow faint, 
 but the effect of many of Mr. Gladstone's Parliamentary orations 
 must remain indelibly stamped upon the minds of those who heard 
 them. While he has a powerful fund of sarcasm, and is not desti- 
 tute of a certain kind of humour, who can equal him in compre- 
 hensiveness, in mastery of detail, in moral fervour, and intensity 
 of feeling ? He has captivated alike the learned and the illiterate, 
 causing both to thrill beneath the spell of his impassioned and 
 irresistible periods. While the mellifluous flow of his language 
 has charmed the intellect, the elevation of his sentiments has 
 touched the spirit of his auditors, and quickened into vitality the 
 higher emotions of humanity. 
 
 The extent of Mr. Gladstone's daily intellectual labours has 
 been matter of very general surprise. That which he has accom- 
 plished was, indeed, only possible under strict rule and method. 
 From his earliest years of study each day has seen fulfilled its 
 due share of work. At Oxford he was an exception to under- 
 graduate life, and 4 did not break off his morning studies at the 
 regulation luncheon hour of one o'clock. It mattered not where 
 he was, in college rooms or in country mansion ; from 10 a.m. 
 to 2 p.m. no one ever saw William Ewart Gladstone. He was 
 locked up with his books. From the age of eighteen to the age 
 of twenty-one he never missed these precious four hours except 
 when he was travelling. And his ordeal in the evening was not 
 less severe. Eight o'clock saw him once more engaged in a stiff 
 bout with Aristotle, or plunged deep in the text of Thucydides.' 
 The habit of assimilating knowledge has been constant with him, 
 in all places and at all seasons, from the first day of his college 
 life until now. He has always been an early man, and quoting 
 now from an interesting article which appeared shortly after Mr. 
 Gladstone's resignation of the Liberal leadership 'since his 
 retirement in Flintshire, he is, if possible, earlier than before. 
 Shortly after eight o'clock in the morning he walks down to 
 prayers in the village church. Early devotion and breakfast 
 over, the remainder of the morning, till the gong sounds at two 
 o'clock, is devoted to work to reading, writing, meditation, or 
 to the performance of arithmetical feats which no Cabinet Minister 
 has ever surpassed.' Luncheon over, there is more reading ; or,
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 57i 
 
 * if there be visitors in the house, pleasant gossip ; or, if the weather 
 be tempting, long walks to be taken, or tough oaks to be hewn 
 Loving air and exercise, Mr. Gladstone is a singularly temperate 
 man in meat and drink. Still, he is only abstemious, not ascetic. 
 A glass or two of claret at dinner, and sometimes a glass of port, 
 that nectar of orators, satisfy his very moderate requirements for 
 stimulant.' His recreation in retirement is such as befits a 
 strong and muscular frame. Mr. Grladstone wields the axe with 
 the skill of an experienced workman. i Sawing wood has long 
 been known as an excellent exercise, but it is dull work compared 
 with the pleasure of striking at a huge tree, putting out of 
 question the possibility of mentally coupling with each well-aimed 
 blow the destruction of a political opponent. In wood-cutting 
 deshabille, so little does the lord of the soil look like himself that 
 he has often been accosted by " practical " hands, and received, 
 meekly as is his wont, a lesson from them, the practical man 
 remaining all the while ignorant of the manner of man he was 
 addressing. In his moments of mental and physical relaxation, 
 the Napoleon of oratory ( whose heavy artillery is always brought 
 up at the right moment) and the champion of amateur woodmen 
 vanish into the genial host, whose high spirits break out at every 
 moment, and who is never more rejoiced than when he can play 
 a comedy part on his own or his son's lawn.' Further, it has been 
 observed that the frank and free manner of Mr. Gladstone, his 
 liberality in throwing open Hawarden Park to the public, and 
 the deep interest he takes in all local improvements, l have made 
 him one of the best beloved of English celebrities. On Sunday 
 morning, as the bells of Hawarden Church ring out through the 
 heavy autumn air, vigorous pedestrians may be observed march- 
 ing up the hill, their dusty raiment and shiny countenances 
 proclaiming that their walk to church has been a long one. This 
 determination towards Hawarden as a place of devotion is not 
 owing to a dearth of churches in the neighbourhood. There are 
 churches at Mold and elsewhere, but in none of these are the 
 lessons read in the sonorous tones of the ex-Premier of England.' 
 There are yet other traits to be mentioned. Mr. Gladstone's 
 personal charity is proverbial, but his generosity has not been 
 bounded by pecuniary limits. When oppressed with the cares of 
 State he has turned aside to tender counsel and advice in a 
 thousand ways to those who have desired it, and this when time has 
 been his most precious possession. Nor has he served the State 
 at all selfishly : when Prime Minister Tie resisted a motion for 
 increase of salary in the House of Commons, and when he left 
 office he sought for no pension, although the numerous claims 
 upon him were understood to have compelled the sale of his very
 
 470 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 
 
 remarkable collection of valuable china and articles of virtu. 
 Those who know him best can best speak of his self-denial and 
 complete unselfishness ; but as a proof of his independence of 
 spirit we may mention one incident which is worthy of record in 
 connection with this servant of the people. We have reason to 
 believe that when he retired from office, and made an investiga- 
 tion into the condition of his affairs, Mr. Gladstone discovered 
 that the house in Carlton House Terrace, which he had inhabited 
 for eighteen years, was beyond his means. He therefore parted 
 with it, and obtained a smaller house in Harley Street. This 
 change from a roomy mansion to one comparatively humble 
 entailed almost as a necessary consequence parting with his 
 collections, though, as we have seen, this was also part of the 
 prudential plan. The loss of his collections the gradual accumu- 
 lation of years must to the ex-Premier have been a great one, 
 for his lively appreciation of art has not been confined to public 
 addresses on that subject: books, china, and pictures are treasures 
 which Be has ever regarded with peculiar affection, and which 
 he has always delighted to have around him in lavish profusion. 
 Severely simple in his tastes, courteous to the very humblest in 
 the social scale, ceaseless in his intellectual labours, unswerving 
 in his adherence to principle, and untiring in his efforts for the 
 public welfare such is the character not drawn by the pen of 
 flattery of the Ulysses of the Liberal party. 
 
 Touching Mr. Gladstone's relations with the Sovereign, on 
 every occasion when he has had the honour to serve the Queen, 
 and to be thrown into personal intercourse with her, her Majesty 
 has been full of kindness and condescension both towards himself 
 and the members of his family. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state 
 that the honours and rewards which in England follow long and 
 distinguished political service would have been willingly conferred 
 upon Mr. Gladstone by his gracious Sovereign and Mistress ; he 
 has chosen, however, to remain one of the people, and by the 
 people he continues to be regarded as the most illustrious 
 ornament of the House of Commons. 
 
 We now approach the conclusion of our task. In Mr. Gladstone's 
 career may be traced a natural progression, marked and definite, 
 from the first of his recorded utterances to the last. With a mind 
 plastic as the age itself, it was impossible for him to stand still. 
 Yet every great accession of conviction has cost him public and 
 private throes of which those who charge him with fickleness and 
 inconstancy know but little. The selfish and the unprincipled 
 may claim the merit due to a rigid adherence to principle, but 
 it is the principle of self. The man who labours for others be 
 it in the political or any other sphere must prepare for the
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 577 
 
 changing tides of circumstance must ' know the seasons when to 
 take occasion by the hand.' In finance as in general legislation, Mr. 
 Gladstone's policy has been far-seeing and adapted to the expand- 
 ing needs of the time. Amongst all the great financial and 
 legislative reforms which owe their initiation to him, and which 
 are now accomplished facts, his bitterest enemies cannot lay their 
 finger upon one conspicuous failure ; while he has done more for 
 the internal prosperity of the Empire than any statesman since 
 Sir Kobert Peel. More than this ; he has been the leader of the 
 people in the highest and truest sense. The welfare of the nation 
 both in its material and moral aspect has been his paramount 
 consideration and desire ; and we witness in the self-denying 
 efforts of his life not so much 
 
 ' The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,' 
 
 but 
 
 ' The more noble instinct that aspires.' 
 
 We care not what their party designation be ", but it is such men 
 who raise the science of politics above the level of the huckster 
 and the charlatan, and invest it with grandeur and dignity. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone resigned the Liberal leadership, the Con- 
 servative organs in the press predicted that either the Liberal 
 party would break up, and its more moderate section join the 
 moderate section of the Conservatives, or that it would be once 
 more welded together by considerable questions being mooted on 
 which all sections of the party could agree. Neither of the alter- 
 natives of this prophecy has yet been completely realised ; but the 
 second prediction is in course of fulfilment. It is yet in Mr. 
 Gladstone's power to do more towards accomplishing this end 
 than any other Liberal statesman. But the party and its leaders 
 must speak with certain and united voice, and promulgate a defi- 
 nite policy. We have described the ex-Premier as the Ulysses of 
 the Liberal party. Shall we hear him yet again address those 
 whom he has so often led to victory, in the stirring language which 
 a modern poet has put into the mouth of the King of Ithaca ? 
 
 ' Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me 
 That ever with a frolic welcome took 
 The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 
 Free hearts, free foreheads you and I are old ; 
 Old age hath yet his honour and his toil ; 
 Death closes all : but something ere the end, 
 Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 
 Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 
 Come, my friends, 
 Tis not too late to seek a newer world.' * 
 
 * Tennyson's Ulysses. 
 
 PP
 
 578 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has attacked the foreign policy of the Govern- 
 ment with a copiousness of eloquence almost unparalleled. This 
 he has a perfect right to do ; and he might naturally protest 
 against the newly-invented doctrine that in times of crisis all 
 criticism of the action of the Executive must be suppressed. It 
 is the duty of an Opposition be it Liberal or Conservative to 
 censure and expose the policy of any government, when it believes 
 such policy is fraught with danger to the highest interests of 
 England. Lord Beaconsfield did this and with perfect justice 
 so far as the act is concerned during the Crimean War and at 
 other momentous periods. Mr. Gladstone's indictment is before 
 the country in all its fulness ; let the Liberal leaders, while not 
 neglecting our true interests abroad, now turn to that which is 
 their greatest strength, viz., domestic legislation. When the 
 public expenditure has risen from 71,000,000, or thereabouts, 
 and a surplus in the late Premier's time, to 85,000,000 and a 
 deficit in that of his successors, the Liberals have a most potent 
 argument with the electors. For good or for evil the wars so 
 vigorously condemned havs been waged; the question now is, will 
 the country endorse these wars and the enormous additions they 
 involve to the public burdens, by renewing its confidence in the 
 Government, or will it again turn to that party which is chiefly 
 associated with the peace, the progress, and the prosperity of the 
 Empire ? 
 
 Notwithstanding the step of 1874, and Mr. Gladstone's subse- 
 quent retirement, and notwithstanding the errors charged upon 
 the ex-Premier by his opponents, it is the feeling of thousands of 
 Liberals throughout the country that, whenever the Liberal party 
 becomes once more thoroughly united with a programme before 
 it worthy of its achievements in the past there is but one possible 
 statesman who must be largely responsible for conducting its 
 enterprises to a successful issue. Legislation never stands still ; 
 and when disastrous wars still disastrous even when most suc- 
 cessful have once more ceased to mark the course of British 
 policy, great questions will press forward for settlement. Would 
 it be surprising when this period shall have arrived and a states- 
 man is demanded who shall be able to carry through Parliament, 
 in obedience to the popular will, those great measures of domestic 
 reform which cannot be much longer delayed that there should 
 arise unbidden to the lips of the people the name of Mr. Glad- 
 stone ? It may, of course, be possible that his great legislative 
 achievements have already reached their end, that he may not 
 again take the chief control of affairs, or that the country may 
 continue to support the Conservative Administration ; but if there 
 should be a revival of political powef for the Opposition, accom-
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. -379 
 
 panied by a demand for such legislation as we have indicated, 
 the Liberal party interpreting now, as we have said, the senti- 
 ments of the bulk of that party must inevitably turn for its real, 
 though not, possibly, for its nominal, chief to the statesman who 
 has rendered his past Administration and its acts memorable in 
 the annals of the country. When the bow of Ulysses requires to 
 be bent, only Ulysses can bend it.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen,Lord, Mr. Gladstone's Letters 
 to 120, 124 ; Statement in the House 
 of Lords, 141 ; Adverse to War, 154 ; 
 Policy in 1856, 154 ; Dissensions in 
 the Ministry of, 169-171 ; Collapse of 
 the Ministry of, 179; Resignation, 
 179; Mr. Eoebuck's Censure on the 
 Ministry of, 190. 
 
 Aberdeen, Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 
 416, 417. 
 
 Abyssinian Expedition, 356, 357; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 357, 358. 
 
