A ‘prophet for the left’? Gladstone’s legacy 1809–2009

22 Journal of Liberal History 64 Autumn 2009 A ‘prophet for the left’? Gladstone’s legacy 1809–2009 In the year of the 200th anniversary of his birth, what relevance has Gladstone to today’s politics? Eugenio F. Biagini examines his legacy.

n 18 April 1992 started soon to (1853–55, 1859–65) he estab- behave as if they were actually lished the free trade fiscal system devoted its lead- taking The Economist’s advice to which soon become a new con- ing article to ‘A heart. Certainly at the time they sensus, defining the relationship prophet for the were perceived to be doing so, between citizens and the state Left’:O this was neither Marx not only by the press but also by for the next seventy years.1 Later, nor Gandhi, but Gladstone. political analysts and historians. between 1868 and 1885, Glad- He dominated the magazine’s So, what made Gladstone’s stone became the great ‘mod- cover illustration, where he was legacy politically relevant on erniser’ of British politics and represented surrounded by the the eve of the new millennium? society, presiding over two of microphones of journalists eager And which legacy are we talk- the most significant reform gov- to pick his brain on current ing about? Gladstone enjoyed ernments in the history of these political affairs. For the occa- an extraordinarily long career, isles. Separation between church sion the Grand Old Man (GOM) starting out as a Tory idealist in and state in Ireland, a democrati- was made to wear a colourful 1832 and ending up as the hero cally managed system of primary green coat, embroidered with of the Liberal left in 1896 (when education, the reform of trade red, yellow and purple roses. he delivered his last, famous union legislation, the first major As the roses and their colours public speech on the duty of steps towards ‘meritocracy’ in suggested, The Economist rec- the international community to the armed forces, reform of uni- ommended this ‘post-modern’ stop the Armenian massacres). versity education, and the most rendition of the great Victorian From 1846 he moved away from radical restructuring of the elec- reformer as a model for ‘the left’. the Conservative Party after toral system hitherto attempted It was quite a remarkable claim it rejected Sir – to (in 1883–85) – these were some to make after over a decade of whom Gladstone was very close of the historic achievements of Thatcherism, during which – and between 1853 and 1859 he the Gladstone governments. ‘Victorian values’ had become drew closer to the Liberals over However, the ultimate rea- almost a Tory battle cry. How- the Italian Risorgimento, which son for the GOM’s enduring ever, what was even more inter- William Ewart polarised both public opinion appeal is not his record as a esting is that the leaders of both Gladstone and the parties in Parliament. reformer, but his ability to rein- the Liberal Democrats and the (1809–98) As Chancellor of the Exchequer vent and redefine liberalism as

Journal of Liberal History 64 Autumn 2009 23 a ‘prophet for the left’? gladstone’s legacy 1809–2009

Cover of The of property rights, Gladstone Economist, 18 promptly answered that Price April 1992 spoke as if the government’s task was to legislate ‘for the inhabit- ants of the Moon’, rather than for British subjects in flesh and blood. The point he was try- ing to make was that the needs of real people in their historical context were to be given prior- ity over ideology and economic dogmas. The latter should be modified to suit human needs, not vice versa.

