DOCSLIB.ORG

52 Bebbington Gladstonian Lib

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
52 Bebbington Gladstonian Lib GLADSTONIAN LIBERALISM ACCORDING TO GLADSTONE 14 Journal of Liberal History 52 Autumn 2006 GLADSTONIAN LIBERALISM What were the prevailing principles of the Liberal Party in the late Victorian period? David Bebbington explores the views of its leader, W. E. Gladstone. illiam Ewart Liberty oppressive at home. Gladstonian Gladstone was Prominent among Gladstone’s Liberalism certainly embraced a man of ideas. values as Liberal leader was lib- the principle of freedom: ‘with- He read widely, erty, a principle usually associ- out liberty,’ remarked the states- as the collec- ated with classic liberalism. He man, ‘there is nothing sound’.1 Wtion of his books at St Deiniol’s had altered his view of this sub- Gladstone had come to give Library, Hawarden, bears wit- ject since the 1830s, when, as a a high place to liberty chiefly ness, and he wrote extensively. young Conservative MP, he had through developing his eco- He published five separate titles not believed that freedom was nomic views. He had learned on Homer alone; during peri- intrinsically good. Gladstone from Sir Robert Peel that it was ods of opposition he composed a sometimes remarked that the wise to reduce tariff barriers lengthy article every month; and single change of opinion during so as to promote free trade and he encompassed a broad range of his career had been in this area, global prosperity. His economic subjects, taking in not only poli- because he had come to accept synthesis was a Christian ver- tics and Homer but also many the importance of liberty. The sion of political economy deriv- aspects of theology. principle included, he main- ing from the Scottish theologian His most important out- tained, free speech, freedom of Thomas Chalmers. Laws made put was concerned with Lib- assembly, freedom of the press, by human governments, accord- eralism. He acted as leader of freedom to worship and freedom ing to Chalmers, could interfere the Liberal Party from 1866 of the person. It extended in for- with the laws of providence. The onwards, remaining in the role eign affairs to liberty for subject world was designed by its Crea- in substance, if not in name, races struggling to escape from tor to be a self-acting mechanism during the 1870s and not retir- oppression, notably the Bulgar- that, if left alone, would operate ing until 1894. During this ians against the Turks in the efficiently. Hence there should period Gladstone defined what 1870s. Freedom also implied the be as little regulation of trade the principles of Liberalism minimising of the state. People, as possible. Gladstone’s policies were. The focus of this arti- Gladstone held, should not look ‘Without were erected on this foundation. cle is not on particular poli- to the legislature for answers to liberty’, As Chancellor of the Exchequer cies, the stuff of parliamentary their problems, but should seek in the 1850s and 1860s, he called debate, but on Liberal funda- solutions themselves. Here was remarked for retrenchment, the cutting mentals, the groundwork of the rationale for self-help. If the back of public spending. He even Gladstone’s mature political population expected the gov- the states- circulated to his civil servants a theory. What was Gladstonian ernment to provide social ben- memorandum about regularly Liberalism according to Glad- efits, the consequence would man, ‘there counting the number of paper stone? The statesman’s articles be an undermining of freedom. is nothing clips on their desk. None was to and speeches enable us to con- The state would grow and the be wasted. Taxation was to be as struct an answer. government would become sound’. low as possible, with Gladstone Journal of Liberal History 52 Autumn 2006 15 glaDSTONiaN libEralism accorDING TO glaDSTONE constantly aiming for the aboli- Gladstone leaders. Individuals should be own rulers, the bishops, whose tion of income tax. Money was willing to submit their judge- authority was independent of to be left in people’s pockets so should not ment to the inherited wisdom that of the state. Although a that it would circulate and gen- of the collectivity. Reverence strong defender of the Church erate wealth. The population be seen would then function as the glue of England as established, Glad- was to be free in the economic of human communities. stone always insisted that the sphere to engage in enterprise. as an indi- Which communities in par- state was not to interfere with The question arises of whether vidualist, ticular did Gladstone mean? In the internal life of the church, Gladstone should be classified as the first place there was the fam- specially its teaching. His bête an individualist in consequence for he per- ily, the basic building block of noire was Erastianism, the belief of his version of economic lib- society. Its high esteem in the that the state was to control the eralism. Individualism is often ceived the nineteenth century, according church. seen as the kernel of nineteenth- to Gladstone, was one of the This conviction caused seri- century