 Act, Canadian Indemnity, Mr. Glad- 
 stone on, 105. 
 
 Acts passed in the Session of 1872, 437, 
 438. 
 
 Address, Mr. Gladstone's First Election, 
 35 ; on withdrawing from Newark, 
 89, 90; to the Oxford Electors, 92, 
 93 ; of 1874, Debate on, 466. 
 
 Adullamites, Mr. Bright and the, 338. 
 
 Advent, Mr. Gladstone on the Times 
 preceding the, 234. 
 
 -flSneid, Virgil's, quo 30. 
 
 Afghan War, Mr. Gladstone on the, 544, 
 545, 547. 
 
 Afghanistan and Lord Beaconsfield's 
 Government, 540, 541. 
 
 Age, Mr. Gladstone's, and the Move- 
 ments of his, 571. 
 
 Agricultural Depression, 107 ; Interest 
 Alluded to, 8 ; Distress, Mr. Disraeli's 
 Motion on, 134. 
 
 Alabama Claims, 435 ; Indirect Claims, 
 435, 436 ; Amount of the Award, 437; 
 Sir A. Cockburn on, 437. 
 
 Allies, Declaration of War by, 160. 
 
 Althorp, Lord, 47 ; Church Temporali- 
 ties (Ireland) Bill, 46. 
 
 America and England, Relations be- 
 tween in 1856,203,204; Debate on, 
 204,205; Mr. Gladstone on the Con- 
 federate States of, 298, 299 ; Lord 
 Russell on, 298; Mr. Gladstone on 
 the Future of, 557. 
 
 Andrassy Note, The, 513. 
 
 Anglo-Turkish Convention, 566-568. 
 
 Anglo-Turkish Treaty, Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 535, 536. 
 
 Annual Register, quo 79. 
 
 Apis Matina, The Eton, 18. 
 
 Aristocracy, The English, 1. 
 
 Armistice, Turkey agrees to an, 518. 
 
 Arrow, The Case of the, 212. 
 
 Art and English Manufactures, Mr 
 
 Gladstone on, 560. 
 
 Asiatic Turkey, Mr. Gladstone on Eng- 
 land's Responsibilities in, 538. 
 Athenaum on Mr. Gladstone's style, 555, 
 
 556. 
 
 Australian Colonies Bill, 109, 110. 
 Austria and the Eastern Question, 168 ; 
 
 Mr. Disraeli on Alliance with, 173 ; Mr. 
 
 Gladstone on, 252. 
 Austro-Prussian War, Mr. Gladstone on, 
 
 335, 336. 
 Autobiography, A Chapter of, 73; Preface, 
 
 73; Motives for Writing, 73, 74; 
 
 Opinion of Church and State, 74 
 
 Church of Ireland, 74. 
 
 B 
 
 Baines, Mr., Borough Franchise Bill, 314. 
 
 " Bag and Baggage " Policy, 516. 
 
 Balaclava, State of the Hospital at, 175. 
 
 Ball, Dr., on the Irish Church Disesta- 
 blishment Bill, 382. 
 
 Ballot Bill, 412, 413; Debate on, 433 ; 
 Sir W. Harcourt's Amendment, 434 ; 
 Lords' Amendments, Mr. Disraeli on, 
 434 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 434. 
 
 Bank Indemnity B 11, Mr. Gladstone on, 
 314, 315. 
 
 Barttelot, Colonel, Motion on the Malt- 
 tax, 313. 
 
 Batak, Massacre at, 513, 515. 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord, Speech at Aylesbury, 
 517 ; at Guildford, 318, 542 ; Attack 
 on Mr. Gladstone, 530, Note 530 : and 
 Peace with Honour, 533; Imperial 
 Policy, 540 ; and Gladstone's Admini- 
 stration contrasted, 553 ; Effects of 
 the Imperial Policy of, 556, 559. See 
 Disraeli. 
 
 " Bedford Plenipo," the Parody of, 19? 
 
 Beer and Bible Cry, 454 
 
 Belgium and the Triple Treaty, 398. 
 
 Bentinck, Mr., Attack on Mr. Gladstone, 
 283. 
 
 Berlin, Conference of Emperors at, 513 ; 
 Memorandum and England, 513,- 
 Treaty, 533. 
 
 Bermondsey, Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 
 535, 536. 
 
 Bernal Osborne, Description of the 
 Gladstone Cabinet, 405.
 
 582 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Besika Bay, British Fleet ordered to, 
 
 513, 515. 
 
 Bills : Passing of the Great Reform, 32 ; 
 Althorp's Church Temporalities (Ire- 
 land), 46; Hume's University Ad- 
 mission, 47 ; Lord Russell's Irish 
 Church, 49, 50 ; Jamaica, 59; Tariffs, 
 80 ; Machinery, 83 ; Dissenters' Cha- 
 pel, 84 ; Dissenters' Endowment, 84, 
 85; Extension of Academical Educa- 
 tion in Ireland, 87, 88 ; Irish Outrage, 
 92 ; Lord Russell's Jews Bill, 93, 94 ; 
 Repeal of Navigation Laws, 97 ; Par- 
 liamentary Oaths, 99, 100 ; Canadian 
 Indemnity, 105 ; Marriage with a De- 
 ceased Wife's Sister, 107 ; Australian 
 Colonies, 109, 110; Ecclesiastical 
 Titles, 135, 136 ; Militia, 136 ; Excise 
 Duties, 163, 164 ; for the Enlistment 
 of Foreigners, 173 ; Divorce, 211 ; 
 Bank Indemnity, 314 ; Conspiracy to 
 Murder, 215; Church Rates Aboli- 
 tion, 218; India, 218, 220; Reform, 
 of 1859, 245, 247; Roman Catholic 
 Relief Act Amendment, 253; Paper 
 Duty Repeal, 265 ; Reform, of 1860, 
 270, 271 ; Post Office Savings Bank, 
 274; Church Rates Abolition, 274; 
 Inland Revenue, 295, 296 ; Dissenters' 
 Burials, 307; Government Annuities 
 and Life Insurance, 314; Borough 
 Franchise, 314; Habeas Corpus Act 
 (Ireland) Suspension, 334; Abolition 
 of Church Rates, 335; Reform, of 
 1866, 336 ; Redistribution of Seats, 
 346, 347; Franchise, of 1866,346, 348 ; 
 Reform, of 1867, 353; Scotch and 
 Irish Reform, 358 ; Corrupt Practices 
 Prevention, 358 ; Registration of 
 Voters, 358; Compulsory Church 
 Rates Abolition, 359; Irish Church 
 Suspensory, 369; Irish Church Dis- 
 establishment, 375 ; Irish Land, 388 ; 
 Elementary Education, 395; Army 
 Regulation, 406; Ballot, 412, 413; 
 University Tests, 413 ; Parliamentary 
 Female Franchise, 413; Licensing, 
 415; Parks Regulation, 430; Ballot, 
 433,434; Irish University Education, 
 438, 450 ; Judicature, School Board 
 Fees, and Dublin University, 452; 
 Church Patronage of Scotland, 
 467,469; Public Worship Regulation, 
 469,472 ; Endowed School Act Amend- 
 ment, 473, 476 ; Burials, 487, 488. 
 
 Birmingham, Reform Agitation at, 351 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone on the Eastern Question 
 at, 533. 
 
 Black Sea Treaty, Abrogation of, 400, 
 401 ; Mr. Disraeli on, 402 ; Mr. Glad- 
 stone on, 402. 
 
 Blackheath, Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 
 419, 423; Description of the Scene, 
 Note, 419; Second Speech at, 460; 
 
 Speech on the Bulgarian Horrors at, 
 516, 517. 
 
 Blue Book, Definition of a, 96. 
 
 Boroughs, Disfranchisement of, 398, 
 399. 
 
 Bourke, Mr., kaiendment on the Irish 
 Church Disestablishment Bill, 444. 
 
 Bowring, Sir J., and the Chinese Policy, 
 212, 214 
 
 Bowyer, Sir G., on the Affairs of Italy, 
 276, 296; Mr. Gladstone's Reply to 
 276-278, 296-298. 
 
 Bradford, Mr. Forster's Speech at, 485 
 486. 
 
 Bribery Election, 38 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 
 50. 
 
 Brigands, Greek, Massacre of English 
 Travellers by, 395, 396 ; Action of the 
 English Government, 396, 397. 
 
 Bright, Mr., on India, 220 ; Agitates for 
 Extension of Franchise, 244 ; on the 
 Rights of the House of Commons, 
 268 ; and the Adullamites, 338 ; Let- 
 ter on the Reform Bill of 1866, 339 ; 
 Speech on the Reform Bill of 1866, 
 341 ; Eulogy on Mr. Gladstone, 354 ; 
 Attack on Mr. Disraeli, 368 ; President 
 of the Board of Trade, 372 ; on the 
 Irish Church Disestablishment Bill, 
 382, 383 ; on Mr. Gladstone and the 
 Leadership, 485. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, on Canning's Election, 
 6 ; on Negro Apprenticeship, 55 ; 
 Tribute to Sir R. Peel, 118 ; on tin- 
 Repeal of the Paper Duty, Note, 270. 
 
 Brown, C., History cf Newark, quo 34 
 
 Bruce, Mr., Licensing Bill, 415. 
 
 Budget for 1842, 79 ; for 1851, 134. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Disraeli's, for 1852, 138; 
 Mr. Gladstone's exposd of, 139. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's First, 1853, 
 142 ; Income and Expenditure, 1853- 
 4, 143 ; New Taxes and the Income- 
 tax, 143, 146 ; Reduction of Taxation, 
 143, 144 ; Close of the, 147 ; Debate 
 on, 148; Molesworth on, 148, 149; 
 General Satisfaction with, 149. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's War, 1854, 157; 
 Income and Expenditure, 158 ; In- 
 come-tax, 159, 160 ; Home and Foreign 
 Drawn Bills, 159; Exchequer Bills, 
 159; Additional Proposals, 161-163; 
 Sir S. Northcote on the Character of, 
 504. 
 
 Budget, Sir. G . C. Lewis's, for 1856, 202, 
 203 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 203. 
 
 Budget, Sir G. C. Lewis's, for 1857, 207 ; 
 Mr. Disraeli on, 207 ; Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 208, 209. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Disraeli's, for 1858, 222 ; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 223. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1859, 249 ; 
 Revenue and Expenditure, 249 ; Pro- 
 posed Increase of the Income-tax,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 583 
 
 250; Mr. Disraeli's Criticism on, 250 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone's Reply, 251. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1860, 
 255; Scene in the House, 255; 
 Details of Proposals, 255; Relief 
 of Trade and Commerce, 255; Fi- 
 nancial Results of the Year, 256, 
 257; Increase of Revenue, 257, 
 258; The Commercial Treaty with 
 France, 258; and Free Trade, 259, 
 260; Tribute to Mr. Cobden, 260; 
 Scheme of Customs Reform, 261 ; 
 Proposed Abolition of Paper Duty, 
 261 ; Alterations in the Tariff, Con- 
 clusion of the, 262, 263 ; Character cf 
 the, 263 ; Financial Statement of 1860, 
 263 ; Opponents of, 264 ; Mr. Disraeli's 
 Resolution on, 264 ; Character of Mr. 
 Gladstone's Reply, 264, 265 ; Mr. Du 
 Cane's Motion and Defeat, 265 ; At- 
 tack on the Abolition of Paper Duty, 
 265; The Lords and the Repeal of 
 Paper Duty, 267- 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1861, 278 ; 
 Financial Statement, 279, 280; Ef- 
 fects of the French Treaty, 280, 281 ; 
 Estimated Expenditure, 281; Income- 
 tax, 281 ; Proposed Repeal of the 
 Paper Duty, 282 ; Close of the, 282 
 Debate on, 283, 285 ; Passed, 285. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1862, 289; 
 Financial Measures, 290, 292 ; Review 
 of the Financial Results of the Past 
 Three Years, 292, 293 ; Debate on, 294, 
 296. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1863, 300 ; 
 Increase of Expenditure, 300, 301 ; 
 Condition of Lancashire, 301 ; Dis- 
 tress in Ireland, 301; Estimates for 
 the year, 302; Rectifying Anomalies 
 in Taxation, 302 ; Disposal of the 
 Surplus, 302, 303; Review of Four 
 Years' Expenditure, 303; Closing 
 Statement, 303, 304. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1864, 310 ; 
 Expenditure and Revenue, 310 ; Sur- 
 plus and Decrease in the National 
 Debt, 310, 311; Imports and Ex- 
 ports, 311 ; Effects of the Paper Duty 
 Repeal, 311; Estimates for 1864-5, 312; 
 Application of the Surplus, 312 ; Pro- 
 posed Reduction of Income-tax, 312 ; 
 Close of the, 312, 313. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1865, 318 ; 
 Opening Remarks, 318 ; Expenditure 
 and Revenue, 319 ; Reduction of the 
 National Debt, 319 ; Imports and Ex- 
 ports, 319 ; Surplus, 319 ; Malt-tax, 
 320; Reduction of Duty on Tea 
 and the Income-tr.-r 320 ; Amount of 
 Reduction in Taxution, 321 ; General 
 acceptance of the, 321. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Gladstone's, for 1866, 330 ; 
 Expenditure and Revenue, 330 ; Com- 
 
 mercial Treaties, 330 ; Proposed Re- 
 duction in Taxation, 331 ; Scheme for 
 Reducing the National Debt, 331, 332. 
 
