September 3, 2025 • 19 mins
Join Dr. Lord in this captivating installment of the European Leaders series, where he delves into the lives and legacies of influential figures such as William IV, Sir Robert Peel, Cavour, Czar Nicholas, Louis Napoleon, Prince Bismarck, and William Ewart Gladstone. Discover the pivotal moments that shaped Europe through the stories of these remarkable leaders. (Summary by KHand)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section twenty of Beacon Lights of History, Volume ten, European
Leaders by John Lord. This LibriVox recording is in the
public domain. Recording by K Hand William Ewart Gladstone, Part three.
Mister Gladstone had now swung away from the Conservative Party.
In eighteen sixty four, he had vigorously supported a bill
(00:21):
for enlarging the parliamentary franchise by reducing the limit of
required rental from ten pounds to six pounds, declaring that
the burden of proof rested on those who would exclude
forty nine fiftieths of the working classes from the franchise.
He also, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, caused great excitement
by admitting the unsatisfactory condition of the Irish Church, that is,
(00:42):
the Church of England among the Irish people, sustained by
their taxes, but ministering to only one eighth or one
ninth of the population. These and other similar evidences of
his liberal tendencies alienated his Oxford constituency, the last people
in the realm to adopt liberal measures, and on the
piroguement of Parliament in eighteen sixty five and the new
(01:03):
election which followed, he was defeated as member for the University.
Although he was a high churchman and the pride of
the university devoted to its interests, heart and soul. It
is a proof of the exceeding bitterness of political parties
that such ingratitude should have been shown to one of
the greatest scholars that Oxford has produced for a century.
It was in this year also that, on completing his
(01:23):
term as Rector of the University of Edinburgh, he retired
with a notable address on the place of Ancient Greece
in the Providential Order, thus anew emphasizing his scholarly equipment
as a son of Oxford. The Liberal Party, however, were
generally glad of Gladstone's defeat, since it would detach him
from the University. He now belonged more emphatically to the
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country and was more free and unshackled to pursue his
great career, as Sir Robert Peel had been before him
in similar circumstances. Instead of representing a narrow minded and
bigoted set of clergymen and scholars, he was chosen at
once to represent quite a different body. Even the Liberal
voters of South Lancashire, a manufacturing district. The death of
(02:06):
Lord Palmerston at the age of eighty October seventeenth, eighteen
sixty five made Earl Russell Prime Minister, while Gladstone resumed
under the new government his post as Chancellor of the
Exchequer and now became formally the leader of the Liberals
in the House of Commons. Irish questions in eighteen sixty
six came prominently to the front, for the condition of
(02:27):
Ireland at that time was as alarming as it was
deplorable when combined with Fenianism and poverty and disaffection in
every quarter. So grave was the state of this unhappy
country that the government felt obliged to bring in a
bill suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, which the Chancellor of
the Exchequer eloquently supported. His conversion to Liberal views was
(02:48):
during this session seen in bringing in a measure for
the abolition of compulsory church rates in aid of dissenters.
But before it could be carried through its various stages,
a change of ministry had taken place on another issue,
and the Conservatives again came into power, with Lord Derby
for Prime Minister and Disraeli for Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and leader of his party in the House of Commons.
(03:10):
This fall for the Liberal ministry was brought about by
the Reform Bill, which Lord Russell had prepared, and which
was introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Amid unparalleled excitement,
finance measures lost their interest in the fierceness of the
political combat. It was not so important a measure as
that of the Reform of eighteen thirty two in its
political consequences, but it was of importance enough to enlist
(03:32):
absorbing interest throughout the Kingdom. It would have added four
hundred thousand new voters. While it satisfied the Liberals, it
was regarded by the Conservatives as a dangerous concession, opening
the doors too widely to the people. Its most brilliant
and effective opponent was mister Lowe, whose oratory raised him
at once to fame and influence. Seldom has such eloquence
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been heard in the House of Commons, and from all
the leading debaters on both sides, Mister Gladstone outdid himself,
but perhaps was a little too profuse with his Latin quotations.
The debate was continued for eight successive Knights. The final
division was the largest ever known. The government found itself
in a minority of eleven, and consequently resigned. Lord Derby,
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as has been said, was again Prime Minister. The amorable
rivalry between mister Gladstone and mister Disraeli was now continued
in deeper earnest and never ceased. So long as the
latter statesman was a member of the House of Commons.
They were recognized to be the heads of their respective parties.