liberalism. Society, on theoretical greatest fruits of Christianity. ous problems in government. this understanding, is an asso- impor- The Christian faith had raised During his first administration, ciation of rational egoists pur- respect for women over the cen- in 1870, the government was suing their own self-interest. tance of turies. In Aristotle, women are responsible for a bill that aimed Gladstone’s concern for liberty wrongly treated as inferior par- to fill the gaps in the national seems to be an assertion of the belonging ticipants in the household. In system of education in England right of the individual to be free Christian teaching, by contrast, and Wales. It had to consider from the tyrannies of the state to human women possessed moral and what form of religious instruc- and so his identification with groups. social equality. There might be a tion should be given in the this perspective appears plau- difference of function, but there new schools. Gladstone wanted sible. His speeches, however, was equality of status. Gladstone there to be dogmatic Anglican show that he set a high value on praised the ‘reciprocal deference’ teaching in accordance with other principles beside freedom. between husband and wife to be the creed. His fellow cabi- He habitually suggested that lib- found in the pages of Homer.3 net members, on the contrary, erty needed to be balanced by The family was the essential wanted the religious training to order, or law and order, or loy- training ground for children. be acceptable to all Protestants, alty. Liberty did not stand alone And, not least for that reason, whether Anglican, Methodist, in splendid isolation as a sanction the statesman denounced threats Congregationalist or whatever. for individualism. Rather, val- to the family. In 1857, when he There were acute tensions in ues associated with the commu- was out of office, the govern- cabinet until, in the end, the bill nity were ranked alongside it. ment introduced a bill to allow was passed in the form preferred Gladstone should not be seen as divorce. Previously divorce had by his colleagues. One of the an individualist, for he perceived been possible only by means of a greatest legislative measures of the theoretical importance of separate act of parliament, which his government enacted a policy belonging to human groups. by its cumbersome and expen- that Gladstone himself detested. sive nature was inconceivable for Yet as Prime Minister, Glad- nearly all the population. Now, stone was able to serve the Community although limited to very specific Church of England. The bishops Another feature of Gladsto- circumstances, divorce was to were appointed by the Queen on nian Liberalism was therefore be made more widely available. the advice of her premier, and community. The language of Gladstone resisted vehemently so Gladstone was able to rec- community runs through Glad- in parliament, arguing that mar- ommend men who would give stone’s discourse. It is applied riage was sacred and designed able leadership on the episco- to corporate life of all kinds, to be permanent. Although pal bench. He drew up a list of whether small or large, at home his campaign was unsuccessful the qualities he looked for in a or abroad. ‘The sense of a com- and the bill passed into law, the potential bishop: mon life’, he declared in 1890, strength of his opposition was ‘– parochial, municipal, county, an index of the high value Glad- Piety. Learning (sacred). national – is an ennobling quali- stone placed on the family. Eloquence. Administrative fication to civilised man.’2 Each A second community that power. Faithful allegiance individual must show respect Gladstone envisaged as hav- to the Church and to the for the whole, for the common ing a place in social theory was Church of England. Activity. good. This bond of human soci- the church. Gladstone, though Tact and courtesy in dealings ety Gladstone called ‘reverence’. beginning as an evangelical, had with men: knowledge of the There must be reverence for the adopted a high view of the place world. Accomplishments and customary, traditional ways of of the church as a visible and literature. An equitable spirit. the group, and especially for its organised society. It possessed its Faculty of working with his 16 Journal of Liberal History 52 Autumn 2006 glaDSTONiaN libEralism accorDING TO glaDSTONE brother bishops. Some legal in the direction of local affairs, and Britain that might well have habit of mind. Circumspec- would go on to become MPs. averted the troubles of the suc- tion. Courage. Maturity of age Gladstone in office set himself ceeding century. Irish Home and character. Corporal vigour. to extend local government, his Rule was an indication of Glad- Liberal sentiments on public last bill as Prime Minister being stone’s commitment to giving affairs.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Edwardian Comedy and Progressive Politics