 Budget, Mr. Lowe's, for 1870, 415. 
 
 Budget, Sir S.Northcote's, for 1875, 448 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone's Attack on, 488. 489. 
 
 Buckley Institute, Mr. Gladstone's 
 Speech at, 478, 480. 
 
 Bucks, Mr. Disraeli's Address to the 
 Electors of, 458, 460. 
 
 Bulgaria, Massacres in, 513; Mr. Dis- 
 raeli on, 514: Mr. Baring's Account 
 of, 515. 
 
 Bulgarian Horrors, Mr. Gladstone's 
 Pamphlet on, 516 ; Speech a^Black- 
 heath on, 516, 517. 
 
 Bunsen's Memoirs, quo 573. 
 
 Buxton, Fowell, on Negro Apprentice- 
 ship, 50. 
 
 Cabinet, Mr. Leatham on the Beacons- 
 field, 545. 
 
 Camoy, Lord, on the Vatican Decrees, 
 498 
 
 Canada, Rioting in, 1849, 104. 
 
 Canadian Affairs, Mr. Gladstone on, 51 ; 
 Troubles of 1838, Mr. Gladstone on, 
 54, 105; Mr. Roebuck on, 54, 104, 105. 
 
 Canadian Corn Laws, 83. 
 
 Canadian Indemnity Act, Mr. Glad- 
 stone on, 105. 
 
 Canning Contests Liverpool, 6; in 
 Office, 13 ; and the Eton Microcosm, 
 18 ; Mr. Gladstone on the Death of, 
 21, 22. 
 
 Cards, Halfpenny Postage, Mentioned, 
 399. 
 
 Cardwell, Mr., Army Regulation Bill, 
 406; Mr. Gladstone on, 420. 
 
 Career, Mr. Gladstone's Public, 576. 
 
 Carlyle, Mr., Letter on the Eastern Ques- 
 tion, 519, 520. 
 
 Catholics, Roman, and Ritualism, 491. 
 
 Cavour, Count, and the Independence 
 of Italy, 226, 227. 
 
 Chandos, Marquis of, Contests Oxford 
 University, 248, 249. 
 
 Chaplin, Mr., Attack on Mr. Gladstone, 
 521 ; Mr. Gladstone's reply to, 522, 
 523. 
 
 Characteristics, Mr. Gladstone's Per- 
 sonal, 571. 
 
 Chartism, Mr. Carlyle 's, quo 49. 
 
 Chartists, Great Meeting of, 95. 
 
 Charities and the Income-tax, 304; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 304-376.] 
 
 Chester, Mr. Gladstone's Speeches at, 
 560, 567. 
 
 Children, Mr. Gladstone's, 63, 64. 
 
 China, War with, Debate on, 61, 62, 
 
 Chinese Policy, Debate on Lord Palmer- 
 ston's, 211, 212; Mr. Gladstone on,
 
 584 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 312, 314; Lord Palmerston's Reply, 
 214. 
 
 Christ Church, Oxford, 23. 
 
 Church and State, Mr. Gladstone's, 65 ; 
 Inscribed to the Oxford University, 
 66 ; Preface to the 4th Edition, 66 ; 
 Analysis, 67 ; Irish Church, 68 ; Main- 
 tenance of Church Establishment, 69 ; 
 Lord Macaulay on, 69, 71 ; Quarterly 
 Review on, 70 ; Line of Reasoning, 70 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone's Account of, 73. 
 
 Church Doctrines, 72. 
 
 Church of England, Mr. Miall's Motion for 
 the Disestablishment of, 413, 414, 452. 
 
 Church of England, Is it icorth Preserv- 
 ing? Mr. Gladstone's Article, 492, 493. 
 
 Church Patronage (Scotland) Bill, 467 ; 
 Mr. Baxter's Amendment, 467 ; Mr. 
 Gladstone's Opposition to, 467-469; 
 Mr. Disraeli on, 469. 
 
 Church Principles in their Results, 71 ; 
 Analysis of, 72, 73. 
 
 Church Rates Abolition Bill, Mr. Glad- 
 stone on, 218, 335. 
 
 Church Rates, Mr. Gladstone on, 51, 
 100, 274, 275 ; Mr. Bright on, 275. 
 
 Civil Allegiance and the Vatican Decrees, 
 Mr. Gladstone's Pamphlet, 493, 497; 
 Papal Claims to, 495, 496, 498. 
 
 Civil Departments open for Competition, 
 398. 
 
 Civil List, Sir C. Dilke's Motion for Re- 
 turns of, 430, 433 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 
 431 ; Scene in the House, 432, 433. 
 
 Civis Romanus sum, 113 : Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 115, 116. 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, on Lord Russell, 180 ; 
 Mr. Disraeli's Attack on the Policy of, 
 847. 
 
 Class, Characteristics of the English 
 Middle, 1. 
 
 Classes, Lower English, 1. 
 
 Classical Studies, Mr. Gladstone's Plea 
 for, 227. 
 
 Clergy Disabilities Act, 399. 
 
 Clergy, Mr. Gladstone's Tribute to, 470, 
 471. 
 
 Clovis, Baptism of, Note, 352. 
 
 Clubs and Licence Duty, 302, 304. 
 
 Cockburn, Sir A., on the Alabama 
 Award, 437. 
 
 Coeur de Lion, Mr. Gladstone's Poems of, 
 19, 20. 
 
 Cobden, Mr., on Lord Palmerston's 
 Chinese Policy, 212 ; and the French 
 Commercial Treaty, 254, 255; Mr. 
 Gladstone's Tribute to, 260. 
 
 Coleridge, Sir J. T., Circular to the 
 Oxford Electors, 323. 
 
 Collier, Sir R., Appointed Judge, 423, 
 424 ; Debate on, 428, 429. 
 
 Colonial Reform. Debate on, 106 
 
 Colonies, Mr. Gladstone Under Secre- 
 tary for, 49. 
 
 Colonies, Negro Apprenticeship in, 50; 
 Mr. O'Connell on, 50 ; Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 51. 
 
 Commander-in- Chief under the War 
 Minister, 378. 
 
 Commerce, Mr. Gladstone on, 2 ; State of 
 at the Beginning of the Century, 5. 
 
 Committee, Crimean, Mr. Roebuck's 
 Motion for, 174, 179; Opposition to, 
 182 ; Report of, 192. 
 
 Compulsory Church Rates Abolition Bill, 
 Mr. Gladstone on, 359. 
 
 Conservatism, Mr. Gladstone's Separa- 
 tion from, 229, 230 ; Oxford, 22. 
 
 Conservative and Liberal Expenditure. 
 508, 509. 
 
 Conservatives, John Stuart Mill and the, 
 347 ; Educated by Mr. Disraeli, 356. 
 
 Consort, Prince, on the Aim of the 
 Crimean War, 151 ; on Mr. Gladstone's 
 Scheme to Pay War Expenses, 157 ; on 
 the Policy of Prussia, 168, 169 ; on the 
 Management of the Crimean War, 172; 
 to Lord Aberdeen, 187, 188. 
 
 Conspiracy to Murder Bill, 215 ; Milner 
 Gibson's Amendment on, 215; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 216, 217 ; Lord Palmer- 
 ston on, 217 ; Defeat of, 217, 218. 
 
 Constantinople, Conference at, 518 ; 
 Failure of, 520. 
 
 Constitution Question, Discusion on a, 
 268-270 
 
 Controversy, Religious, Partial Effects 
 of, 501 ' 
 
 Convocation, Mr. Gladstone's Valedic- 
 tory Address to the Oxford, 326, 
 327. 
 
 Corn Law Question mentioned, 63. 
 
 Corn Law Duties, Sir R. Peel's Sliding 
 Scale of, 78. 
 
 Corn Laws, Lord Russell's Amendment 
 on, 78 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 78, 79 ; 
 Debate on, 78, 79 ; Villiers's Motion for 
 Repeal of, 79; Question of Repeal, 81, 
 82 ; Abolition of alluded to, 84 ; Times 
 on, 89; Mr. Gladstone on the Repeal 
 of, 89 ; Repeal of, 90, 91. 
 
 Country and the Government, Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Article on, 501. 
 
 Country, Condition of, in 1842, 78 ; Pros- 
 perity of 1864, 309, 310. 
 
 Cranborne, Lord, on Mr. Disraeli's 
 Reform Bill, 80, 81. 
 
 Credit, Vote of, 287 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 
 530. 
 
 Crimea, Mr. Gladstone's Defence of the 
 Expedition to, 186, 187 ; Cost of, 202. 
 
 Crimean War, Aim of, 151: Hostilities 
 commenced, 161 ; Management of, 171; 
 Debate on, 172-174 ; Progress of, 191, 
 192 ; Cost of, 202; and Finance, 504. 
 
 Culture, Mr. Gladstone on the Higher, 
 481. 
 
 Cyprus, Mr. Gladstone on, 568.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 585 
 
 Daily News on Mr. Gladstone, 283 ; on 
 Mr. Gladstone's Oxford Defeat, 325; 
 on Mr. Gladstone at Blackheath, Note, 
 419, quo 457, 514. 
 
 Daily Telegraph on Mr. Gladstone, Note, 
 381, quo 458. 
 
 Danubian Principalities, Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 220-222. 
 
 Dean of Christ Church Nominates Mr. 
 Gladstone for Oxford, 248. 
 
 Debt, National, Mr. Gladstone's Scheme 
 to Reduce the, 141, 142, 331, 332 ; De- 
 crease in, 310, 319; Sir S. Northcote's 
 Proposals on, 488. 
 
 Decrees, Napoleon I.'s, against British 
 Trade, 5. 
 
 Decrees, The British Government's, 5, 6. 
 
 Demerara, Mr. Gladstone on the Slaves 
 of, 43-45. 
 
 Deptford, Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 461. 
 
 Deputation, An Influential, to Lord 
 Derby, 267 ; see Note, 267. 
 
 Deputies, Imprisonment of Neapolitan, 
 122. 
 
 Derby Ministry of 1857, 218, 219 ; Reform 
 Bill of, 245, 247; Defeatof, 247 ; Resig- 
 nation, 248 ; Ministry of, 1866, 349. 
 
 Derby, Lord, and the Repeal of the 
 Paper Duty, 267, 268 ; on the Question 
 of Reform, 350 ; on Mr. Gladstone's 
 Irish Church Resolutions, 367 ; opposed 
 to Irish Church Disestablishment, 386 ; 
 Resignation of, 332. 
 
 Despotism, Neapolitan, 120, 123 ; Dis- 
 cussed in Parliament, 125 ; Lord Pal- 
 merston on> 125, 126. 
 
 Dilke, Sir C., mentioned, 423; Civil List 
 Motion, 430-433. 
 
 Dillwyn, Mr., Motion on the Irish 
 Church, 317. 
 
 Disraeli, Mr. B., on Protection, 91 ; on 
 Sir R. Peel's Policy, 96 ; Definition of a 
 Blue Book, 96 ; on the Repeal of Navi- 
 gation Laws, 103 ; and the Poor Laws, 
 107, 109; on Free Trade, 137, Note 
 138 ; Mr Herbert's Invective on, 138 ; 
 Budget for 1852, 138 ; and Lord Rus- 
 sell, 148 ; Scheme to Pay War Expenses, 
 157 ; on the Policy of the Aberdeen 
 Ministry, 160, 164,165,172,173; on the 
 Vienna Conference, 186 ; Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, 1857, 218; Budget for 
 
 1858, 222; and the Reform Bill of 
 
 1859, 245; Criticism on the Budget of 
 1859, 250; Resolution on the Budget 
 of 1860, 264 ; on the Budget of 1862, 
 294; " No-confidence" Motion, 315; on 
 the Reform Bill of 1866, 342; Reform 
 Resolutions of 1867, 353; Educates his 
 Party, 356 ; made Premier, 356, Note 
 356, 357; Attack on Lord Salisbury, 
 365; Attack on Mr. Lowe, 366; Minis- 
 
 terial Explanations, 368 ; Resignation 
 of the Ministry of, 372 ; on the Irish 
 Church Disestablishment Bill, 381,382; 
 on the Irish Land Bill, 393 ; on Mr. 
 Gladstone's Foreign Policy, 401, 402; on 
 the Condition of Ireland, 404 ; on the 
 English Church, 413 ; on the Treaty of 
 Washington,426,427 ; on the Gladstone 
 Policy of 1872, 426 ; on the Irish Uni- 
 versity Education Bill, 447, 448 ; de- 
 clines to take Office, 451 ; Reasons for 
 Declining to take Office, 451,452; on 
 the Gladstone Policy, 454; Election 
 Address of 1874, 458, 460; Financial 
 Policy, 507, 508; and the Bulgarian 
 Massacres, 514, 515; Created a Peer, 
 515. See eaconsfield. 
 