Two giants in debate, two great parliamentary gladiators on whom
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the eyes of the nation rested. Mister Gladstone was the
more earnest, the more learned, and the more solid in
his blows. Mister Disraeli was the more adroit, the more witty,
and the more brilliant in his thrusts. Both were equally experienced.
The one appealed to justice and truth, the other to
the prejudices of the House and the pride of a
nation of classes. One was armed with a heavy dragoons sword,
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the other with a light rapier, which he used with
extraordinary skill. Mister G. W. E. Russell, in his recent
Life of Gladstone, quotes the following passage from a letter
of Lord Houghton May eighteen sixty seven quote. I met
Gladstone at breakfast. He seems quite awed with the diabolical
cleverness of Dizzy, who he says, is gradually driving all
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ideas of political honor out of the house and accustoming
it to the most revolting cynicism. There is no doubt
that a sense of humor has always been conspicuously absent
from mister Gladstone's character. End quote. Sometimes one of these
rival leaders was on the verge of victory, and sometimes
the other, and both equally gained the applause of the spectators.
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Two such combatants had not been seen since the days
of Pitt and Fox, one the champion of the people,
the other of the aristocracy. What each said was read
the next day by every family in the land. Both
were probably greatest in opposition, since more unconstrained of the two.
Disraeli was superior in the control of his temper and
in g reality of disposition, making members roar with laughter
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by his offhand vituperation and ingenuity in inventing nicknames. Gladstone
was superior in sustained reasoning, in lofty sentiments, and in
the music of his voice, accompanied by that solemnity of
manner which usually passes for profundity and the index of
deep convictions. As for rhetorical power, it would be difficult
to say which was the superior, though the sentences of
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both were too long. It would also be difficult to
tell which of the two was the more ambitious and
more tenacious of office. Both, it is said, bade for
popularity and the measures they proposed. Both were politicians. There
is indeed a great difference between politicians and statesmen. But
a man may be politic without ceasing to be a
lover of his country, like Lord Palmerston himself, and a
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man may advocate large and comprehensive views of statesmanship which
are neither popular nor appreciated. The new Conservative ministry was
a short one, coming into power on the defeat of
the Liberal Reform Bill introduced by mister Gladstone. The Tory
government recognized the popular demand on which that bill had
been based, and though mister Disraeli coolly introduced a reform
bill of their own which was really more radical than
(07:09):
the Liberal bill had been, and although at the hands
of the opposition, it was so modified that the Duke
of Buckley declared that the only word unaltered was the
initial wary or as its passage was claimed as a
great Conservative victory. Shortly after this, the Earl of Derby
retired on account of ill health and was succeeded by
mister Disraeli as Premier. But the current of liberalism set
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in so strongly in the ensuing elections that he was
forced to resign in eighteen sixty eight and mister Gladstone,
now for the first time, became Prime Minister. This was
the golden period of Gladstone's public services. During Disraeli's short
lease of power, Gladstone had carried the abolition of compulsory
church rates and had moved with great eloquence to the
disestablishment of the English Church in Ireland. On the latter question,
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Parliament was dissolved and an appeal made to the country,
and the triumphant success of the Liberals brought mister Gladstone
into power with the brightest prospects for the cause to
which he was now committed. He was fifty nine years
old before he reached the supreme object of his ambition
to rule England. But in accordance with law and in
the interest of truth and justice in England, the strongest
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man can usually by persevering energy reach the highest position
to which a subject may aspire. In the United States,
political ambition is defeated by rivalries and animosities. Practically, the
president reigns like absolute kings by the grace of God,
as it would seem when so many ordinary men and
even obscure are elevated to the highest place, and when
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these comparatively unknown men often develop when elected the virtues
and abilities of a Saul or a David, as in
the cases of Lincoln and Garfield. So great was the
popularity of mister Gladstone at this time, so profound was
the respect he inspired for his lofty character, his abilities,
his vast and varied learning, his unimpeachable integrity, and conscientious
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discharge of his duties, that for five years he was
virtual dictator, wielding more power than any premier since Pitt.