    Back to the Future: Edwardian Comedy and Progressive Politics by Rachel McArthur A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Toronto © Copyright by Rachel McArthur 2018 Back to the Future: Edwardian Comedy and Progressive Politics Rachel McArthur Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Toronto 2018 Abstract The Edwardian period is often figured as a garden party broken up by the First World War. Looking back on the early twentieth century from the perspective of the twenty first, a different, strikingly contemporary picture emerges: amidst social and technological change, world capitals were haunted by the threat of instability and economic inequality, while the political left faced urgent questions about its continued relevance. Contrary to the image of the period as complacent on the brink of disaster, my dissertation asserts that the Edwardians were deeply invested in building a better future through both political reform and literary comedy. Both comedy and progressive reform look toward the future; in both cases, the Edwardians negotiated between convention and innovation to attempt to create a more equitable future. The dissertation ultimately illustrates the crucial role of the period in literary history and how its lessons may inform our own, which it much resembles. In order to do so, my readings of specifically Edwardian texts are situated in relation to larger historical narratives of both comedy as a genre and political reform. The first chapter reads George Meredith’s “Essay on Comedy” (1877) and The Egoist (1879) alongside Gladstonian Liberal reforms. Like those interventions, the “Essay” looks toward beneficial changes within existing traditions, while The Egoist puts them into practice.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Southampton Research Repository
    University of Southampton Research Repository Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis and, where applicable, any accompanying data are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis and the accompanying data cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content of the thesis and accompanying research data (where applicable) must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder/s. When referring to this thesis and any accompanying data, full bibliographic details must be given, e.g. Alastair Paynter (2018) “The emergence of libertarian conservatism in Britain, 1867-1914”, University of Southampton, Department of History, PhD Thesis, pp. 1-187. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES History The emergence of libertarian conservatism in Britain, 1867-1914 by Alastair Matthew Paynter Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2018 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES History Doctor of Philosophy THE EMERGENCE OF LIBERTARIAN CONSERVATISM IN BRITAIN, 1867-1914 by Alastair Matthew Paynter This thesis considers conservatism’s response to Collectivism during a period of crucial political and social change in the United Kingdom and the Anglosphere. The familiar political equipoise was disturbed by the widening of the franchise and the emergence of radical new threats in the form of New Liberalism and Socialism. Some conservatives responded to these changes by emphasising the importance of individual liberty and the preservation of the existing social structure and institutions.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Liberalism Redefined?: the Intellectual Origins and Development of British Neoliberalism 1929 - 1955
    Classical Liberalism redefined?: The intellectual origins and development of British Neoliberalism 1929 - 1955 Elliott Banks MA by research University of York History December 2017 Abstract Neoliberalism is often viewed as a global intellectual movement detached from the ideas and politi- cal economy of the individual nation-state. However, the origins of what has subsequently been de- scribed as neoliberalism were heavily based on the intellectual traditions of the nation-state. Early British neoliberalism drew heavily on the thoughts and ideas of British classical liberal philosophers and political economists to justify their arguments on why the economy should be free to operate under market conditions. British neoliberalism rather than being detached from the intellectual tra- dition of British classical liberalism embraced some core tenets with the early neo-liberal theorists seeking to update and modernise the classical pillars of the British liberal tradition whilst recognis- ing the flaws of nineteenth-century laissez-faire liberalism and capitalism. The goal of this was to create a new type of liberalism and deliver a distinctive alternative to the prevailing collectivist movements of the 1930s and 1940s which would ultimately have influence in the 1970s and 1980s with the government of Margaret Thatcher and beyond. !2 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Acknowledgements 4 Declaration 5 I 12 II 28 III 42 IV 60 V 76 Bibliography 81 Appendix One: Free trade posters during the 1906 Election Campaign 85 Appendix II: The Land 87 !3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my academic supervisor Dr Chris Renwick for all of his assistance in the writ- ing of this thesis, his patience during our countless meetings helped to clarify my thoughts on this very complex subject.