 Dissenters' Chapel Bill mentioned, 84; 
 Endowment Bill, 84, 85. 
 
 Dissenters' Burials Bill,Mr. Gladstone on, 
 307. 
 
 Dissenters Preaching in Churches, 453. 
 
 Disturbances of 1848, 94, 95. 
 
 Divorce Bill, The, Mr. Gladstone on, 211. 
 
 Dollinger, Dr. von, and the Vatican 
 Decrees, 498, see Note 498. 
 
 Du Cane, Mr., Motion on the Budget of, 
 1860,265. 
 
 Duff, Grant, on Mr. Gladstone, 351, 352. 
 
 Dunkelliq, Lord, Amendment on the 
 Franchise Bill of 1866, 348. 
 
 Durham, Letter, Lord Russell's, alluded 
 to, 133. 
 
 E 
 
 East, Doctrine of British Interest in, 158 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone's Theory of, 150, 151. 
 
 East India Company Monopoly Abo- 
 lished, 43 ; Mr. Gladstone on the 
 Company, 218 ; Debate on the BDls, 
 218, 220. 
 
 Eastern Affairs, Great Debate on, 536 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone's Speech on, 537, 539. 
 
 Eastern Question in 1856 and 1875-76, 
 194 ; Duke of Argyll on, 194, 195; Mr. 
 Gladstone's Views of, 512 ; Parlia- 
 mentary Debate on, 521 ; Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Five Resolutions on, 524, 525 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone's Speech on, 525, 528. 
 
 Ecce Homo, Mr. Gladstone's Articles 
 on, 561. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 135 ; Debate on, 
 135, 136 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 135, 136 
 Echo, The, quo 458. 
 
 Economist on Conservative Finance.The, 
 509. 
 
 Edinburgh, Duke of, Proposed Grant 
 to, 463 ; Mr. Gladstone Lord Rector of 
 the University of, 270, 271. 
 
 Edinburgh Review, quo 14. 
 
 Education, Defects of Eton System, 
 14-16 ; National, Debate on, 60 ; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 60, 61, 83, 201, 202;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lord Russell's Resolution on, 201 ; 
 Homer's Place in, 229 ; Mr. Gladstone 
 on the Act, 420. 
 
 Egypt, and Homer, 242 ; Mr. Gladstone 
 
 on Aggresssion in, 563 ; see Note, 563. 
 
 Elcho, Lord, on the Peace Conference of 
 
 1859, 251 
 
 Election Address, Mr. Gladstone's First, 
 
 35; Manchester of 1837, 54; of 
 
 1841, 62 ; General, of 1868, 371, 372 ; 
 
 of 1874 , 461, 462. 
 
 Elections, Character of, before the Great 
 
 Reform, 38. 
 Elementary Education Bill, 395 ; Debate 
 
 on, 395. 
 Elgin, Lord, Mobbing of, 104. 
 
 Eloquence, Mr. Gladstone on, 21. 
 
 Endowed Schools Act Amendment Bill, 
 473; Mr. Forster on, 473 ; Mi. Glad- 
 stone on, 473-475, 476; Vote on, 475; 
 Receives the Royal Assent, 476. 
 
 England and America, Relations be- 
 tween, 1856, 203,204; Debate on, 204, 
 205 ; Foreign Relations in 1861, 273, 
 274; Condition of, in 1833, 33; in 
 1860, 254 ; Mr. Gladstone on the 
 Future of, 422, 423 ; Necessity for 
 Co-operation with Russia, 517 ; For- 
 eign Relations in 1861, 273, 274. 
 
 English Church, Miall's Motion for the 
 Disestablishment of, 413, 414, 452; 
 Mr. Disraeli on, 413; Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 413, 414, 452 
 
 English, The, Middle Class, 1. 
 
 English Mission, Mr. Gladstone's Article 
 on, 565. 
 
 Epic of the Queen of Hearts, Canning's, 
 18. 
 
 Epping Forest and the Government, 415. 
 
 Erastianism, Mr. Gladstone on, 561. 
 
 Essays, Characteristics of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's, 555, 556; Mr. Gladstone's 
 Miscellaneous, 464. 
 
 Etna, Description of, 28 ; Mr. Gladstone's 
 Ascent, 29-31. 
 
 Eton, Mr. Gladstone enters, 14 ; Educa- 
 tional System and Arrangements, 14- 
 17 ; Social Advantages of, 17; Periodi- 
 cals, 18 ; Miscellany, 18, 19. 
 
 Eton Thirty Years Ago, quo 16. 
 
 Etonian, The, 18. 
 
 Ewelme Scandal, The, 429 ; Debate on, 
 429, 430. 
 
 Examiner, quo 459. 
 
 Exchequer Bonds and Bill, 162 ; Debate 
 on, 164, 165. 
 
 Expenditure, Liberal and Conservative, 
 508, 509; Increase of National, 509, 
 511 ; Review of Four Years, 303. 
 
 F 
 
 Fagging, Evils of School, 15. 
 Farini's Roman State from 1815 to 1850, 
 131 ; Letter to Mr. Gladstone, 131. 
 
 Iv.wcett, Mr., on the Irish University 
 Education Bill, 445 ; University 
 (Dublin) Bill, 452; at St. James'*- 
 Hall, 518. 
 
 Female Franchise Bill, The Parliamen- 
 tary, 413. 
 
 Fenian Conspiracy alluded to, 335 ; 
 Prisoners, Amnesty to, 399. 
 
 Ferdinand II., M. Gondon on, 126, 127 ; 
 in Adversity, 132; Mr. Gladstone on,. 
 277. 
 
 Finance, an Exposition of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's, 505; the Economist on, 509; 
 of the Present Government, 507, 508 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone on the Present Govern- 
 ment's, 552, 553; Mr Gladstone on 
 the Present State of, 568. 
 
 Financial Plan of 1842, 79 ; Measures for 
 1848, 95 ; Legislation, the Beneficial 
 Effects of Mr. Gladstone's, SOS- 
 SOS. 
 
 Financiers, Mr. Gladstone's Place among, 
 505-507. 
 
 Foreign Enlistment Act passed, 398. 
 
 Foreign Paper, Reduction of Duty on,. . 
 carried, 269, 270. 
 
 Foreign Policy of the Government ir 
 1850 ; Debate on, 112-117 ; Mr. Disraeli 
 and the Gladstone, 401, 402. 
 
 Foreign Questions, Mr. GladstoncV- 
 Essays, 562. 
 
 Foreign Relations, 1861, England's, 27S. 
 274. 
 
 Foreigners, Bill for Enlistmentof, 173,174- 
 
 Forgery, Petition on the Increase of, 7. 
 
 Forster, Mr., Elementary Education Bill. 
 395; School Board Fees Bill, 452; 
 on the Endowed School Acts Amend- 
 ment Bill, 473; on Mr. Gladstone's 
 Retirement from the Leadership, 485, 
 486. 
 
 Fortnightly Review, quo 505. 
 
 France, Commercial Treaty with, 1860, 
 254, 255; Mr. Gladstone on, 258; 
 Effects of, 280, 281. 
 
 Franchise, Mr. Bright agitates for an 
 Extension of, 244. 
 
 Franchise Bill, 1866, Debate on, 346; 
 Captain Hayter's Resolution on, 346- 
 348; Lord Dunkdlin's Amendment, 
 348 ; Government Defeat on, 348 ; 
 County and Borough, Mr. King's 
 Motion on, 134; County, Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Articles on, 556. 
 
 Franco-Prussian War, 397; Position of 
 Eogland during, 397, 398. 
 
 Franco-Prussian Treaty, The Proposed, 
 397. 
 
 Free Trade, and Mr. Hume, 80 ; Villiers's 
 Motion on, 137 ; Mr. Disraeli on, 137 ; 
 in France, 254, 255 ; and French Com- 
 mercial Treaty, 258, 259; Results of, 
 273 ; Beneficial Effects of, 309, 310. 
 
 Freedom, Mr. Gladstone on, 501.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 587 
 
 Freeman, Mr., Historical Essays, quo 227, 
 228 ; at St. James's Hall, 518. 
 
 French Revolution of 1848, 94, 95. 
 
 Frontier, Mr. Gladstone on the Scientific, 
 541 ; see Note, 548. 
 
 G 
 
 Garibaldi, Success of, 132, 514. 
 
 Geneva Arbitration on the Alabama 
 Claims, 435; Mr. Gladstone on, 436; 
 Members of the, 436 ; the Award, 437 ; 
 Sir A. Cockburn's Protest Against, 437. 
 
 Germany, France, and England, Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 562. 
 
 Giffen, Mr., on Mr. Gladstone's Finance, 
 505-507. 
 
 Gladstone, Sir John, 1 ; Motto of, 3 ; as a 
 Man of Business, 3, 4; Chairman of the 
 West Indian Association, 5 ; as a Poli- 
 tician, 6; Interest in Liverpool, 7; Peti- 
 tion on the Increase of Forgery, 7 ; on 
 Navigation between Liverpool and 
 Dublin, 7 ; Advocate of Greek Indepen- 
 dence, 7 ; and Canning, 8 ; on the Reform 
 Question, 8 ; Presentation to, 8 ; Member 
 for Woodstock and Lancaster, 9; 
 Writings, 9. 
 
 Gladstone, Thomas, 3. 
 
 Gladstone, W. E. Pedigree, 2, 3; 
 Father 1-9 ; Mother and Family, 
 9; of Royal Descent, 10; Birth, 10; 
 Wonderful Powers, 11 ; Eaters Eton, 
 14; Success at Eton, 18; and the 
 Eton Miscellany, 18 ; Tribute to 
 Bishop Selwyn, 19; Poem of Caeur 
 de Lion, 19, 20 ; View of Lethe, 20; on 
 Eloquence,21; on the Death of Canning, 
 21, 22; Enters Oxford, 22; Position 
 at Oxford, 25 ; Connection with the 
 Oxford Union, 25,26 ; Results of Oxford 
 Life, 27 ; Tour through Sicily, 27-30 ; 
 Stands for Newark, 33 ; Personal Ap- 
 pearance, 34; First Election Address, 
 35; Returned for Newark, 39; A 
 Prophecy Concerning, 39 ; Maiden 
 Speeches, 43-45; Junior Lord of the 
 Treasury, 48 ; Re-elected for Newark, 
 48 ; Under-Secretary for the Colonies, 
 49 ; Introduces his First Bill, 49 ; in 
 Opposition, 50 ; Third Election for 
 Newark, 52; and the Manchester 
 Election, 52-54; Personal Sketch of, 
 58; Style and Oratory, 59; Returned 
 for Newark, 1841, 62, 63 ; Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the Board of Trade, and Master 
 of the Mint, 63 ; Marriage, 63 ; Children , 
 63, 64 ; Church and State, 65-73 ; Church 
 Principles, &c., 71-73; A Chapter of 
 Autobiography, 73, 74 ; President of the 
 Board of Trade, 83; Machinery Bill, 
 83; Resignation of Office, 85; Pamphlet 
 on Recent Commercial Legislation, 
 88 ; Colonial Secretary, 89 ; Re- 
 