If we accept Sir Robert Peel in his glory. He
was not a dictator in the sense that Metternick or
Bismarck was not a grand vizier, the vice regent of
an absolute monarch, controlling the foreign policy, the army, the police,
and the national expenditures. He could not send men to
(09:19):
prison without a trial, or interfere with the peaceful pursuits
of obnoxious citizens. But he could carry out any public
measure he proposed affecting the general interests. For parliament was supreme,
and his influence ruled the Parliament. He was labled to
disagreeable attacks from the members of the opposition, and could
not silence them. He might fall before their attacks, but
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while he had a great majority of members to back him,
ready to do his bidding, he stood on a proud
pedestal and undoubtedly enjoyed the suites of power. He would
not have been human if he had not. Yet. Mister
Gladstone carried his honors with dignity and discretion. He was
accessible to all who had claims upon his time. He
was ever rude or insolent. He was gracious and polite
(10:01):
to delegations. He was too kind hearted to snub anybody.
No cares of office could keep him from attending public worship.
No popular amusements diverted him from his duties. He was
feared only as a father is feared. I can conceive
that he was sometimes intolerant of human infirmities, that no
one dared to obtrude familiarities or make unseemly jokes in
(10:22):
his presence, that few felt quite at ease in his company,
oppressed by his bearing, and awed by his prodigious respectability
and grave solemnity. Not that he was arrogant and haughty
like a Roaman cardinal or an Oxford dawn. He was
simply dignified and undemonstrative, like a man absorbed with weighty responsibilities.
I doubt if he could unbend at the dinner table
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like Disraeli and Palmerston, or tell stories like Sidney Smith,
or drink too much wine with jolly companions, or forget
for a moment the proper and the conventional. I can
see him sporting with children, or taking long walks, or
cutting down trees for exercise, or given to deep drafts
of old October when thirsty. But to see him with
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a long pipe, or dallying with ladies, or giving vent
to unseemly explatives or retailing scandals, these and other disreputable
follies are utterly inconceivable of mister Gladstone. A very serious
man may be an object of veneration, but he is
a constant rebuke to the weaknesses of our common humanity.
A wet blanket upon frivolous festivities. Let us now briefly
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glance at the work done by Gladstone during the five
years when in his first premiership he directed the public
affairs of England, impatient of opposition and sensitive to unjust aspersions,
yet too powerful to be resisted in the supreme confidence
of his party. The first thing of note he did
was to complete the disestablishment of the Irish Church, an
arduous task for anyone lacking mister Gladstone's extraordinary influence. Here
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he was at war with his former friends and with
a large section of the Conservative Party, especially with ecclesiastical dignitaries,
who saw in this measure hostile to the Church as
well as a national sin. It was a dissolution of
the union between the churches of England and Ireland, a
devestment of the temporalities which the Irish clergy had enjoyed,
the abolition of all ecclesiastical corporations and laws and courts
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in Ireland. In short, the sweeping away of the annuities
which the beneficed clergy had hitherto received out of the
property of the established church. Which annuities were of the
nature of freeholds. It was not proposed to deprive the
clergy of their income so long as they discharged their
clerical duties, but that the title to their tithes should
be vested in commissioners, so that these church freeholds could
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not be bought and sold by non residents, and churches
in decadence should be taken from incumbents. The peerage rights
of Irish bishops were also taken away. It was not
proposed to touch private endowments, and glebe houses which had
become generally dilapidated, were handed over to incumbents by their
paying a fair valuation. Not only did the measure sweep
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away the abuses of the establishment which had existed for centuries,
such as endow held by those who performed no duties
which they could dispose of like other property, but the
Regium donum given to the Presbyterian ministers and the Maynooth
Catholic College grant, which together amounted to seventy thousand pounds,
were also withdrawn, although compensated on the same principles as
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those which granted a settled stipend to the actual incumbents
of the disestablished churches. By this measure, the withdrawal of
tithes and land rents and other properties amounted to sixteen millions,
and after paying ministers and actual incumbents their stipends of
between seven or eight millions, there would remain a surplus
of seven or eight millions, with which mister Gladstone proposed
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to endow lunatic and idiot asylums, schools for the deaf,
dumb and blind, institutions for the training of nurses, for infirmaries,
and hospitals for the needy people of Ireland. There can
be no rational doubt that this reform was beneficent, and
it met the approval of the Liberal Party, being supported
with a grand eloquence by John Bright, who had, under
this minute Street for the first time taken office as
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President of the Board of Trade. But it gave umbrage
to the Irish clergy as a matter of course, to
the Presbyterians of Ulster, to the Catholics as affecting Maynooth,
and to the Conservatives of Oxford and Cambridge. On general principles,
it was a reform not unlike that of Thomas Cromwell
in the time of Henry the Eighth when he dissolved
the monasteries, though not quite so violent as the secularization
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of church property in France in time of the Revolution.