The realpolitik of Christian humanitarianism If this emphasis on needs cre- ating rights was a new depar- ture, the reasoning behind it had gradually emerged over the years, particularly in the aftermath of the Irish famine of 1845–50. However, for Glad- stone himself the real turning point had less to do with either Ireland or political economy than with the 1875–78 Balkan crisis. The Turkish Empire in Europe was crumbling under the politics of human rights. In fact, in Gladstone’s day the combined impact of external Traditional liberalism was a government intervention pressure and domestic revolts. creed of gradual constitutional became increasingly popular. In trying to crush a rebellion reform, combined with clas- Although most of it was car- in Eastern Rumelia, Ottoman sical political economy, free ried out by local authorities – as irregular troops killed thousands trade and self-help as the basic exemplified by Joseph Cham- of civilians (as many as 15,000, rules defining the relationship berlain’s municipalisation of gas it was claimed at the time), in between state and society. Hav- and water supplies in Birming- the course of what came to be ing established these principles ham – Whitehall was prepared remembered as the Bulgarian as government practice, Glad- to step in whenever necessary: Atrocities. Similar episodes had stone himself began tinkering Gladstone nationalised the tel- taken place in previous decades with them from as early as 1870 egraphs, which became a state in other parts of the Ottoman with his first Irish Land Act, monopoly in 1870,3 and in 1881 Empire, but this time the mas- which interfered with property his second Irish Land Bill estab- sacres received extensive media rights in an attempt to improve lished farmers’ rights through a coverage, with the Daily News the lot of the tenants. This was system of joint ownership. This and other newspapers describ- a departure from laissez-faire, measure was an attempt to stabi- ing them in chilling detail. Brit- although we must bear in mind lise social relations in the Emer- ish opinion was outraged, with that Gladstonian liberalism was ald Isle by giving tenants a stake the Nonconformists and other not really about the ‘minimal- both in their country and in the pressure groups demanding ist state’, but about ‘dismantling rule of law. But there was a fur- government action to stop the protectionism and chartered ther dimension to Gladstone’s atrocities, whether or not this state monopolies, creating a argument, which emerged dur- was consistent with British real- sense … that the state was not ing the parliamentary debate politik. But Disraeli – who was favouring a group over another leading to the adoption of this then Prime Minister, his party through tax breaks or privi- measure. When the free-market having defeated the Liberals in leges’, and therefore ‘about a MP and economist Bonamy the 1874 election – was sceptical new form of regulation and Price criticised the Prime Min- about the reports and remained anti-monopolism’.2 ister for his cavalier handling supportive of the Ottomans,

24 Journal of Liberal History 64 Autumn 2009 a ‘prophet for the left’? gladstone’s legacy 1809–2009

Britain’s traditional allies in the always been part of politics, as 9 May 1992 Paddy Ashdown Eastern Mediterranean. illustrated by the anti-slavery delivered what he regards as Gladstone was at first reluc- campaigns and other moral and ‘[his] most important speech as tant to intervene: although he social reform agitations. Not Lib Dem Leader, and one [he] had long been interested in only did humanitarian rheto- had been thinking about for human rights, he was weary of ric appeal to radicals across the almost a year’: ‘[i]t proposed … popular imperialism, which class divide; it also spanned a new coming together of the had humiliated him more than the gap between the genders, Left to form a progressive alli- once, and in any case at the evoking a strong response ance dedicated to ending the time he was not Liberal Party among women, who perceived Tory hegemony and bringing leader, having stepped down in Gladstone’s new liberalism as in radical reforms to the British 1875. But as the Parliamentary a natural development of the Constitution, beginning with Liberal Party failed to chal- religious and charitable work a Scottish