    [Show full text]
  • Gladstonian Liberalism: a Catalyst for Social Representation and Democratic Reform in Victorian Britain
    Pittsburg State University Pittsburg State University Digital Commons Electronic Thesis Collection Spring 5-12-2018 GLADSTONIAN LIBERALISM: A CATALYST FOR SOCIAL REPRESENTATION AND DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN Jason Belcher Pittsburg State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd Part of the European History Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation Belcher, Jason, "GLADSTONIAN LIBERALISM: A CATALYST FOR SOCIAL REPRESENTATION AND DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN" (2018). Electronic Thesis Collection. 244. https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/244 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis Collection by an authorized administrator of Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GLADSTONIAN LIBERALISM: A CATALYST FOR SOCIAL REPRESENTATION AND DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of History Jason Samuel Belcher Pittsburg State University Pittsburg, Kansas March 2018 i GLADSTONIAN LIBERALISM: A CATALYST FOR SOCIAL REPRESENTATION AND DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN Jason Samuel Belcher APPROVED: Thesis Advisor _______________________________________________ Dr. Michael Thompson, The department of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences
    [Show full text]
  • Compassionate Conservatism What It Is Why We Need It
    compassionate conser David Cameron has made “compassionate v conservatism” a priority for the Conservative Party, atism famously saying that “there is such a thing as society; it’s just not the same thing as the state.” compassionate But what is compassionate conservatism? What does conservatism it have to say about the challenges that face Britain J esse Norman and J today? What vision of society does it offer to inspire and guide future policymaking? what it is These are the subjects of this provocative and why we need it important book. anan Ganesh Superb ...What the Conservatives need now is not“ re-branding but an actual philosophical and policy basis for action. This book brilliantly provides that basis. It shows not just why the Tories Jesse Norman are ready for government again, but why Britain needs them – badly Janan Ganesh Andrew Sullivan, author,” blogger and Sunday Times columnist Policy Exchange foundations ISBN 0-9551909-3-2 Policy Exchange Clutha House, 10 Storey’s Gate London SW1P 3AY www.policyexchange.org.uk foundations Document1.qxd 06/06/2006 16:50 Page i compassionate conservatism What it is Why we need it Jesse Norman Janan Ganesh Document1.qxd 06/06/2006 16:50 Page ii © Jesse Norman 2006 Published by Policy Exchange Clutha House 10 Storey’s Gate London SW1P 3AY 020 7340 2650 www.policyexchange.org.uk ISBN 0-9551909-3-2 Printed by Heron Dawson & Sawyer Designed by John Schwartz, [email protected] Document1.qxd 06/06/2006 16:50 Page iii Contents Introduction 1 1 The state we’re really in 5 2 It’s the society, stupid 21 3 Compassion vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph A.Schumpeter
    CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY When Joseph Schumpeter’s book first appeared, the New English Weekly predicted that ‘for the next five to ten years it will certainly remain a work with which no one who professes any degree of information on sociology or economics can afford to be unacquainted’. The prophecy has been justified, but how much more fully than its maker anticipated. A generation later, it is more widely read than when it first appeared. The mixed economy has become established in North America as well as in the countries of the European Community, while in the socialist countries there has been a move towards various forms of decentralisation and of a market economy. In this new context the issues that Schumpeter raises are still matters of lively debate. CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY Joseph A.Schumpeter INTRODUCTION BY RICHARD SWEDBERG Stockholm University London and New York First published in the USA This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. First published in the UK in 1943 First impression 1944 Second edition 1947 Third edition 1950 First impression 1952 Fourth edition 1954 Eighth impression 1974 Fifth edition 1976 Third impression 1981 New in paperback 1994 © George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd 1976 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
    [Show full text]
  • William Gladstone: Providence and the People, 1838-1865
    William Gladstone: Providence and the People, 1838-1865 By Jack Dickens, University of Cambridge Abstract which the man himself and his contemporaries experienced highly disorientating change and transformations.2 Te career of William Gladstone was one of the most Unsurprisingly, therefore, precisely what caused Gladstone dramatic journeys in nineteenth-century British politics. to abandon the Toryism castigated by Tomas Babington Indeed, few politicians in recent history have been at the Macaulay in the Edinburgh Review and to embrace the forefront of politics for so long, or so profoundly transformed populism of the 1860s is a matter of great contention by that experience. In his review of William Gladstone’s amongst historians. Indeed, Gladstone’s contemporaries Te State in its relations with the Church (1838), the whig themselves drew starkly diferent conclusions about his writer and historian Tomas Babington Macaulay described apparently Lazarean resurrection in the 1850s and 1860s as the young Gladstone as ‘the rising hope of those stern and the torchbearer of liberal fnancial reform and a champion unbending Tories.’ Macaulay’s review was aimed at an MP of ‘the people’. Te Liberal politician, writer, and friend of who had opposed full civil rights for all non-Anglicans Gladstone, John Morley, in 1902 biography, believed that his and who upheld above all other principles the ideal of subject had remained throughout his career a ‘pilgrim’ who a theological state allied and subjected to a politically sought, and eventually found the expression of his innate active established Church. Yet thirty years later in 1868, liberality in the Liberalism of his older age.