It was a spoliation in one sense as well as
they needed reform, a daring and bold measure which such
statesmen as Lord Liverpool, Aberdeen and Palmerston would have been
slow to make, and the weak points of which Disraeli
was not slow to assail. To the radical dissenters as
led by mister Myle, it was a grateful measure which
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would open the door for future discussions on the disestablishment
of the English Church itself, a logical contingency which the
Premier did not seem to appreciate. For if the state
had a right to take away the temporalities of the
Irish Church when they were abused, the state would have
an equal right to take away those of the English
Church should they hereafter turn out to be unnecessary or
become a scandal in the eyes of the nation. One
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would think that this disestablishment of the Irish Church would
have been the last reform which a strict churchman like
Gladstone would have made. Certainly it was the last for
a politic statesman to make, for it brought forth fruit
in the next general election. It is true that the
Irish establishment had failed in every way, as mister Bright
showed in one of his eloquent speeches, and to remove
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it was patriotic if mister Gladstone had his eyes open, however,
to its natural results as affecting his own popularity, he
deserves the credit of being the most unselfish and lofty
statesmen that ever adorned British annals. Having thus in eighteen
sixty nine removed one important grievance in the affairs of Ireland,
mister Gladstone soon proceeded to another, and in February eighteen
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seventy brought forward, in a crowded house his Irish Land Bill.
The evil which he had in view to cure was
the insecurity of tenure, which resulted in discouraging and paralyzing
the Indus story of tenants, especially in the matter of
evictions for non payment of rent and the raising of
rents on land which had been improved by them, as
they were liable at any time to be turned out
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of their miserable huts. The rents had only doubled in
value in ninety years, whereas in England and Scotland, where
there was more security of tenure, rents had quadrupled. This
insecurity and uncertainty had resulted in a great increase of
pauperism in Ireland and prevented any rise in wages, although
there was increased expense of living. The remedy proposed to
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alleviate in some respect to the condition of the Irish
tenants was the extension of their leases to thirty three years,
in granting the National assistance to such as desire to
purchase the lands they had previously cultivated according to a
scale of prices to be determined by the commissioners, thus
making improvements the property of the tenant who had made them,
rather than of the landlord, and encouraging the tenants by
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longer leases to make such improvements. Mister Gladstone's bill also
extended to twelve months the time for noses to quit
bearing a stamp duty of half a crown. This measure
on the part of the government was certainly a relief
as far as it went to the poor people of Ireland.
It became law on August first, eighteen seventy. The next
important measure of mister Gladstone was to abolish the custom
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of buying and selling commissions in the army, which provoked
bitter opposition from the aristocracy. It was maintained by the
government that the whole system of purchase was unjust and
tended to destroy the efficiency of the army by preventing
the advancement of officers. According to Merit, in no other
country was such a mistake committed. It is true that
the Prussian and Austrian armies were commanded by officers from
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the nobility, but these officers had not the unfair privilege
of jumping over one another's heads by buying promotion. The bill,
though it passed the Commons, was thrown out by the lords,
who wished to keep up the aristocratic quality of army officers,
among whom their younger sons were enrolled. Mister Gladstone cut
the knot by advising Her Majesty to take the decisive
step of canceling the royal warrant under which, and not
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by law, purchase had existed. This calling on the Queen
to do by virtue of her royal prerogative what could
not be done by ordinary legislation, though not unconstitutional, was unusual.
True a privilege which royalty had granted royalty could revoke.
But in removing this evil mister Gladstone still further alienated
the army and the aristocracy. Among other measures which the
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Premier carried for the public good but against bitter opposition,
were the secret ballot and the removal of university tests,
by which all lay students of whatever religious creed were
admitted to the universities on equal terms. The establishment of
national and compulsory elementary education, although not emanating from mister Gladstone,
was also accomplished during his government. It now began to
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be apparent that the policy of the Prime Minister was
reform wherever reform was needed. There was no telling what
he would do next. Had he been the prime Minister
of an absolute monarch, he would have been unfettered and
could have carried out any reform which his royal master approved.
But the English are conservative and slow to change, no
matter what party they belonged to. It it seemed to
many that the Premiere was iconoclastic and was bent on
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demolishing everything and anything which he disliked. Consequently, a reaction
set in and mister Gladstone's popularity, by which he had
ruled almost as dictator, began to wane. End of Section
twenty
Section twenty of Beacon Lights of History, Volume ten, European
Leaders by John Lord. This LibriVox recording is in the
public domain. Recording by K Hand William Ewart Gladstone, Part three.