Parliament.’7 He also lenge the government and the which was – according to con- championed a more active for- groundswell of protest contin- temporary expectations – part eign policy: rejecting the prag- ued to grow, in September 1876 of their social and civic duty. matic empiricism of , he finally threw himself into In the 1876 Bulgarian agitation he wanted Britain to stand up for the agitation. He articulated women had played a large role, human rights. His adoption of his views in a pamphlet, The and, by encouraging their fur- such a platform was a direct con- Bulgarian Horrors and the Ques- ther involvement in later Lib- sequence of his witnessing the tion of the East, which became eral crusades, such as those for ethnic cleansing in the Balkans an immediate best-seller, and in Irish Home Rule, Gladstone – in a region not far from the public speeches which attracted brought about a significant setting of the 1876 ‘Bulgarian wide audiences and sparked off redefinition of civic identity, Atrocities’.8 He himself became a national debate. He criticised the Liberal ‘self’, and the pub- more and more Gladstonian in both the Tory government and, lic conscience.5 That this hap- his commitment to the rights indirectly, also the leaders of pened, despite him and the of persecuted minorities in the the Liberal Party. They were all party being opposed to politi- Balkans and elsewhere. ‘guilty men’ for their compla- cal rights for women in parlia- Almost simultaneously, from cency about human suffering, mentary elections, was entirely as early as 1993–94, his rival to which they turned a blind typical of this age of transi- was reaching similar eye for the sake of misconceived tion from a system based on a conclusions about the new poli- British imperial priorities. The restricted franchise to one of tics of the left. As Denis Kavan- debate went on for years. In fuller democracy. agh has observed, there was the 1878 Disraeli (by then Lord Bea- sense that Blair was taking an consfield) secured a temporary approach to politics which was triumph for his approach to the Gladstone’s legacy in the ‘an echo of Gladstone’, in that crisis at the Berlin Congress, but twentieth century it had ‘deep moral and ethical Gladstone struck back in 1879 ‘Come back, William Glad- rather than ideological roots’.9 with his first Midlothian cam- stone, the saddened left has Something like a Lib–Lab elec- paign, during which he enunci- need of you.’ Thus pleaded toral pact did take shape in the ated the principles of a Liberal The Economist in 1992, inviting run-up to the general election of foreign and imperial policy reformers to embrace his legacy, 1997, at which each of the two based on European cooperation which ‘[had] gone begging for parties secured a historical elec- and a Christian understanding a proper party champion ever toral victory. Was it the begin- of international law. Effectively, ‘Come back, since Labour displaced the Lib- ning of a neo-Gladstonian phase he claimed that Tory politics erals in the 1920s’.6 The strategy in British politics? Certainly were both immoral and coun- William Glad- it endorsed was ‘Gladstonian’ ‘New Labour’ managed the terproductive, and that humani- not only in its disdain of class Treasury along post-Thatcherite tarianism was the best form of stone, the politics and its reclaiming of lines, Robin Cook proclaimed realpolitik.4 saddened individualism as part of the tra- the government’s adoption of an The Liberal front bench was dition of the ‘left’, but also in its ‘ethical’ foreign policy, and Blair not pleased, but in the country left has need championing of a revival of the started to apply what looked like activists revelled in the sense Lib–Lab alliance reminiscent of Ashdown’s militant humani- that party stood for ‘right- of you.’ Thus that over which Gladstone had tarianism to troubled areas of eousness’ and ‘truth’. This presided in the last quarter of the the world. Over the following was particularly important pleaded The nineteenth century. five years the press had plenty for both the Nonconformists Economist in If the GOM was now The of opportunities to explore the and working-class radicals, for Economist’s ‘prophet’, this article GOM’s relevance to twenty- whom humanitarianism had 1992. proved prophetic indeed. On first-century politics – and to