 tires from Newark, 89; and Mr. 
 Disraeli, 103 ; Visit to Naples, 120 ; 
 Neapolitan Prisons and Prisoners, 
 128-130 ; Translates Farini's " Roman 
 State," 131 ; Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer, 140 ; Stands for Oxford Univer- 
 sity, 140, 141 ; Scheme to Reduce the 
 National Debt, 141; Introduces his 
 First Budget, 142; Unveils a Statue to 
 Sir R.Peel, 152 ; and the Crimean War, 
 155; War Budget, 157, 161; Resignation 
 of Office, 182; Returned for Ox- 
 ford University. 1857,314; Appointed 
 Commissioner tx) the Ionian Isle, 
 223 ; Homeric Studies, 225 ; Homer and 
 the Homeric Age, 225-237 ; Various 
 Homeric Writings, 238 ; JuventusMundi, 
 239 ; Homeric Synchronism, 240-243 ; 
 Returned for Oxford University, 1859, 
 247 ; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 248 ; 
 Re-election Opposed, 248; Power of 
 Speech Possessed by, 263; and Mr. 
 Disraeli, 264; Lord Rector of the 
 University of Edinburgh, 271 ; Descrip- 
 tion of by the IllustratedLondon News, 
 283; and the Confederate States of 
 America,298,299; Career reviewed,308- 
 Letter to Dr. Hannah, 318; Defeated 
 at Oxford. 322-324; Stands for South 
 Lancashire, 327-329 ; On Lord Palmer- 
 ston 333; Defeat and Resignation, 348: 
 Resolutions for the Disestablishment ol 
 the Irish Church, 361 ; Charges against, 
 367; Defeated in South Lancashire, 
 370, 371; Elected for Greenwich, 371; 
 Premier, 372 ; and his Religion, 416 ; 
 Receives the Freedom of the City of 
 Aberdeen, 416 , Letter to the New York 
 World, 435 ; Resignation and Resump- 
 tion of Office, 450; Premier and 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, 452; 
 Election Manifesto, 1873, 455 ; Resig- 
 nation, 462; Review of the Adminis- 
 tration of, 463 ; and the Liberal 
 Leadership, 465-483 ; Article on Ritual- 
 ism, 490; the Church of England, 
 492 ; Vatican Decree, 493 ; Vaticanism, 
 498 ; on PiusIX.'s Speeches, 501; Views 
 of the Eastern Question, 512 ; and the 
 Bulgarian Massacres, 516 ; Lord Rector 
 of Glasgow University, 529; Farewell 
 visit to Greenwich, 543 ; Characteristics 
 of his Essays, 555, 556; Gleanings of the 
 Past, 556-566 ; and the Movements of 
 his Age, 571 ; Literary and Political 
 Career, 569 ; Personal Characteristics, 
 571; Religious Sentiment, 571, 572; 
 Oratory, 572-574; Studious Habits, 
 574; Pursuits at Hawarden, 575; 
 Personal Traits, 475; Relations with 
 his Sovereign, 576; Public Career, 576; 
 and the Future of the Liberal Party 
 577-579. 
 Gladstone, W. E., Speeches of On Com-
 
 588 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 mcrce, 2 ; on Liberty, 27 ; on Slavery, 
 43, 45 ; on Bribery, 45 ; on the Irish 
 Church, 46,50; on Hume's University 
 Admission Bill, 47 ; on Lord Russell's 
 Irish Church Bill, 49 ; on Colonial Ap- 
 prenticeship, 51; on Canadian Affairs, 
 51 ; on Church Rates, 51 ; on Negro 
 Apprenticeship, 55 ; on the Jamaica 
 Bill, 59 ; on National Education, 60 ; 
 on War with China, 61 ; on the Com 
 Laws, 78 ; on the Tariffs Bill of 1842, 
 80; on the Distress of 1842-3,81; on 
 the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 81, 89 ; 
 on Education in Liverpool, 83 ; on the 
 Maynooth College Endowment, 85, 86 ; 
 on Graham's Irish Educational Bill, 
 88 ; on the Admission of Jews to 
 Parliament, 93,94; on Sir R. Peel's 
 Policy, 96 ; on Navigation Laws, 97 ; 
 on Vancouver's Island, 98 ; on Diplo- 
 matic Relations with Rome, 98, 99; 
 on Church Rates, 100 ; on the Repeal 
 of Navigation Laws, 100, 103 ; on 
 Colonial Reform, 106; on the Poor 
 Laws, 107 ; on the Australian Colo- 
 nies Bill, 109 ; on Slavery, 111 ; on the 
 English and Irish Universities, 111 ; 
 on the Foreign Policy of 1850, 113 ; 
 on the Death of Sir Robert Peel, 118 ; 
 on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 135 ; 
 on the Duke of Wellington, 136 ; on Mr. 
 Disraeli's Budget for 1852, 139 ; on In- 
 troducing his First Budget, 142; on 
 Russia and Turkey, 153; Introduces 
 his War Budget of 1854, 157; on 
 the Management of the Crimean War, 
 176 ; on the Impending War, 152 ; on 
 the Turkish Government, 152; on 
 Loans, 163 ; Defence of the Aberdeen 
 Ministry, 176; Defence of the Crimean 
 Expedition, 186, 187 ; on the Failure 
 of the Vienna Conference, 189, 190; 
 Condemning the Continuance of the 
 War, 190 ; on the Conclusion of Peace, 
 1856, 196-200; on Lord Russell's Plan 
 of National Education, 201-2; on Sir 
 G. C. Lewis's Budget, 203; on the 
 Differences between England and 
 America, 204, 205; on the Policy of 
 Lord Palmerston's Government, 206, 
 207 ; on Sir G. C. Lewis's Budget for 
 1857, 208, 209 ; on Tea Duty, 210 ; on 
 Increased Taxation, 210, 211 ; on the 
 Income-tax Bill, 210, 211; on the 
 Divorce Bill, 211 ; on Lord Palmer- 
 ston's Chinese Policy, 212-214; on 
 the Bank Indemnity Bill, 214, 215 ; on 
 the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, 216-217; 
 on the Abolition of Church Rates, 218 ; 
 on the East India Company, 218 ; on 
 the Danubian Principalities, 220; 
 on the Budget of 1858, 223 ; on the 
 Derby Reform BiU of 1859, 246-247 ; 
 on the Budget of 1859,249, 251 ; on the 
 
 Peace Conference, 1859, 251, 252 ; on 
 the Roman Catholic Relief Act Amend- 
 ment Bill, 253, 254 ; on the Budget of 
 1860, 255-265 ; on the House of Lords 
 rejecting the Paper Bill, 269; on; 
 Lord Russell's Reform Bill of 1860, 270; 
 at the University of Edinburgh, 271 ; 
 on the Affairs of Italy, 276-278 ; on 
 the Budget of 1861, 278-282, 284, 285 ; 
 in Vindication of his Financial Policy, 
 287, 288 ; on the Ionian Islands, 289 ; 
 Budget of 1862, 289-293; Reply to 
 Mr Disraeli's Strictures on the Bud- 
 get of 1862, 294, 295 ; Reply to Sir S. 
 Northcote, 295 ; Second on the Affairs 
 of Italy, 296-298 ; on the Presentation 
 to Charles Kean, 299 ; on the Budget, 
 of 1863,300,304 ; in Vindication of his 
 Proposal to subject Charities to the 
 Income-tax, 304-306 ; on the Dissen- 
 ters' Burial Bill, 307 ; on the Inter- 
 national Exhibition Building,307; Bud- 
 get, 1864, 310 ; on Reform (Parliamen- 
 tary, 314, 315 ; Reply to Mr. Disraeli's 
 "No confidence " Motion, 316 ; on the 
 Irish Church, 318 ; on the Budget of 
 1865, 318-321; in Manchester Free 
 Trade Hall, 327, 328 ; Speech at Liver- 
 pool, 328, 329; Budget of 1866, 
 330-332 ; on Church Rates, 335 ; on 
 the Austro-Prussian War, 335, 336 ; on 
 Introducing the Reform Bill of 1866, 
 336 ; on the Second Reading of the 
 Reform Bill of 1866, 339 ; at the 
 close of the Debate of the Reform 
 Bill of 1866, 342, 343 ; on Conserva- 
 tive and Liberal Finance, 359, 360 ; 
 on Justice to Ireland, 360, 361 ; 
 on the Disestablishment of the Irish 
 Church, 362-364, 366 ; Election Speech 
 at St. Helen's, 369 ; at Greenwich, 
 1868, 372, 373 ; on the Irish Church 
 Disestablishment Bill, 375-380, 384; 
 on the Irish Land Bill, 383, 392, 393, 
 394; Reply to Mr. Miall, 395 ; De- 
 fence of his Foreign Policy, 401-402 ; 
 on the Princess Louise's Marriage 
 Grant, 403 ; on the Disturbed Condi- 
 tion of Ireland, 404, 405 ; on the Abo- 
 lition of Purchase in the Army by 
 Royal Warrant, 410, 411, 412 ; on the 
 English Church, 413, 414 ; on Home 
 Rule, 416, 417 ; at Whitby, 417-418; 
 at Blackheath, 419-423 ; Reply to Mr. 
 Disraeli in Defence of his Policy, 1872, 
 
 427, 428 ; on Sir R. Collier's Appoint- 
 ment, 428 ; on the Ewelme Scandal, 
 
 428, 429 ; Retort on Mr. Disraeli and 
 Colonel Gilpin, 430 ; on Sir C. Dilke's 
 Motion for Return of the Civil List, 
 431 ; on the Ballot Bill, 434 ; on Nego- 
 tiations on the Washington Treaty, 
 436 ; on introducing the Irish Univer- 
 sity Education Bill, 438-439 ; in Clos-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 589 
 
 ing the Debate on the Irish University 
 Education Bill, 448-450 ; on the Duties 
 of the Opposition, 451 ; Election, 
 1874, 461-462 ; on the Church Patron- 
 age of Scotland Bill, 467-469 ; Public 
 Worship Bill, 469-471 ; on the En- 
 dowed School Acts Amendment Bill, 
 473-476; on Education, 477-481; 
 Attack on Sir S. Northcote's Budget, 
 488, 489; at St. James's Hall, 518, 519; 
 on Turkey, 520 ; on Treaty Obliga- 
 tions, 521 ; Reply to Mr. Chaplin, 522, 
 523 ; Resolutions and Speech on the 
 Eastern Question, 524-528 ; Speech at 
 Birmingham on the Eastern Question, 
 528 ; at the Palmerston Club 529 ; on 
 the Vote of Credit, 530; on Despatch- 
 ing the Indian Troops to Malta, 533, 
 534; at Bermondsey, 535, 536; on 
 Eastern Affairs, 537-539; at Rhyl, 
 541 ; on the Scientific Frontier, 541 ; 
 at Plumstead, 543; on the Afghan 
 War, 544-547 ; on the Greek Question, 
 548, 550 ; on the Prerogative, 550 ; on 
 the Zulu War, 550 ; on the Finance of 
 the Beaconsfield Government, 552, 
 553 ; Speech at Chester, 567 ; Address 
 to the Students of King's College, 572. 
 Gleanings of Past Years, Mr. Gladstone's, 
 
 556. 
 
 Gledstanes, Etymology of, 2. 
 Globe, quo 258. 
 Glynne, Miss Catherine, 63. 
 Gondon, M., on Ferdinand II., 126, 127- 
 Government Annuities and Life Insu- 
 rances Bill, 314 ; Opposition to, and 
 Passing of, 314 ; Mr. Gladstone on Per- 
 sonal, 544 ; the End of, 69 ; Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Charges against the Beacons- 
 field, 565-568. 
 
 Graham, Sir J., on War with China, 61, 
 62 ; Irish Education Bill, 87 ; Charac- 
 ter and Abilities, 119; Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Vindication of, 139 ; Resigna- 
 tion of Office by, 182. 
 Granville, Lord, Mr. Gladstone's Letter 
 to, 465, 466 ; Second Letter to, 483 ; 
 Reply of, 484. 
 Greatness, Prophecy of Mr. Gladstone's 
 
 Future, 39. 
 
 Greece, Affairs of, in 1850, 111 ; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 113, 116 ; the Ionian 
 Isles incorporated with, 224 ; Infancy 
 of, 242, 243 ; and Palestine, Compari- 
 son between, 564. 
 
 Greek Brigands, Murder of English 
 Travellers by, 395, 396 ; Action of the 
 English Government, 396, 397. 
 Greek Question, Debate on, 548, 549; 
 
 Mr. Gladstone on, 548, 550. 
 Greek Races, 232. 
 
 Greenwich, Mr. Gladstone Elected for, 
 371; Speech at in 1868, 372, 373; 
 Desired to Relinquish his Seat for, 
 
 418 ; Manifesto to the Electors of, 
 
 455-457 ; Farewell to, 543. 
 Gresley, Rev. R., on Mr. Gladstone, 248. 
 Grosvenor, Lord, Amendment on, the 
 
 Reform BUI of 1866, 338, 340. 
 
 H 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act (Ireland) Suspen- 
 sion Bill, 334, 335. 
 
 Habits, Mr. Gladstone's Studious, 574. 
 Hannah, Dr., Mr. Gladsone's Letter to, 
 
 on the Irish Church, 318. 
 Hardcastle, Mr., Abolition of Church 
 
 Rates Bill, 335. 
 