Mister Gladstone had now swung away from the Conservative Party.
In eighteen sixty four, he had vigorously supported a bill
(00:21):
for enlarging the parliamentary franchise by reducing the limit of
required rental from ten pounds to six pounds, declaring that
the burden of proof rested on those who would exclude
forty nine fiftieths of the working classes from the franchise.
He also, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, caused great excitement
by admitting the unsatisfactory condition of the Irish Church, that is,
(00:42):
the Church of England among the Irish people, sustained by
their taxes, but ministering to only one eighth or one
ninth of the population. These and other similar evidences of
his liberal tendencies alienated his Oxford constituency, the last people
in the realm to adopt liberal measures, and on the
piroguement of Parliament in eighteen sixty five and the new
(01:03):
election which followed, he was defeated as member for the University.
Although he was a high churchman and the pride of
the university devoted to its interests, heart and soul. It
is a proof of the exceeding bitterness of political parties
that such ingratitude should have been shown to one of
the greatest scholars that Oxford has produced for a century.
It was in this year also that, on completing his
(01:23):
term as Rector of the University of Edinburgh, he retired
with a notable address on the place of Ancient Greece
in the Providential Order, thus anew emphasizing his scholarly equipment
as a son of Oxford. The Liberal Party, however, were
generally glad of Gladstone's defeat, since it would detach him
from the University. He now belonged more emphatically to the
(01:44):
country and was more free and unshackled to pursue his
great career, as Sir Robert Peel had been before him
in similar circumstances. Instead of representing a narrow minded and
bigoted set of clergymen and scholars, he was chosen at
once to represent quite a different body. Even the Liberal
voters of South Lancashire, a manufacturing district. The death of
(02:06):
Lord Palmerston at the age of eighty October seventeenth, eighteen
sixty five made Earl Russell Prime Minister, while Gladstone resumed
under the new government his post as Chancellor of the
Exchequer and now became formally the leader of the Liberals
in the House of Commons. Irish questions in eighteen sixty
six came prominently to the front, for the condition of
(02:27):
Ireland at that time was as alarming as it was
deplorable when combined with Fenianism and poverty and disaffection in
every quarter. So grave was the state of this unhappy
country that the government felt obliged to bring in a
bill suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, which the Chancellor of
the Exchequer eloquently supported. His conversion to Liberal views was
(02:48):
during this session seen in bringing in a measure for
the abolition of compulsory church rates in aid of dissenters.
But before it could be carried through its various stages,
a change of ministry had taken place on another issue,
and the Conservatives again came into power, with Lord Derby
for Prime Minister and Disraeli for Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and leader of his party in the House of Commons.
(03:10):
This fall for the Liberal ministry was brought about by
the Reform Bill, which Lord Russell had prepared, and which
was introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Amid unparalleled excitement,
finance measures lost their interest in the fierceness of the
political combat. It was not so important a measure as
that of the Reform of eighteen thirty two in its
political consequences, but it was of importance enough to enlist
(03:32):
absorbing interest throughout the Kingdom. It would have added four
hundred thousand new voters. While it satisfied the Liberals, it
was regarded by the Conservatives as a dangerous concession, opening
the doors too widely to the people. Its most brilliant
and effective opponent was mister Lowe, whose oratory raised him
at once to fame and influence. Seldom has such eloquence
(03:52):
been heard in the House of Commons, and from all
the leading debaters on both sides, Mister Gladstone outdid himself,
but perhaps was a little too profuse with his Latin quotations.
The debate was continued for eight successive Knights. The final
division was the largest ever known. The government found itself
in a minority of eleven, and consequently resigned. Lord Derby,
(04:14):
as has been said, was again Prime Minister. The amorable
rivalry between mister Gladstone and mister Disraeli was now continued
in deeper earnest and never ceased. So long as the
latter statesman was a member of the House of Commons.
They were recognized to be the heads of their respective parties.
Two giants in debate, two great parliamentary gladiators on whom
(04:34):
the eyes of the nation rested. Mister Gladstone was the
more earnest, the more learned, and the more solid in
his blows. Mister Disraeli was the more adroit, the more witty,
and the more brilliant in his thrusts. Both were equally experienced.