    [Show full text]
  • New Liberalism
    New Liberalism The New Liberals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century made the case against laissez-faire classical liberalism and in favour of state intervention to tackle impediments to freedom such as poverty, ignorance and disease. They saw individual liberty as something achievable only under favourable social and economic circumstances. The New Liberal programme came to underpin most of the legislative achievements of the 1906–14 Liberal governments and marked the party’s transformation to social liberalism. New Liberalism, a term was first used by the Liberal MP L.A. Atherley-Jones in 1889, emerged at the end of the nineteenth century largely as a reaction to the Liberal Party’s failure, under William Gladstone, to formulate an adequate response to the new social problems of industrialisation. Although radical pressure for ‘constructionist’ legislation – for example, the free elementary education, graduated taxation and land reform of Joseph Chamberlain’s ‘Unauthorised Programme’ of 1885 – had been growing for some time, Gladstone used great moral questions, such as Home Rule for Ireland, to steer the party away from the state-sponsored social reforms to which he remained firmly opposed. The departure of most of the remaining Whigs in the breakaway Liberal Unionist Party in 1886, Gladstone’s retirement in 1894 and the disastrous elections of 1895 and 1900 opened the way to new thinking. Although living standards in general had risen throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, society was increasingly marred by the spread of slums, poverty, ignorance and disease. To add to that, the ending of the long mid-Victorian economic boom had removed the belief that economic growth would automatically solve such social problems.
    [Show full text]
  • 93 Davenport Distributists and the Liberal Party
    Liberal thought John B. Davenport analyses the Distributists and their impact. The Distributists and the Liberal Party Hilaire Belloc ne of the many factions subsumed in the product of a period of ideological redefini- (1870–1953) the Liberal Party before the First World tion – one which allowed individual Liberals con- G. K. Chesterton OWar were the Distributists, a small, self- siderable intellectual freedom. The failure of the (1874–1936) conscious, and intellectually influential group party to define the essence of modern Liberalism, of radical High Churchmen, who attempted to both before the First World War, and thereafter, marry their understanding of Christian social eventually led, of course, to the disintegration of teaching to a miscellany of traditional Liberal the party between the wars. The Distributists, preoccupations of the Edwardian period. These as eclectic Radical Liberals, entered the politi- particularly included British land reform on the cal wilderness after Versailles, eschewing the Irish model, home rule for the entirety of Ireland, standard ideologies of the day, whether ‘scientific’ limiting plutocratic influence on government, socialism, ‘New’ or ‘classical’ liberalism, or Con- and defining a social programme between ‘collec- servatism – of either the Red Tory or reactionary tivism’ and ‘individualism’ – a coherent ‘Liberal- varieties. The ‘centrist’ quality of pre-war Lib- ism’ between the socialist Scylla and Conservative eral reform (with which they often sympathised Charybdis. The Distributists were very much but which, after the war seemed missing from 26 Journal of Liberal History 93 Winter 2016–17 The Distributists and the Liberal Party British politics) they rediscovered, after a fash- death in 1928; and Cecil was a less-focused icon- ion, in Catholic social teaching.