Journal of Liberal History 64 Autumn 2009 25 a ‘prophet for the left’? gladstone’s legacy 1809–2009 criticise Blair as the new Glad- Similar ideas – that the war was 1930, Herbert Samuel – support- stone.10 Political analysts and, a ‘crusade’ and that foreign poli- ing a parliamentary resolution in soon, historians did the same, tics was a matter of humanitarian favour of compulsory arbitration noting that that there was the intervention – were at the time – cited Gladstone’s authority and sense of Blair trying to deal with canvassed by Liberal intellectu- contrasted the Liberal advocacy Gladstone’s ‘unfinished business’ als, such as Gilbert Murray.14 of the rule of international law – in particular with Scottish and Even the rise of ‘Parliamentary with Conservative unilateral- Welsh devolution (first debated socialism’ did not diminish the ism, which, he said, was no bet- in the late 1880s), the reform relevance of Gladstonianism to ter than international anarchy.18 of the (which international relations and mat- It seemed as if in 1930 as in Gladstone had recommended in ters of civil rights. Thus the 1876, an updated but perfectly his last speech in the Commons, Labour manifesto of November recognisable version of ‘Glad- in 1894), and the attempt to ‘pac- 1918 included the idea of Home stonianism’ continued to repre- ify Ireland’.11 Rule (‘freedom’ for Ireland and sent one of the main differences It was ironic that, in order to ‘self-determination within the between the Liberals and the ‘modernise’ the Labour Party at British Commonwealth’ for Tory Party.19 Yet, after 1918, the beginning of the twenty- India), the repeal of wartime the circumstances of the times first century, its leader felt com- restrictions on civil and indus- forced even the Conservatives pelled to hark back to the man trial liberty, a commitment to adopt many of the policies who had led the Liberal Party to free trade and to ‘a Peace of which the GOM had cherished, a century before. It was – or International Co-operation’.15 including self-government for ought to have been regarded as Labour’s bold reassertion of Ireland and the disestablishment – a major admission of failure of Gladstonianism, at a stage when of the Church in Wales, free the whole Labour project. How- the Liberals were both divided trade (in 1925–29), and a rejec- ever, Blair claimed that he was and discredited by coalition pol- tion of their traditional approach merely returning to the move- itics, appealed to radical intel- to the Empire and foreign policy ment’s origins. After all, in the lectuals and publicists – such in favour of a conciliatory strat- 1880s Ramsay MacDonald, as C. P. Trevelyan, Norman egy which owed more to Glad- Philip Snowden, Arthur Hend- Angell, Arthur Ponsonby, J. A. stone than to either erson, and George Lansbury had Hobson, E. D. Morel and H. N. or Salisbury. Thus we have a all started from Gladstonianism, Brailsford – who abandoned the paradox: in 1918–29 Liberal prin- which was then the common It was ironic Liberals because they felt that ciples dominated post-war Brit- ground among all the ‘currents Lloyd George had betrayed the ish politics, although the party of radicalism’ in Britain.12 that, in order cause of freedom. was unable to win a majority at When did such Lib–Lab fra- Meanwhile, the Liberals, too, the elections. ternity come to an end? It is to ‘mod- continued to use the GOM’s By contrast, during the not easy to say, because within ernise’ the language and further develop period from 1931 to 1979 poli- Labour there were always ‘lib- his legacy, with Francis Hirst tics was dominated by continu- erals’ of one type or another. Labour Party defending Gladstone’s record as a ous domestic and international The First World War was not financier and an economist, J. L. emergencies which seemed to necessarily a turning point: at the begin- Hammond celebrating his cam- demand the adoption of policies from 1914 to 1917 both Herbert paigns for democracy and Irish which were the opposite of what Asquith and ning of the freedom, and many others look- Gladstone had advocated. This sang from the same Gladsto- twenty-first ing up to his approach to foreign applied particularly to social nian hymn sheet. Henderson in policy as the Liberal blueprint.16 reform: what was incompatible particular was fond of quoting century, its From 1919, in foreign policy the with Gladstonian liberalism was Gladstone about: League of Nations was the Lib- not state intervention as such, leader felt eral orthodoxy. Although the but corporatism – the broker- public right as the govern- compelled to historical context was different age between organised interests ing idea of European politics from the one in which Glad- outside the legislature, especially … the definite repudiation of hark back to stone had operated, Liberal his- in the shape of the involvement militarism as governing actor torians such Hammond and Paul of the TUC in policy-making in the relations of states. … the man who Knaplund ‘made it [their] task to – which became a feature of the existence of address the problem of interna- British economic ‘malady’ in the smaller nationalities … And had led the tional security and the League post-war years. The Tory reac- … [the development] of a real Liberal Party of Nations, as well as the spas- tion against such practices in the European partnership based modically emerging concept of period between 1979 and 1990 on the recognition of equality a century the “Commonwealth”, through is one of the reasons why some of rights and established and the idiom and the ideals of Glad- scholars have claimed that the enforced by a common will.13 before. stonian Liberalism.’17 As late as Thatcher years represented the