The one appealed to justice and truth, the other to
the prejudices of the House and the pride of a
nation of classes. One was armed with a heavy dragoons sword,
(04:56):
the other with a light rapier, which he used with
extraordinary skill. Mister G. W. E. Russell, in his recent
Life of Gladstone, quotes the following passage from a letter
of Lord Houghton May eighteen sixty seven quote. I met
Gladstone at breakfast. He seems quite awed with the diabolical
cleverness of Dizzy, who he says, is gradually driving all
(05:19):
ideas of political honor out of the house and accustoming
it to the most revolting cynicism. There is no doubt
that a sense of humor has always been conspicuously absent
from mister Gladstone's character. End quote. Sometimes one of these
rival leaders was on the verge of victory, and sometimes
the other, and both equally gained the applause of the spectators.
(05:40):
Two such combatants had not been seen since the days
of Pitt and Fox, one the champion of the people,
the other of the aristocracy. What each said was read
the next day by every family in the land. Both
were probably greatest in opposition, since more unconstrained of the two.
Disraeli was superior in the control of his temper and
in g reality of disposition, making members roar with laughter
(06:03):
by his offhand vituperation and ingenuity in inventing nicknames. Gladstone
was superior in sustained reasoning, in lofty sentiments, and in
the music of his voice, accompanied by that solemnity of
manner which usually passes for profundity and the index of
deep convictions. As for rhetorical power, it would be difficult
to say which was the superior, though the sentences of
(06:24):
both were too long. It would also be difficult to
tell which of the two was the more ambitious and
more tenacious of office. Both, it is said, bade for
popularity and the measures they proposed. Both were politicians. There
is indeed a great difference between politicians and statesmen. But
a man may be politic without ceasing to be a
lover of his country, like Lord Palmerston himself, and a
(06:47):
man may advocate large and comprehensive views of statesmanship which
are neither popular nor appreciated. The new Conservative ministry was
a short one, coming into power on the defeat of
the Liberal Reform Bill introduced by mister Gladstone. The Tory
government recognized the popular demand on which that bill had
been based, and though mister Disraeli coolly introduced a reform
bill of their own which was really more radical than
(07:09):
the Liberal bill had been, and although at the hands
of the opposition, it was so modified that the Duke
of Buckley declared that the only word unaltered was the
initial wary or as its passage was claimed as a
great Conservative victory. Shortly after this, the Earl of Derby
retired on account of ill health and was succeeded by
mister Disraeli as Premier. But the current of liberalism set
(07:31):
in so strongly in the ensuing elections that he was
forced to resign in eighteen sixty eight and mister Gladstone,
now for the first time, became Prime Minister. This was
the golden period of Gladstone's public services. During Disraeli's short
lease of power, Gladstone had carried the abolition of compulsory
church rates and had moved with great eloquence to the
disestablishment of the English Church in Ireland. On the latter question,
(07:54):
Parliament was dissolved and an appeal made to the country,
and the triumphant success of the Liberals brought mister Gladstone
into power with the brightest prospects for the cause to
which he was now committed. He was fifty nine years
old before he reached the supreme object of his ambition
to rule England. But in accordance with law and in
the interest of truth and justice in England, the strongest
(08:15):
man can usually by persevering energy reach the highest position
to which a subject may aspire. In the United States,
political ambition is defeated by rivalries and animosities. Practically, the
president reigns like absolute kings by the grace of God,
as it would seem when so many ordinary men and
even obscure are elevated to the highest place, and when
(08:36):
these comparatively unknown men often develop when elected the virtues
and abilities of a Saul or a David, as in
the cases of Lincoln and Garfield. So great was the
popularity of mister Gladstone at this time, so profound was
the respect he inspired for his lofty character, his abilities,
his vast and varied learning, his unimpeachable integrity, and conscientious
(08:56):
discharge of his duties, that for five years he was
virtual dictator, wielding more power than any premier since Pitt.
If we accept Sir Robert Peel in his glory. He
was not a dictator in the sense that Metternick or
Bismarck was not a grand vizier, the vice regent of
an absolute monarch, controlling the foreign policy, the army, the police,
and the national expenditures. He could not send men to
(09:19):
prison without a trial, or interfere with the peaceful pursuits
of obnoxious citizens. But he could carry out any public
measure he proposed affecting the general interests. For parliament was supreme,
and his influence ruled the Parliament. He was labled to
disagreeable attacks from the members of the opposition, and could
not silence them. He might fall before their attacks, but
(09:41):
while he had a great majority of members to back him,
ready to do his bidding, he stood on a proud
pedestal and undoubtedly enjoyed the suites of power. He would
not have been human if he had not. Yet. Mister
Gladstone carried his honors with dignity and discretion. He was
accessible to all who had claims upon his time. He
was ever rude or insolent. He was gracious and polite
(10:01):
to delegations. He was too kind hearted to snub anybody.