    [Show full text]
  • Work and Employment in State-Citizen Relations in England 1880-2007
    Loughborough University Institutional Repository Towards an enabling state? Work and employment in state-citizen relations in England 1880-2007 This item was submitted to Loughborough University's Institutional Repository by the/an author. Additional Information: • A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fullment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University. Metadata Record: https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/13651 Publisher: c Michael Fitchett Please cite the published version. This item was submitted to Loughborough University as a PhD thesis by the author and is made available in the Institutional Repository (https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/) under the following Creative Commons Licence conditions. For the full text of this licence, please go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ I • Lo':'ghb,orough • Uruvers1ty University Library Author/Filing Title ...... ... f..!.T<;-..ti ..€!. ..! . .................. ........................................................................................,- Class Mark .................................................................... Please note that fines are charged on ALL overdue items. TOWARDS AN ENABLING STATE? Work and Employment in State-Citizen Relations in England 1880-2007 By Michael Fitchett Doctoral thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of PhD of Loughborough University Spring 2011 © Michael Fitchett 1 Abstract This study represents the intellectual biography of an idea. That idea is the Welfare to
    [Show full text]
  • THE FOREIGN POLICY of WILLIAM GLADSTONE in the 1860S The
    THE FOREIGN POLICY OF WILLIAM GLADSTONE IN THE 1860s The limits of liberalism in victorian England BY ORLANDO W.G. KNAUSS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Honors in History at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, on April 29, 1989. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION page 1 II. PHASE I page 5 ENDNOTES FOR PHASE I page 25 IV. PHASE II page 29 ENDNOTES FOR PHASE II page 48 VI. PHASE III page 52 ENDNOTES FOR PHASE III page 73 VIII. CONCLUSION page 77 IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY page 81 INTRODUCTION William E. Gladstone was the rising star of the Liberal Party between 1859 and 1874. His domestic and foreign policy played a role in the two most important developments of this period in British History: the surge of liberalism and the loss of British influence in European affairs. Because he was the leading British statesman of the period, Gladstone's statesmanship is widely blamed by contemporaries and historians for Britain's decline in European affairs at the time of otto von Bismarck's ascendancy. This study seeks to answer the question of whether Gladstone's statesmanship is to blame for Great Britain's dramatic slip in European influence. The prevailing view is that Gladstone's statesmanship in this period failed to contend with the shrewd Realpolitik of Bismarck. As a result, critics of Gladstone contend, Britain fell from the leading role to secondary status in European diplomatic circles in less than ten years. Historians like Paul Kennedy and Raymond sontag condemn Gladstone's statesmanship, while others, such as Paul Knaplund and H.C.G.
    [Show full text]
  • Gladstone and Disraeli:
    J. A. Blyth ' ' I i J GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI: .. IMAGES" IN VICTORIAN POLITICS I THP. ELECTORATE OF OUR AGE is naturally inclined to judge the worth of a political party from the image projected by the leader. This might be attributed largely to television, but this type of political appeal is far from being a recent phenomenon. There were, in nineteenth-century Britain, two politicians whose ability as image builders has rarely been surpassed-William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. It is revealing to note at the outset that recent British prime ministers have paid tribute to these two Victorian giants. Harold Macmillan carried the idea of Tory Democracy into the 1960s and regarded Disraeli as his hero. Harold Wilson, on the other hand, has looked upon Gladstone as his political model. Partisanship towards Disraeli can be detected when Macmillan is described as the last of the great Victorians, but the political dexterity of the Labour chief merely earns him the description of "Slippery Wilson". The duel between Gladstone and Disraeli began when they emerged as the leaders of the Liberal and of the Conservative party, at the time when the Second Reform Bill was being passed, between 1866 and 1867. Democracy was slowly gaining upon a still well-entrenched aristocracy as a result of the partial enfranchisement of the working class. Both party Leaders mapped out their tactics accordingly, while having to carefully consider the characteristics of their own party. For the careers of Disraeli and Gladstone had been closely linked to the development of their parties in the previous twenty years.
    [Show full text]