Who was William Ewart Gladstone?
Gladstone came from Liverpool, and in 1832 he entered Parliament as a Tory. His early politics were conservative, and he at first resisted the end of slavery. As a supporter of Robert Peel he moved to free trade when the Conservatives split in 1846. He held the Treasury several times and became Liberal leader in 1867. He was Prime Minister four times between 1868 and 1894. Victorian politics were dominated by his rivalry with Benjamin Disraeli. People knew him for marathon budget speeches, for denouncing Turkish atrocities in the Balkans and for his strong Christian faith. He left office for the last time at 84 and died in 1898.
Political views
- Once he had embraced free trade in 1846, he would not serve in a Conservative cabinet that stood for protective tariffs.Source: gov.uk
- His policies aimed to widen personal liberty by loosening political and economic controls.Source: gov.uk
- Speaking in 1864, he argued that workers who were ready for the vote deserved it on moral grounds, though he warned against moving too fast.Source: gov.uk
- The 1884 Representation of the People Act, passed under him, enfranchised many more men in the countryside.Source: gov.uk
- He cut the Church of Ireland's link with the state and passed an Irish Land Act meant to curb landlord abuses.Source: gov.uk
- In 1886 and 1893 he put Home Rule for Ireland before Parliament. MPs rejected the first bill, and the Lords killed the second.Source: api.parliament.uk
Legacy
Many ordinary voters, who nicknamed him the Grand Old Man, saw in Gladstone a moral leader for free trade, honest budgets, a wider franchise and fairness to Ireland. Critics at the time, including Queen Victoria, found him dangerously populist. The Sudan crisis, which ended with General Gordon's death, damaged his standing. Historians also note that he once defended his family's plantation interests. When Home Rule split off the Liberal Unionists, the break remade party politics for decades. His name is still tied to the Liberal tradition.
In their own words
“every man who is not presumably incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or of political danger is morally entitled to come within the pale of the Constitution.”