No cares of office could keep him from attending public worship.
No popular amusements diverted him from his duties. He was
feared only as a father is feared. I can conceive
that he was sometimes intolerant of human infirmities, that no
one dared to obtrude familiarities or make unseemly jokes in
(10:22):
his presence, that few felt quite at ease in his company,
oppressed by his bearing, and awed by his prodigious respectability
and grave solemnity. Not that he was arrogant and haughty
like a Roaman cardinal or an Oxford dawn. He was
simply dignified and undemonstrative, like a man absorbed with weighty responsibilities.
I doubt if he could unbend at the dinner table
(10:43):
like Disraeli and Palmerston, or tell stories like Sidney Smith,
or drink too much wine with jolly companions, or forget
for a moment the proper and the conventional. I can
see him sporting with children, or taking long walks, or
cutting down trees for exercise, or given to deep drafts
of old October when thirsty. But to see him with
(11:04):
a long pipe, or dallying with ladies, or giving vent
to unseemly explatives or retailing scandals, these and other disreputable
follies are utterly inconceivable of mister Gladstone. A very serious
man may be an object of veneration, but he is
a constant rebuke to the weaknesses of our common humanity.
A wet blanket upon frivolous festivities. Let us now briefly
(11:27):
glance at the work done by Gladstone during the five
years when in his first premiership he directed the public
affairs of England, impatient of opposition and sensitive to unjust aspersions,
yet too powerful to be resisted in the supreme confidence
of his party. The first thing of note he did
was to complete the disestablishment of the Irish Church, an
arduous task for anyone lacking mister Gladstone's extraordinary influence. Here
(11:52):
he was at war with his former friends and with
a large section of the Conservative Party, especially with ecclesiastical dignitaries,
who saw in this measure hostile to the Church as
well as a national sin. It was a dissolution of
the union between the churches of England and Ireland, a
devestment of the temporalities which the Irish clergy had enjoyed,
the abolition of all ecclesiastical corporations and laws and courts
(12:14):
in Ireland. In short, the sweeping away of the annuities
which the beneficed clergy had hitherto received out of the
property of the established church. Which annuities were of the
nature of freeholds. It was not proposed to deprive the
clergy of their income so long as they discharged their
clerical duties, but that the title to their tithes should
be vested in commissioners, so that these church freeholds could
(12:35):
not be bought and sold by non residents, and churches
in decadence should be taken from incumbents. The peerage rights
of Irish bishops were also taken away. It was not
proposed to touch private endowments, and glebe houses which had
become generally dilapidated, were handed over to incumbents by their
paying a fair valuation. Not only did the measure sweep
(12:55):
away the abuses of the establishment which had existed for centuries,
such as endow held by those who performed no duties
which they could dispose of like other property, but the
Regium donum given to the Presbyterian ministers and the Maynooth
Catholic College grant, which together amounted to seventy thousand pounds,
were also withdrawn, although compensated on the same principles as
(13:18):
those which granted a settled stipend to the actual incumbents
of the disestablished churches. By this measure, the withdrawal of
tithes and land rents and other properties amounted to sixteen millions,
and after paying ministers and actual incumbents their stipends of
between seven or eight millions, there would remain a surplus
of seven or eight millions, with which mister Gladstone proposed
(13:40):
to endow lunatic and idiot asylums, schools for the deaf,
dumb and blind, institutions for the training of nurses, for infirmaries,
and hospitals for the needy people of Ireland. There can
be no rational doubt that this reform was beneficent, and
it met the approval of the Liberal Party, being supported
with a grand eloquence by John Bright, who had, under
this minute Street for the first time taken office as
(14:02):
President of the Board of Trade. But it gave umbrage
to the Irish clergy as a matter of course, to
the Presbyterians of Ulster, to the Catholics as affecting Maynooth,
and to the Conservatives of Oxford and Cambridge. On general principles,
it was a reform not unlike that of Thomas Cromwell
in the time of Henry the Eighth when he dissolved
the monasteries, though not quite so violent as the secularization
(14:23):
of church property in France in time of the Revolution.