26 Journal of Liberal History 64 Autumn 2009 a ‘prophet for the left’? gladstone’s legacy 1809–2009

Conservative Party’s ‘Gladsto- ‘atrocities’ of ethnic cleansing, It is evidence 12 See ‘Introduction’ to E. F. Biagini nian moment’. Although this is the struggle to affirm human and A. J. Reid (eds.), Currents of controversial,20 as late as 1996, rights and the need for public of Glad- Radicalism (Cambridge, 1991). in her Keith Joseph Memorial scrutiny of foreign policy – have stone’s grip 13 A. Henderson, The Aims of Labour Lecture, the ‘Iron Lady’ herself become even more pressing (London, 1917), p. 36. staked her claims to ‘the liberal- since he first boarded the cam- on the radi- 14 G. Murray, Faith, War And Policy: ism of Mr Gladstone’.21 paign train to address his con- Lectures And Essays (London, 1918); Could she have made the stituents in Midlothian.23 Sadly, cal imagina- see P. Clarke, A Question Of Lead- same claim about her for- in the twenty-first century we ership: From Gladstone to Blair (Lon- eign policy? Were her liberal desperately need to go back to tion that his don, 1999), pp. 87 and 92. imperialism and rhetoric of Mr Gladstone. reputation 15 ‘Labour Manifesto’, The Times, 28 human rights abroad in any November 1918. way ‘Gladstonian’? And what Eugenio Biagini is an alumnus of the remained 16 R.S.Grayson, Liberals, International about Thatcher’s own legacy to Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Relations and Appeasement (London, Tony Blair in these particular and has taught at Newcastle-upon- almost 2001), p. 3. areas? Both Thatcher and Blair Tyne and Princeton, NJ, before 17 D. M. Schreuder, ‘The Making were inconsistent champions of joining the Faculty of History at the untarnished of Mr Gladstone’s Posthumous human rights, but then Glad- University of Cambridge, where he despite Career: The Role of Morley and stone himself was more ambig- teaches British and Irish history. Knaplund as “Monument Masons”’, uous than his great speeches the glaring in B. L. Kinzer (ed.), The Gladsto- suggested, as illustrated by his 1 M. Daunton, Trusting Leviathan: nian Turn of Mind (Toronto, Buf- invasion of Egypt in 1882. The The Politics of Taxation in Britain, inconsistency falo and London, 1985), p. 198. latter was a grand example of 1799–1914 (Cambridge, 2001), pp. The references are to P. Knaplund, ‘regime change’, which Blair 63–72. between Gladstone and Britain’s Imperial Policy and Bush would have been well 2 M. J. Danton, State and Market in his liberal (London, 1927) and Gladstone’s For- advised to study before embark- Victorian Britain (Woodbridge, Suf- eign Policy (London, 1935); and J. L. ing on their own campaign to folk, 2008), pp. 4–5. rhetoric and Hammond, Gladstone and the Irish ‘democratise’ .22 However, 3 I. J. Cohen, ‘Toward a theory of Nation (London, 1938). to be fair to the GOM, we state intervention: the nationaliza- his imperial 18 Hansard Parliamentary Debates, should also remember that lib- tion of the British telegraphs’, Social House of Commons, 27 January eral imperialism was not some- Science History, vol. 4, Spring 1980, policies. 1930, Vol. 234, 682. thing which he had invented, pp. 155–205. 19 Clarke, A Question of Leadership, p. but rather part of an older British 4 E. F. Biagini, British Democracy and 122. tradition which he had inherited Irish Nationalism, 1876–1906 (Cam- 20 Ibid, p. 318; cf. R. Vinen, Thatch- from Palmerston and Canning, bridge, 2007), chapters 1, 2, 6 and 7. er’s Britain: The Politics and Social and which, at the time, was dic- 5 P. Joyce, Democratic Subjects (Cam- Upheaval of the 1980s (London, tated by Britain’s role and inter- bridge, 1994), pp. 206 and 210. 2009), pp. 6–7 and 288–89. ests as the nineteenth century’s 6 ‘A prophet of the Left’, The Econo- 21 Cit. in E. Green, Thatcher (London, only global superpower. mist, 18 April 1992, p. 11. 2006), p. 31. It is evidence of Gladstone’s 7 P. Ashdown, A Fortunate Life: The 22 E. F. Biagini, ‘Exporting “Western grip on the radical imagination Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown & Beneficent Institutions”: Glad- that his reputation remained (London, 2009), p. 268. stone and Britain’s Imperial Role’, almost untarnished despite the 8 Ibid., p. 266. in D. Bebbington and R. Swift glaring inconsistency between 9 D. Kavanagh, ‘New Labour, New (eds.), Gladstone’s Centenary Essays his liberal rhetoric and his impe- Millennium, New Premiership’, in (Liverpool, 2000). rial policies. That he continues A. Seldon (ed.), The Blair Effect (Lon- 23 As Eric Hobsbawm has pointed to speak to the political imagi- don, 2001), p. 7; P. Riddell, ‘Blair as out, the ‘erosion of the distinction nation of left-wing reformers in Prime Minister’, ibid., p. 24. between combatants and non- the twenty-first century must, 10 See for two examples: ‘But is Blair combatants’ – which Gladstone however, generate further his- Playing Churchill or Gladstone?’, had denounced in 1876 and again torical questions. The answer , G2, 4 October 2001; in 1896 – became a leading fea- proposed in the present article is and ‘Blair as Gladstone’, The Times, ture of post-1914 conflicts, to such that, by injecting a massive dose 3 October 2004. an extent that ‘80 to 90 per cent of politicised humanitarianism 11 D. Kavanagh, ‘New Labour, New of those affected by wars today are into the Liberal creed, Gladstone Millennium, New Premiership’, p. civilians’ (in contrast to 5 per cent extended its scope and mean- 7; P. Riddell, ‘Blair as Prime Minis- during the First World War): E. J. ing. The long-term appeal of his ter’, p. 24; V. Bogdanor, ‘Constitu- Hobsbawm, Globalisation, Democ- vision depends on the fact that tional Reform’, in A. Seldon (ed.), racy and Terrorism (London, 2008), p. many of the issues that Glad- The Blair Effect (London, 2001), p. 18. stone raised – in particular, the 154.

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