 Hardy, Mr. G., Contests Oxford, 1864, 
 322-324; on the Irish Church Dis- 
 establishment Bill, 383-384. 
 Hartington, Marquis, chosen Liberal 
 
 Leader, 486, 487. 
 Harvey, Rev. R. W., and the Ewelme 
 
 Scandal, 429, 430. 
 Hawarden, Mr. Gladstone's Pursuits at, 
 
 575. 
 
 " Heckling," the Practice of, 37. 
 Hellenic Factor, Mr. Gladstone on the, 
 
 562. 
 Hennessy, Mr. Pope, on the Affairs of 
 
 Italy, 275. 
 Herbert, Mr., Invective on Mr. Disraeli, 
 
 138. 
 
 Herzegovina, the Rising in, 513. 
 History and Homer, 229, 230. 
 History of England, Molesworth's, quo 
 
 148, 149 ; Walpole's, quo 32, 33. 
 Holy Places, Lord Russell's Despatch to, 
 
 151. 
 Holyhead, Mr. Gladstone on the Eastern 
 
 Question at, 528. 
 
 Home Rule Agitation, 416; Mr. Glad- 
 stone on, 416, 417. 
 
 Homer and the Homeric Age, Mr. Glad- 
 stone's, 226; Contents of, 226, 227 ; Mr. 
 Freeman on, 227, 228 ; Sections of the 
 Third Volume, 235 ; Specimens of, 235- 
 237. 
 
 Homer and the Sacred Writings, 228; 
 Place among the Poets, 229 ; Place in 
 Education, 229 ; as an Historical Au- 
 thority, 229-231, 232 ; Date, 231 ; on the 
 Text of, 232 ; and the Scriptures, 233, 
 234; Politics of, 235,236; Poetry of , 
 236 ; Results, 237, 238 ; Time and Place 
 of, 240, 241. 
 Homer on Slavery, 501. 
 Homeric Age, Refigions and Morals of, 
 
 232, 233. 
 Homeric Poems, Character of, 225 ; Mr. 
 
 Gladstone's Knowledge of, 226. 
 Homeric Studies,Mr. Gladstone's Lessons 
 
 from, 243. 
 
 Homeric Writings, Mr. Gladstone's Vari- 
 ous, 238, Note, 238-239.
 
 590 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Homeric SynchvoaStm, Character and 
 Value of,' 240 ; Contents of, 240 ; Speci- 
 men of, 242, 243. 
 
 Hope, Mr. Beresford, on Mr. Disraeli, 354 
 
 Uorsman, Mr., Mr. Bright's Attack on, 
 338; Mr. Disraeli on, 393; on the Irish 
 University Education Bill, 445; Mr 
 Lowe on, 446, 447. 
 
 House Duty, 138; Vote on, 140. 
 
 House of Commons, First Reformed, 53. 
 
 House of Lords, Mr. Gladstone on, 421, 
 422. 
 
 Hubbard, Mr., Resolution on the Income- 
 tax, 306; Mr. Gladstone's Reply to, 
 306, 307. 
 
 Hume's University Admission Bill, 47. 
 
 Hunt, Mr. Ward, and Conservative 
 Finance, 359, 360. 
 
 Hustings, Mr. Gladstone on the Newark, 
 37. ' 
 
 Button's Sketches in Parliament, quo 11. 
 
 Howick, Lord, and Mr. Gladstone, 45 ; 
 and the Corn Laws, 81. 
 
 Hyde Park, Reform Demonstration at, 
 350, 351. 
 
 Illustrated London News on Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Oratory, 283. 
 Imperial Policy, Lord Beaconsfield's, 
 540 ; Note, 540. 
 
 Impulse, Acting on, 59. 
 
 Income-tax of 1842, 79, 80 ; Mr. Glad- 
 stone on, 143-146, 210, 211 ; Sir E. B. 
 Lytton's Amendment on, 148 ; of 1854, 
 159-161 ; Proposed Increase of in 1859, 
 250 ; of 1861, 281 ; Proposed Reduction 
 of, 302 ; Mr. Hubbard's Resolution on, 
 306, 307 ; Proposed Reduction in 1864, 
 312, 320; Mr. Gladstone's Analysis of, 
 504. 
 
 Independent M.P., Definition of an, 180. 
 
 Industry, Effects of War on British, 156. 
 
 Infallibility, Papal, 494, 500 ; Effects of, 
 494, 495. 
 
 Inland Revenue Bill, Debate on, 295, 
 296. 
 
 Ireland, Church of , Reasons for Assailing, 
 75; Bill for Extension of Academical 
 Education in, 87, 88; Distress in, 301; 
 Habeas Corpus Act Suspended in, 
 334, 335 ; Mr. Gladstone on Justice to, 
 360, 361 ; Debate on the Condition of, 
 403-406; Lord Hartington on, 404; 
 Mr. Disraeli on, 404 ; Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 404, 405; Bernal Osborne on, 
 405; Solicitor-General on, 405, 406. 
 
 Ionian Islands, Mr. Gladstone appointed 
 Commissioner to, 223 ; Incorporated 
 with Greece, 224 ; Debate on, 289 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone on, 289. 
 
 Irish Church, 1833; Mr. Gladstone o"n, 
 46; in 1835, 50; Mr. Dillwyn's Motion 
 
 on, 317; Mr. Gladstone on, 317, 318, 
 Letter to Dr. Hannah on, 318. 
 Irish Church "Disestablishment Bill, 375; 
 Details of, 376-380; Provision for 
 Incumbents, 377 ; Compensation to 
 Curates, 377 ; Churches, 378 ; Glebe 
 Houses, 378 ; Regium Donum and 
 Maynooth Grant, 378 ; Financial 
 Result of the Various Proposals, 370; 
 Uses for the Surplus Fund, 379- 
 Peroration, 380; Debate on, 381; Mr. 
 Disraeli on, 381, 382; Dr. Ball on, 
 382; Mr. Bright on, 382; SirR. Palmer 
 and Mr. Lowe on, 383; Mr. G. Hardy 
 on, 383, 384; Mr. Gladstone's Reply, 
 384; Division, 385, 386; Analysis of 
 Votes, 385; Third Reading, 385; 
 Passage through the Lords, 385, 387 ; 
 Votes of the Lords, 387; Greatness of 
 the Measure, 387. 
 
 Irish Church, Mr. Gladstone's Resolu- 
 tions for the Disestablishment of, 
 361; Lord Stanley's Amendment, 
 361, 362; Mr. Gladstone's Speech in 
 Support of, 362-364 ; Lord Stanley's 
 Speech, 364; Mr. Lowe's Speech, 364, 
 365; Mr. Disraeli's Speech, 365,366; 
 Mr. Gladstone's Reply, 366 ; Division 
 and Government Defeat, 366; Analysis 
 of Votes, 366, 367; First Resolution 
 carried, 367; Second and Third 
 carried, 368; Fourth carried, 369. 
 Irish Church Suspensory Bill, 369; 
 
 Rejected by the Lords, 369. 
 Irish Land Bill, 388 ; Opening Remarks, 
 388,389; Insecurity of Tenure, 389; 
 Acquisition of Land, 389 ; Occupation 
 of Land, 390 ; Four Descriptions 
 of Holdings, 390, 391; The Irish 
 Labourer, 391, 392 ; Concluding 
 Remarks, 392 ; Debate on, 393 ; Mr. 
 Disraeli on, 393 ; Mr. Gladstone's 
 Reply, 393, 394 ; Division, 394 ; Amend- 
 ments, 394; Passage through the 
 Lords, 394. 
 
 Irish University Education Bill, 438 ; 
 Opening Remarks, 438 ; Roman Catho- 
 lic Element, 439 ; the Religious Griev- 
 ance, 439 ; Number of University 
 Students, 440; University of Dublin 
 and Trinity College, 440; Proposed 
 Abolition of Tests, 440, 441 ; Governing 
 Clauses, 441,442; Financial Scheme, 
 442; Concluding Remarks, 443; Oppo- 
 nents to the, 443 ; Mr. Gladstone on 
 moving for the Second Reading, 444; 
 Mr. Burke's Amendment, 444; Mr. 
 Fawcett on, 445; Mr.Horsman on, 445; 
 Mr. Lowe on, 446, Note 446, 447; Mr. 
 Disraeli on, 447, 448 ; Mr. Gladstone's 
 Reply, 448-450; Defeat of the Govern- 
 ment, 450. 
 
 Irish Outrage Bill, 156. 
 taly, Desire of, for Independence, 132 ;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 501 
 
 Struggle for, 132; Dcbateon the Affairs 
 of, 275-278 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 276-278, 
 296-298; Renewed Debate on, 296-298. 
 
 Intellectuallmprovement, Mr. Gladstone 
 on the Facilities for, 479, 480. 
 
 International Exhibition Building, De- 
 bate on, 307. 
 
 Interregnum, a Ministerial, 450-452. 
 
 Invasion of the Crimea, quo 155 
 
 Jamaica Bill of 1839, Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 59. 
 
 Jews, Education of, Mr. Gladstone on, 
 60, 61 ; in Parliament, Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 93, 94. 
 
 Jones, Archdeacon, mentioned, 13. 
 
 Judicature Bill, Lord Selborne men- 
 tioned, 452. 
 
 Juventus Mundi, Character and Value of, 
 239; Contents of, 240. 
 
 K 
 
 Kean, C., Presentation to, 299. 
 Kennington, Chartist Meeting at, 95. 
 Kin Beyond the Sea, Mr. Gladstone's 
 
 Article, 557. 
 Knightsbridge, Lord Beaconsfield's 
 
 Speech at, 530. 
 
 Kinglake, Mr., on Mr. Gladstone, 155. 
 King's College, Mr. Gladstone's Address 
 
 at, 572. 
 King's Scholars, Eton, 14. 
 
 Lancashire, Mr. Gladstone's Tribute to, 
 301 ; Material Condition of 1863, 301. 
 
 Layard, Mr., on Lord Palmerston's Go- 
 vernment, 181, 182 ; on the Affairs of 
 Italy, 296. 
 
 Leadership, Mr. Gladstone's Resignation 
 of the Liberal, 483-485 ; Claimants for, 
 486; Lord Hartington chosen, 486, 487. 
 
 League, The Reform, 350, 351. 
 
 Leatham, Mr., on the Beaconsfield 
 Cabinet, 445. 
 
 Legislation, Beneficial Effects of Mr. 
 Gladstone's Financial, 503-505 
 
 Legislative Enactments of 1869-70-71, 
 424. 
 
 Lewis, J. D., quo 16. 
 
 Lewis, Sir G. C., Budget for 1856, 202 ; 
 Mr. Gladstone on, 202-203; Budget 
 for 1857, 207 ; Mr. Disraeli on, 207. 
 Mr. Gladstone on, 208, 209 . 
 
 Liberal and Conservative Expenditure 
 508, 509. 
 
 Liberal Party and the Roman Catholics, 
 496 ; Mr. Gladstone and the Future 
 of the, 577-579. 
 
 Liberty, Mr. Gladstone on, 27 
 
 Liberty and Papacy, 493, 49.1. 
 
 Licensing Bill, Mr. Bruce's, 415. 
 
 Life of Prince Consort, Mr. Gladstone's 
 Article on, quo 168 ; Mr. Gladstone'? 
 Articles on, 556. 
 
 Literary and Political Career, Mr. Glad- 
 stone's, 569, 570. 
 
 Liverpool College, Mr. Gladstone's 
 Speeches at, 140, 473, 477. 
 
 Liverpool, Depression in the Commerce 
 of, 5 ; Canning's Election for, 6, 7 ; 
 and Dublin Navigation, 7 ; Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Speech at, 1866, 328, 329, 330; 
 Reform Demonstrations in, 339. 
 
 Loans, Mr. Gladstone on, 163. 
 
 Local Taxation Bills, 415. 
 
 Lords, House of, Mr. Gladstone on, 421, 
 422 ; Rejects the Paper Duty Bill, 268. 
 
 Louise, Princess, Marriage Grant to, 403. 
 
 Lowe, Mr., on the Reform Bill of 1866, 
 337, 341, 347 ; on Mr. Disraeli's Re- 
 form Bill, 356 ; Mr. Disraeli's Attack 
 on, 366 ; on the Irish Church Dis- 
 establishment Bill, 383 ; on the Irish 
 University Education Bill, 446, Note 
 446, 447. 
 
 Lower Canada, Debate on the Troubles 
 of 1838, 54. 
 
 Lytton, Sir E. B., on the Income-tax, 
 148 ; Motion on the Vienna Confer- 
 ence, 188, 189 ; on the Reform Bill of 
 1866, 340. 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, on Mr. Gladstone, 61, 
 
 67, 71 ; Mr. Gladstone's Estimate of, 
 
 558. 
 