It was a spoliation in one sense as well as
they needed reform, a daring and bold measure which such
statesmen as Lord Liverpool, Aberdeen and Palmerston would have been
slow to make, and the weak points of which Disraeli
was not slow to assail. To the radical dissenters as
led by mister Myle, it was a grateful measure which
(14:46):
would open the door for future discussions on the disestablishment
of the English Church itself, a logical contingency which the
Premier did not seem to appreciate. For if the state
had a right to take away the temporalities of the
Irish Church when they were abused, the state would have
an equal right to take away those of the English
Church should they hereafter turn out to be unnecessary or
become a scandal in the eyes of the nation. One
(15:07):
would think that this disestablishment of the Irish Church would
have been the last reform which a strict churchman like
Gladstone would have made. Certainly it was the last for
a politic statesman to make, for it brought forth fruit
in the next general election. It is true that the
Irish establishment had failed in every way, as mister Bright
showed in one of his eloquent speeches, and to remove
(15:28):
it was patriotic if mister Gladstone had his eyes open, however,
to its natural results as affecting his own popularity, he
deserves the credit of being the most unselfish and lofty
statesmen that ever adorned British annals. Having thus in eighteen
sixty nine removed one important grievance in the affairs of Ireland,
mister Gladstone soon proceeded to another, and in February eighteen
(15:49):
seventy brought forward, in a crowded house his Irish Land Bill.
The evil which he had in view to cure was
the insecurity of tenure, which resulted in discouraging and paralyzing
the Indus story of tenants, especially in the matter of
evictions for non payment of rent and the raising of
rents on land which had been improved by them, as
they were liable at any time to be turned out
(16:09):
of their miserable huts. The rents had only doubled in
value in ninety years, whereas in England and Scotland, where
there was more security of tenure, rents had quadrupled. This
insecurity and uncertainty had resulted in a great increase of
pauperism in Ireland and prevented any rise in wages, although
there was increased expense of living. The remedy proposed to
(16:30):
alleviate in some respect to the condition of the Irish
tenants was the extension of their leases to thirty three years,
in granting the National assistance to such as desire to
purchase the lands they had previously cultivated according to a
scale of prices to be determined by the commissioners, thus
making improvements the property of the tenant who had made them,
rather than of the landlord, and encouraging the tenants by
(16:51):
longer leases to make such improvements. Mister Gladstone's bill also
extended to twelve months the time for noses to quit
bearing a stamp duty of half a crown. This measure
on the part of the government was certainly a relief
as far as it went to the poor people of Ireland.
It became law on August first, eighteen seventy. The next
important measure of mister Gladstone was to abolish the custom
(17:12):
of buying and selling commissions in the army, which provoked
bitter opposition from the aristocracy. It was maintained by the
government that the whole system of purchase was unjust and
tended to destroy the efficiency of the army by preventing
the advancement of officers. According to Merit, in no other
country was such a mistake committed. It is true that
the Prussian and Austrian armies were commanded by officers from
(17:32):
the nobility, but these officers had not the unfair privilege
of jumping over one another's heads by buying promotion. The bill,
though it passed the Commons, was thrown out by the lords,
who wished to keep up the aristocratic quality of army officers,
among whom their younger sons were enrolled. Mister Gladstone cut
the knot by advising Her Majesty to take the decisive
step of canceling the royal warrant under which, and not
(17:55):
by law, purchase had existed. This calling on the Queen
to do by virtue of her royal prerogative what could
not be done by ordinary legislation, though not unconstitutional, was unusual.
True a privilege which royalty had granted royalty could revoke.
But in removing this evil mister Gladstone still further alienated
the army and the aristocracy. Among other measures which the
(18:19):
Premier carried for the public good but against bitter opposition,
were the secret ballot and the removal of university tests,
by which all lay students of whatever religious creed were
admitted to the universities on equal terms. The establishment of
national and compulsory elementary education, although not emanating from mister Gladstone,
was also accomplished during his government. It now began to
(18:41):
be apparent that the policy of the Prime Minister was
reform wherever reform was needed. There was no telling what
he would do next. Had he been the prime Minister
of an absolute monarch, he would have been unfettered and
could have carried out any reform which his royal master approved.
But the English are conservative and slow to change, no
matter what party they belonged to. It it seemed to
many that the Premiere was iconoclastic and was bent on
(19:03):
demolishing everything and anything which he disliked. Consequently, a reaction
set in and mister Gladstone's popularity, by which he had
ruled almost as dictator, began to wane. End of Section
twenty
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