Gladstone: 1875-98

As the dominant Liberal politician of the nineteenth century, William Gladstone is one of the most important figures in the history of Victorian Britain. His diaries constitute an essential source of information about his life and times, and their publication under the editorship of Colin Matthew, was one of the great historical publishing projects of recent times. This book, a follow-up to Matthew's 'Gladstone, 1809-1874,' collects the introductory essays from the volumes of these diaries; together, they provide considerable insight into the later life and career of the most remarkable politician of Victorian England.

In 1875 Gladstone was a fit 65 years old. Though he had announced his retirement the year before, this meant retirement from politics (which he always saw as a second-order activity), as he devoted himself to a number of theological and ecclesiastical debates. He remained an elemental force in politics, however, and his anger with the massacre of Bulgarian Christians by their Ottoman rulers precipitated his return to the political arena. The result was the famous Midlothian campaign, which Matthew defines as one of the great set-pieces in the history of Victorian Britain.

Matthew argues that Gladstone's return to politics was defined by his earlier retirement. The Midlothian Campaign set the stage for his political activity after 1875, which took the form of 'campaigns' inspired by unusual crises and special causes. As a result he discovered the politically abnormal issues and orchestrated politics around them - in effect, as Matthew puts it, giving politics a millenarian tone. Gladstone's campaign for the seat was also notable, though, for the introduction of a new type of political communication - the stump speech. This was a product of the changes that Victorian Britain was undergoing, a result of the expansion of the electorate and the emergence of the popular press - for, as Matthew notes, Gladstone's audience wasn't the listeners but the readers of the newspapers which carried his speeches.

Gladstone's success was reflected in the returns from the general election of 1880, which not only saw him triumphant in Midlothian but the return of the Liberals to government as well. Matthew's account of Gladstone's second administration comprises a quarter of the book, and focuses on the main areas of the prime minister's concern. The first was in foreign affairs, where Gladstone was most committed to restoring right conduct after the excesses of 'Beaconsfieldism.' Here Matthew sees the prime minister as prescient in his concern about imperial "overstretch," recognizing the importance of the economy in defining Britain's strength and worrying about the burden the empire was placing upon it. Yet the occupation of Egypt in 1882 was a measure far more expansionistic than anything undertaken by Disraeli's government, though Matthew notes that Gladstone considered this intervention much more justified than those of the previous administration. Domestically, Gladstone's government was more successful, particularly with parliamentary reform, which Matthew considers the great legislative triumph of the administration.

Yet it was Ireland that ultimately occupied most of Gladstone's attention, becoming the issue that would dominate the remainder of his political career. Upon returning to office in 1880, his government faced rising tension in Ireland over the issue of land, tension embodied in the rise of the Land League. In response, Gladstone wanted to readjust social and financial relationships without an expensive scheme of land purchase. This meant maintaining the predominantly Protestant landowning class, which he believed was the key to keeping order when in fact the opposite was increasingly the case. By preserving the landowners, land agitation grew, which led to more coercion, which in turn led to the demise of Liberalism in Ireland and the growth of the Home Rule movement.

Faced with this problem, the prime minister eventually embraced Home Rule as the solution. Here Matthew charts Gladstone's intellectual construction of his approach towards Home Rule, noting that his conversion to the issue was by gradual evolution rather than sudden change. The key to this process was recognition of the new pluralism in the region and containing it within parliamentary absolutism - a process rooted in the assumption that the Home Rulers were willing to operate within the constitutional sphere. Yet while Gladstone courted the Home Rulers, his assumption that the Liberals would rally behind the measure - which was in line with his traditional 'big bill' approach towards handling his party in the House of Commons - proved disastrously incorrect, splitting the party and setting the stage for the Conservative victory in the election of 1886. Though acknowledging the rejection of Gladstone's proposal, Matthew argues that it provided the framework for discussing constitutional revision of the United Kingdom for the century that followed.

While an elderly figure after his defeat in 1885-6, Gladstone retained much of his vigor. Unlike the aftermath of the Liberal defeat in 1874, Gladstone was committed to winning another election in order to form another government which would successfully pass Home Rule. Apart from some initial approaches to Parnell (an overture that was thwarted by the sensational O'Shea divorce case), however, Matthew argues that Gladstone did little to formulate a party consensus on the particulars of a new Home Rule Bill prior to taking office once more as Prime Minister after the weak Liberal victory in the 1892 election. The legislation which emerged was more limited than its predecessor, and though passed by the Commons it was defeated in the Lords, thus frustrating Gladstone's last great legislative measure. With his age increasingly beginning to tell, Gladstone retired in 1894, dying four years later.

Few books can equal this volume in its perceptiveness about Gladstone's later years. A winner of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize when it was first published, it is a necessary read for anybody seeking to understand the life and career of one of the most important figures in modern British history.

H.C.G. Matthew

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