 Machinery Bill, 83. 
 Magnum Opus, Mr. Gladstone, 226. 
 Malacca Straits, 459-461. 
 Malt-tax, Increase of, 162 ; Lord Russell 
 
 on, 164 ; Mr. Disraeli on, 164 ; Colonel 
 
 Barttelot's Motion on, 313 ; Mr. Mor- 
 
 ritt's Motion on, 313 ; of 1864, 320. 
 Malta, Indian Troops despatched to, 333 ; 
 
 Mr. Gladstone on, 334. 
 Manchester Guardian, quo 52. 
 Manchester, Mr. Gladstone's Election 
 
 for, 52-54 ; Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 
 
 1866, 327, 328. 
 Manifesto, Mr. Gladstone's Election, for 
 
 1874, 455-457 ; Opinions of the Press on, 
 
 Note, 457-459. 
 Manning, Cardinal, and the Vatican 
 
 Decrees, 500, Note 498. 
 Mansell, Rev. H. L., on Mr. Gladstone's 
 
 Liberalism, 248. 
 Marriage, Mr. Gladstone's, 63. 
 Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, 
 
 106. 
 
 Martineau, Harriet, quo 80, 81. 
 Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, quo 
 
 169, 170.
 
 592 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Match-tax, Mr. Lowe's, 415. 
 
 M-iynooth College, Endowment of, 85-87; 
 Debate on the Grant, 368. 
 
 MelbourneMinistry.Dismissal of ,1834, 47; 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, Premier for 1835, 50 ; 
 Defeat of, 62. 
 
 Member, Chairing the, 48. 
 
 Memoirs, Lord Brougham's, quo 6. 
 
 Memorandum, The Berlin, and England, 
 513. 
 
 Miall, Mr., on Mr Gladstone, 395 ; Motion 
 for the Disestablishment of the English 
 Church, 413, 414, 452. 
 
 Microcosm, the Eton, 17; Contributors, 18. 
 
 Militia Bill, The, 136. 
 
 Mill Hill School, Mr. Gladstone's Address 
 at, 480, 481. 
 
 Mill, J. Stuart, and the Conservatives, 
 347. 
 
 Ministry, Causes for the Waning Popu- 
 larity of the Gladstone, 418 ; Unpopu- 
 larity in 1872, 423; Changes in 1873,453. 
 
 Ministry, Mr. Gladstone on the Policy of 
 the Beaconsfield, 565. 
 
 Molesworth, Rev. W. N., on Mr. Glad- 
 stone's First Budget, 148, 149 ; Sir W., 
 on Colonial Administration, 106. 
 
 Montenegro Declares War, 514. 
 
 Morgan, Osborne, Burials Bill, 487. 
 
 Morley, Lord, on Eton Boys, 16, 17. 
 
 Morning Chronicle, quo 140. 
 
 Morning Post, quo 458. 
 
 Morpeth, Lord, on NationalEducation, 60. 
 
 N 
 
 Napoleon I.'s Decrees against British 
 Trade, 5. 
 
 Napoleon III.'s coup d'etat, 136; Letter to 
 the Czar, 153, 154 ; and Liberty, 216 ; 
 and the French Commercial Treaty, 
 260. 
 
 National Burdens, Mr. Gladstone's 
 Share in the Reduction of, 506. 
 
 National Debt, Mr. Gladstone's Scheme 
 to Reduce, 141, 142. 
 
 Navigation Laws, Mr. Gladstone on, 
 
 ' 97, 100-103, 104 ; Mr. Disraeli on, 103. 
 
 Neapolitan Government, Mr Gladstone's 
 Charges against, 120-122; Deputies 
 Imprisoned, 122 ; Arbitrary Procedure 
 of, 122; Replies to Mr. Gladstone's 
 Charges, 126; Mr. Gladstone's Rejoin- 
 der, 127, 130; Exposure of the Govern- 
 ment Apology, 130 ; Results, 130. 
 
 Negro Apprenticeship, Lord Brougham 
 on, 55; Mr. Gladstone on, 55, 56. 
 
 Neutrality and the Russo-Turkish War, 
 524. 
 
 New York World, Mr. Gladstone's Letter 
 to the Editor of, 435. 
 
 Newark, Mr. Gladstone's Contest for, 33; 
 on the Hustings at, 37; Elected Member 
 for, 39; Re-election and Popularity, 48; 
 
 Third Election, 52; Election for 1841, 
 
 62, 63; Withdrawal from, 89, 90. 
 Newcastle, Duke, Famous Saying of, 33 ; 
 
 Minister of War, 69, 72. 
 Newman, Dr., Mr. Gladstone on, 498; 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Norfolk 499, 500. 
 Newspapers, Halfpenny Postage for, 399 
 Nicholas, Czar, and the Eastern Question, 
 
 150 ; Napoleon III.'s Letter to, 153, 154 ; 
 
 Responsible for the Crimean War,156; 
 
 Death of, 183. 
 
 Nightingale, Miss, and her Nurses, 171. 
 Nonconformists and the Elementary 
 
 Education Bill, 305. 
 Norfolk, Duke of, Dr. Newman's Letter 
 
 to, 499, 500. 
 Northcote Sir S., Twenty Years of 
 
 Financial Policy, 503, 505 ; on the 
 
 Necessity for Retrenchment, 505 ; on 
 
 the Financial Condition of the Country, 
 
 295. 
 
 Note, The Andrassy, 513. 
 Nottingham Journal, quo 39. 
 
 
 
 Oaths, On Parliamentary, 99, 100. 
 
 O'Donoghue on the Dissatisfaction of 
 Ireland, 334; Mr. Gladstone's Reply to, 
 334. 
 
 Old Belief and the New, Strauss's, Mr. 
 Gladstone's Reply to, 474. 
 
 Old England on Mr. Gladstone, 37. 
 
 Oppidans, Eton, 14. 
 
 Opposition, Mr. Gladstone's Views on the 
 Duties of an, 451. 
 
 Orangemen and the Disestablishment of 
 the Irish Church, 375. 
 
 Oratory, Scope and Variety of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's, 572, 574. 
 
 Osborne, Bernal, on Lord Palmerston's 
 Ministry, 316, 317. 
 
 Oxford, Mr. Gladstone Enters Christ 
 Church, 22 ; Conservatism, 22 ; Study 
 at, 23; Union of, 23, 25. 
 
 Oxford, Palmerston Club at, Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Speech, 27. 
 
 Oxford University, Mr. Gladstone s Con- 
 test for, 140,141 ; Returned, 1859, 248 ; 
 Contest for 1864, 322, 323 ; Defeat of, 
 324; Analysis of Votes, 324; Illus- 
 trious Voters, Note 324 ; Effects of 
 the Defeat, 324 ; Valedictory Address, 
 326,327; as a Student at, 574. 
 
 Pacifico, The Case of, 114. 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette on Mr. Gladstone's 
 Oxford Defeat, 357 ; on Mr. Gladstone 
 and Mr Disraeli, 357, quo 458. 
 
 Palmer, Sir R., on the Irish Church Dis- 
 establishment Bill, 383. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, and the French 
 Government, 112; Defends his Foreign
 
 INDEX. 
 
 593 
 
 Policy of 1850, 113 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 
 113-116 ; on Neapolitan Prisons and 
 Prisoners, 125, 126; Dismissal from 
 Office, 136; Ministry of, 180, 181; 
 Resignation from, 182 ; Mr. Disraeli's 
 Attack on, 189 ; Mr. Gladstone's Stric- 
 tures on the Policy of, 206, 207 ; 
 Chinese Policy attacked, 211-214; 
 Reply and Defeat, 214; Appeal to 
 the Country and return to Power, 
 214 ; Conspiracy to Murder Bill, 215 ; 
 Resolutions on the Lcrds Rejecting 
 the Paper Duty Bill, 268, 269 ; Debate 
 on the Foreign Policy of, 315, 317; 
 Dissolution of the Government of, 
 322 ; Mr. Gladstone's Tribute to the 
 Memory of, 333. 
 
 Palmerston's Club, Oxford, Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Speech at, 27- 
 
 Papal Aggression of 1851, The, 133, 134. 
 
 Papal Infallibility, 494, 500; Effects of, 
 494, 495. 
 
 Paper Duty, Proposed Abolition of, 
 261 ; Views of the Protectionist Paper- 
 makers, 266, 284 ; Note, 266. 
 
 Paper Duty Repeal BUI, 265 ; and Lord 
 Derby, 267, 268; Rejected by the 
 Lords, 268; Debate on, 284-287; 
 Passed, 288 ; Effects of, 311. 
 
 Panmure, Lord, as War Minister, 181. 
 
 Parker, Admiral, Blockades Piraeus, 112. 
 
 Parks Regulation Bill, Debate on, 430. 
 
 Parliament, First Reformed, 41 ; Dis- 
 solution of 1874, 455 the Speaker and 
 the Privileges of, 551 ; Reasons for, 
 
 455, 456; Record of the Work done by, 
 
 456, 457. 
 
 Parliamentary History of 1871,The,423. 
 
 Partnership, Law of, alluded to, 84. 
 
 Patriotic Fund, The, 171. 
 
 Peace Society and the Crimean War, 
 154, 157. 
 
 Peace, Treaty of, 1856, 196 ; Debate on, 
 197. 
 
 Peace, Conference of , 1859, 251, 253; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 251, 252. 
 
 Pedigree, Mr. Gladstone's, 23. 
 
 Peel, Sir R., Ministry of 1834, 47 ; Ad- 
 dress to Tamworth Electors, 49 ; 
 Defeats the Melbourne Ministry, 62 ; 
 Premier in 1841, 63 ; Policy, 77 ; Slid- 
 ing Scale of Corn Duties, 78 ; Burnt 
 in Effigy, 79; Budget of 1842, 79; 
 Financial Plan of 1842, 79 ; Tribute to 
 Mr. Gladstone, 86 ; Resignation, 86 ; 
 Disraeli on the Policy of, 96 ; Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 96 ; Last Speech of, 
 113 ; Accident and Death, 117 ; Lord 
 Brougham's Tribute to, 118; Mr. 
 Gladstone's, 118 ; Defence of, by Mr. 
 Herbert, 138 ; Statue unveiled to, 
 152; Disraeli's Eulogy on, 462 ; and 
 Mr. Gladstone as Financiers, 506. 
 
 Peel, Sir R., on Venice, 276. 
 
 Peelites, Mr. Martin's Tribute to, 179 
 Difficulties of, 193, 194. 
 
 Perceval, Mr., contests Oxford Univer- 
 sity, 140 ; Times on, 140 . 
 
 Personal Appearance and Oratory of Mr. 
 Gladstone, 58, 59. 
 
 Peto, Sir M., Dissenters' Burial Bill, 307. 
 
 Philip Van Artvelde, quo Note 499. 
 
 Piraeus, Admiral Parker Blockades, 112. 
 
 Pius IX., Mr. Gladstone on theSpeeches 
 of, 501. 
 
 Planters, Mr. Gladstone's Defence of tb 
 West Indian, 56, 57 ; Protection for, 
 110. 
 
 Plumstead, Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 
 543. 
 
 Poerio, Carlo, The Case of, 123. 
 
 Politics, Varying Character of, 195; State 
 of, in 1859, 244. 
 
 Politics of Homer, The, 235, 236. 
 
 Poor Laws, Mr. Gladstone on, 107, 108. 
 
 Policy, Mr. Disraeli's Attack on the 
 Gladstone of 1872, 426; Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Reply, 427-428 ; Results of the 
 Beaconsfield Foreign, 553, 554; Effects 
 of Imperial, 465, 469. 
 
 Post Office Savings Bank Bill, 274; 
 Character and Scope of, 274. 
 
 Precocity, the Dangers of, 13. 
 
 Praed, Mackworth, 18 . 
 
 Preface to Fourth Edition of Church and 
 State, 66. 
 
 Prerogative, Mr. Gladstone on the Royal, 
 550, 
 
 Press opinions of Mr. Gladstone's Green- 
 wich Manifesto, 457, 459 . 
 
 Prince of Wales, Recovery of, 423; Public 
 Thanksgiving for, 426. 
 
 Prisons and Prisoners, Neapolitan, 122. 
 
 Protection, Mr. Disraeli on, 91; for 
 West Indian Planters, 110. 
 
 Prussia and the Eastern Question, 
 168, 169. 
 
 Public Worship Regulations Bill, 469; 
 Mr. Gladstone on, 469-470; Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Resolution on, 471 ; Debate on. 
 471, 472. 
 
 Punishment, Eton School, 15. 
 
 Purchase, Abolition of, in the Army, 406 . 
 Opposition to, 407-410; Abolished by 
 Royal Warrant, 410. 
 
 Pusey, Dr., on Mr. Gladstone's Oxfoi.1 
 Defeat, 326. 
 
 Q 
 
 Quarterly Review on Church and Stab. 
 70. 
 
 Queen, First Parliament of, 54 ; Sympa- 
 thy with Lord Aberdeen, 169, 174; 
 Letter to Lord Raglan, 172; Desires 
 Lord Russell to form a Ministry, 180 
 
 Questions, Home, awaiting Settlement. 
 556. 
 
 QQ
 
 594 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Radical Candidate, Description of a, 54 . 
 Raglan, Lord, The Queen's Letter to, 172. 
 Railways, Committee of Inquiry into, 84 ; 
 
 Nature of the Bill, 84 . 
 Kates, Church, Mr. Gladstone on, 100, 
 
 274, 275 ; Mr. Bright on, 275. 
 Rationalism, Mr. Gladstone on, 72. 
 Refector on Mr. Gladstone's Return 
 
 for Newark, 41. 
 Red Club, The Newark, 35, 37. 
 Reform Agitations for, 350, 351. 
 Demonstration in Hyde Park, 350, 351. 
 Reform Bill, Passing of the Great, 32. 
 Reform Bill of the Derby Ministry, 245 ; 
 Nature of, 245 ; Lord Russell's Amend- 
 ment, 245; Mr. Gladstone on, 246, 
 247 ; Vote on, 247. 
 Reform Bill of 1860, Lord Russell's, 270, 
 
 271. 
 
 Reform Bill, Mr. Disraeli's, of 1867, 353 ; 
 Debate on, 353, 354 ; Changes in, 350, 
 356. 
 
 Reform, Parliamentary, and Mr. Glad- 
 stone, 309. 
 Reform, Resolutions, Mr. Disraeli's, 352; 
 
 Debate on, 353. 
 Regulation of the Parks Bill, Debate on, 
 
 430. 
 Religion, Mr. Gladstone and, 416, 471, 
 
 472. 
 Remarks on Recent Commercial Legislation, 
 
 88 ; Analysis of, 88. 
 Reserves, calling out the, 533. 
 Resolutions, Mr. Gladstone's, on the 
 Eastern Question, 524, 525 ; Speech in 
 Support, 525-528. 
 
 Retrenchment, the Necessity for, 505. 
 Revenue, continued Increase of, 257, 258. 
 Rhyl, Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 541. 
 Richard, Mr., on Mr. Forster, 395. 
 Richmond, Mr. Gladstone at, 573. 
 Ritualism, Mr. Gladstone's Article on, 
 490,492; and the Roman Catholics,491. 
 Robertson, Miss Ann, 9, 10. 
 Roebuck, Mr., mentioned, 54 ; Motion on 
 the Crimean War, 174, 175, 179 ; Cen- 
 sure on the Aberdeen Ministry, 190. 
 Roman Catholicism, Progress of, 496, 
 
 Note 496. 
 Roman Catholic Relief Act Amendment 
 
 Bill, 253 ; Exciting Debate on, 247. 
 Roman Catholics and the Liberal Party, 
 
 446; Duty of to the State, 497. 
 Roman State from 1815 to 1850, Mr. Glad- 
 stone translates, 131. 
 Rome, England's Reconversion to, 72; 
 and England's Comparison between, 
 52 ; Mr. Gladstone on Diplomatic Re- 
 lations between, 98, 99. 
 JTound, Mr., contests Oxford, 92, 93. 
 Rothschild, Baron, returned for the City, 
 93. J 
 
 Russell, Lord, Irish Church Bill of, 49, 
 
 50 ; Resolution on Canadian Affairs, 
 
 51 ; Motion on the Corn Laws, 83 ; 
 Jews' Bill, 93, 94 ; and Parliamentary 
 Oaths, 99, 100 ; Ministry of, Defeated, 
 134 ; Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 135 ; on 
 Mr. Gladstone, 148 ; Despatch on Holy 
 Places, 151 ; Resignation from the 
 Aberdeen Ministry, 174 ; Mr. Gladstone 
 on, 176 ; Mr. Disraeli on, 178 ; Desired 
 to Form a Ministry, 180 ; at Vienna 
 184 ; Defends his Vienna Policy, 188 ; 
 Mr. Disraeli's Attack on, 189 ; Reform 
 Bill of 1860, 270, 271 ; Amendment on 
 the Derby Reform Bill, 245 ; and the 
 Confederate States of America, 298, 
 299 ; Ministry of 1866, 329 ; Defeat 
 and Resignation of, 348-349. 
 
 Russia, Declaration of War by, 524. 
 
 Russia, War Declared against by Turkey, 
 153 ; by England, 153; Mr. Bright on, 
 167, Note 167 ; Attitude at the Vi- 
 enna Conference, 184, 185. 
 
 Russo-Turkish War, Course of, 529. 
 
 8 
 
 Salisbury, Mr. Gladstone at, 351. 
 Salisbury, Marquis,Mr. Disraeli's Attack 
 
 on, 365; Circular of to Foreign Courts, 
 
 532. 
 San Stefano Treaty, 531 ; objected to 
 
 by England, 531. 
 Sandon, Lord, Endowed School Acts Bill, 
 
 473. 
 
 Sardinia and the Crimean War, 184. 
 Saturday Review, quo 458. 
 Schools, Mr. Gladstone on Great Public, 
 
 480. 
 
 Scriptures, Homer and the, 233, 234. 
 Scotch and Irish Reform Bills, 558. 
 Seats, Measure for the Redistribution 
 
 of, 346; Debate on, 346, 347. 
 Selwyn, Bishop, Mr. Gladstone's Tribute 
 
 to, 19. 
 
 Servia, Declaration of War by, 514. 
 Session, Parliamentary, of 1842, 80, 81 ; 
 
 of 1851, 133 ; of 1872, Acts passed in, 
 
 437, 438 : Work of 1873, 452, 453. 
 Settembrini, Case of, 123. 
 Shakespeare and Homer, 237, quo 465. 
 Shelley v. Byron, Debate on, at the 
 
 Oxford Union, 26. 
 Shere Ali, War with, 543. 
 Sicilians, Struggle of, for Liberty, 132. 
 Sicily, Mr. Gladstone's Tour in, 27. 
 Sketch, Personal, of Mr. Gladstone, 58. 
 Slavery, Homer on, 501. 
 Smith, Sydney, on Foreign Interference, 
 
 197. 
 Soldiers, Sufferings of, in the Crimea 
 
 171. 
 South Kensington Exhibition Building, 
 
 Debate on, 307.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 595 
 
 South Lancashire, Mr. Gladstone Nomi 
 nated for, 327 ; Address to the Elec- 
 tors, 327 ; Speech at Manchester, 327, 
 328 ; Speech at Liverpool, 328, 329 ; 
 Elected for, 329 ; Defeat at, 370, 371 . 
 
 Sovereign , Mr. Gadstone's Relations with 
 Ms, 576. 
 
 Spectator, quo 458, 539. 
 
 Speech, Mr. Gladstone on the Liberty of, 
 537. 
 
 Spirits, Scotch and Irish, Increase of 
 Duty on, 162. 
 
 St. David, Bishop of, on the Irish Church 
 Bill, 386. 
 
 St. Helens, Mr. Gladstone s Speech at, 
 369, 370. 
 
 St. James's Hall, Meeting on the Eastern 
 Question at, 518; Mr. Gladstone's 
 Speech at, 518, 519. 
 
 Standard, quo 457. 
 
 Stanley, Lord, on National Education,60. 
 
 Statesman, Qualities and Faculties of a, 
 11. 
 
 Stock Exchange, Panic on, 531. 
 
 Stockman, Baron, Prince Consort to, 157. 
 
 Strauss's Old Belief and the New, Mr. 
 Gladstone on, 477, 478. 
 
 Students, Mr. Gladstone's Advice to, 480, 
 481. 
 
 Studies, Eton, 16. 
 
 Style, Mr. Gladstone's, 59, 555, 556 ; of 
 Church and State, 70. 
 
 Sugar, Duty on Foreign, Motion to 
 Reduce, 83 ; Duties, 84, 85; Mr.Milner 
 Gibson on Foreign and Colonial, 85. 
 
 Sultan, Deposition of, 513. 
 
 Sussex, Duke of, Copy of Church and 
 State, Note 66. 
 
 Tamworth, Sir R. Peel's Address to the 
 Electors of, 49. 
 
 Tariff , Alterations in, for 1860, 255. 
 
 Tariffs Bill, 1842, 80. 
 
 Taxation, Mr. Gladstone on, 211 
 
 Tea Duty, Mr. Gladstone on, 284; Partial 
 Remission of, 303 ; Reduction of, 
 320; Amended Scale of Duty on, 209, 
 211 ; Mr. Gladstone's Opposition to, 
 210. 
 
 Temples, Mr. Gladstone's Description of 
 the Sicily. 28. 
 
 Tennyson, Mr. Gladstone's Estimate of, 
 558, quo 577. 
 
 Times, quo 89, 457; on Lord Palmerston's 
 Foreign Policy, 215 ; on Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Election for Oxford University 
 93 ; on Mr. Perceval, 140 ; Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Oxford Defeat, 325. 
 
 Trade and Commerce, Proposed Relief 
 of, 255. 
 
 Trades Unions, Mr. Gladstone on, 478, 
 479. 
 
 Treaties, Commercial, 330. 
 
 Treasury, Mr. Gladstone Junior Lord of, 
 
 48. 
 Treaty, Commercial, with France, 254, 
 
 255 ; Mr Gladstone on, 258. 
 Treaty Obligations, Mr. Gladstone on, 
 
 503, 505. 
 Treaty of Washington,.414 ; Mr. Disraeli 
 
 on, 426, 427 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 427. 
 Triple Treaty and Belgium, 399. 
 Turkey, Declaration of War by, 152; 
 
 Mr. Gladstone on the Government of, 
 
 152, 153; Mr. Cobden on, 167. 
 Twenty Years of Financial Policy, QUO 
 
 503-505. 
 
 U 
 
 Union, The Oxford, 23; President of, 25; 
 
 Reorganized, 25. 
 Universities, English and Irish, Debate 
 
 on, 111-112. 
 Universities, Mr. Gladstone on the work 
 
 of, 270, 271. 
 
 Universities Tests Bill, 413. 
 University, Oxford, Mr. Gladstone enters, 
 
 22. 
 
 Vancouver's Island, Mr. Gladstone on* 
 
 98. 
 Vatican Claims, General Conclusion on, 
 
 501. 
 Vatican Decrees, Mr. Gladstone's, 493- 
 
 497; Replies to, 497, 498; Note, 497. 
 Vaticanisni, Mr. Gladstone's, 498. 
 Venice, Sir Robert Peel on, 276. 
 Vienna Note, Rejection of, by Turkey, 
 
 153 ; Conference, 184. 
 View of Lethe, Mr. Gladstone's, quo 20. 
 Villiers, Mr., Motion to Repeal Corn 
 
 Laws, 79. 
 Virgil, quo 30. 
 Voters, Illustrious, Note 324. 
 
 W 
 
 Walpole, Mr., and the Reform League, 
 
 351. 
 
 Walpole's History of England, quo 32, 33 
 War, Mr. Gladstone on the Impending 
 
 Crimean, 152; Evils of, 156. 
 War Policy, Results of, 511. 
 Warrant, Royal, Abolition of Purchase by, 
 
 410; Mr. Disraeli's Strictures on, 411; 
 
 Vote of Censure passed in the Lords, 
 
 411 ; Debate on in the Commons, 411, 
 
 412; Sir Roundell Palmer on, 412. 
 Washington, Treaty of, 414 ; Mr. Disraeli 
 
 on, 426, 427 ; Mr. Gladstone on, 427 ;
 
 596 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Letter to the New York World on, 435. 
 Wedgwood and his Work, Mr. Gladstone 
 
 on, 559. 
 Wellington, Duke, Mr. Gladstone on the 
 
 death of, 136, 137. 
 
 Whalley, Mr. Gladstone's Letter to, 416. 
 Whig Government, Causes for the Fall 
 
 of, 1841, 62. 
 Whitby, Mr. Gladstone's Speech at, 
 
 417, 418. 
 Wade, Sergeant, Presentation to, 34; 
 
 Contests Newark, 35, 36. 
 
 William IV., Death of, 52. 
 
 Women, Married Property Bill, 399. 
 
 Work, Aim of the Present, 12. See Pre- 
 face. 
 
 Working Classes, Mr Gladstone's Address 
 to, 478, 480. 
 
 Zulu War, Mr. Gladstone on. 550. 
 
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 8 
 
 LOS A
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 MAY 2 1946 I 
 
 JUN 10 
 JUL 3 194? 
 
 owmt 
 
 Form L-> 
 23m-10,'41<24C<l)
 
 A 000 952 182 4