The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 2 (of 3): 1859-1880

In Short

This second volume of John Morley’s monumental biography chronicles the mid-career decades of William Ewart Gladstone, tracking his path from his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1859 through his first transformational term as Prime Minister to his dramatic return to power in 1880. Grounded strictly in private correspondence, cabinet minutes, and parliamentary debates, the book traces how a high-minded administrator remade British public finance, expanded the electoral franchise, dismantled religious and agrarian privileges in Ireland, and established a new model of mass democratic leadership. Morley depicts the inner workings of Victorian governance, capturing the tension between Palmerstonian conservatism and Gladstone’s relentless drive for executive efficiency. Through bitter parliamentary battles over paper duties, university reform, and foreign non-intervention, the narrative reveals a statesman who treated fiscal policy as a moral duty. It has endured as an irreplaceable primary-source portrait of nineteenth-century political machinery and the constitutional evolution of modern Great Britain.

The Story

The narrative begins in 1859 with the formation of Lord Palmerston’s administration, in which Gladstone assumes the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The long, complex parliamentary session of 1860 sets the tone for the coming decade, defined by a clash between military expenditures and fiscal reform. Gladstone introduces a landmark budget tied to a commercial treaty with France, aiming to expand national productive power by systematically reducing customs duties. When he attempts to repeal the excise duty on paper—the "tax on knowledge"—he sparks a constitutional crisis; the House of Lords rejects the repealing bill, prompting a fierce contest over the lower house's sole authority over votes of money. Gladstone counters by combining all financial proposals into a single consolidated bill, forcing the Lords to yield and establishing a vital constitutional precedent.

Throughout the early 1860s, Gladstone conducts a "battle for economy," clashing repeatedly with Lord Palmerston over naval fortifications and rising military spending. While Palmerston argues that public anxiety and French ambition under Napoleon III justify high defense costs, Gladstone insists that true national security relies on fiscal restraint and expanding trade. During the American Civil War, Gladstone navigates cabinet divisions over diplomatic neutrality, arguing for moderation when the Trent affair threatens war with the United States, even as his own premature public statements on Confederate statehood create diplomatic complications. Amid these cabinet friction points, his domestic standing grows. His public speeches in northern industrial cities draw vast working-class crowds, shifting his political center of gravity.

The year 1865 marks a major turning point: defeated at his longtime university constituency of Oxford, Gladstone is unseated but immediately elected in South Lancashire, unshackling him from academic conservatism. Following Lord Palmerston’s death, Gladstone takes over the leadership of the House of Commons under Lord Russell. He drives forward parliamentary reform, leading to the struggle for household suffrage. Though the Liberal reform bill fails in 1866, Gladstone pushes the debate so far that the Tory government under Disraeli is forced to pass the Reform Act of 1867, vastly expanding the electorate. Recognizing that the national focus must shift to Ireland, Gladstone raises his standard around Irish church disestablishment, land tenure reform, and university education.

In late 1868, upon Lord Russell’s retirement and a decisive general election, Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the first time. His first ministry (1868–1874) executes an unprecedented series of structural reforms. He disestablishes the Anglican Church in Ireland to establish religious equality, passes the Irish Land Act of 1870 to compensate evicted tenants, and overhauls national elementary education. In foreign policy, during the Franco-German War of 1870, Gladstone secures the neutrality of Belgium through targeted treaties with Prussia and France. He also resolves the contentious Alabama claims with the United States through international arbitration at Geneva, prioritizing international law over jingoistic pride. Domestically, his cabinet secures the Ballot Act of 1872, replacing open voting with the secret ballot to protect tenants and workers from political coercion.

These aggressive measures eventually provoke a backlash. Disaffected interest groups, including the powerful drink trade angered by Bruce’s Licensing Bill, turn against the administration. The ministry stumbles over the Irish University Bill in 1873, which fails to satisfy Catholic authorities or Protestant M.P.s, leading to a cabinet crisis. Gladstone dissolves Parliament in early 1874, offering a bold proposal to eliminate the income tax altogether, but Disraeli’s Conservatives win a decisive majority.

Defeated, Gladstone resigns the Liberal leadership to devote himself to theological studies, writing polemical pamphlets against Vatican decrees on papal infallibility. However, his political retirement proves temporary. When Ottoman atrocities in Bulgaria stir public outrage in 1876, Gladstone rushes back into public life, attacking Lord Beaconsfield’s (Disraeli’s) pro-Turkish foreign policy. His opposition culminates in the historic Midlothian campaign of 1879–1880, where Gladstone delivers dozens of speeches to massive audiences, attacking Imperial extravagant finance and moral compromise. The Liberals sweep the general election of 1880, forcing the Crown to call upon Gladstone to form his second ministry, completing his return to the center of power.

How It Unfolds

The financial keynotes are struck Gladstone assumes the Chancellorship in 1859 and immediately links commercial reduction with constitutional reform, engineering a massive simplification of the customs tariff from over four hundred items down to forty-eight.

The battle over taxes on knowledge When the House of Lords rejects the abolition of the paper duty in 1860, Gladstone defends the Commons' exclusive control over taxation by consolidating all fiscal measures into a single bill, permanently curtailing upper-house financial interference.

Friction within the Cabinet Throughout 1861 and 1862, Gladstone engages in an intense, multi-page correspondence with Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, opposing panicky military budgets and insisting that durable productive power matters more than inflated defense spending.

Navigating foreign convulsions During the American Civil War, Gladstone urges restraint within the Cabinet during the 1861 Trent crisis, preventing an immediate rupture with Washington, while reflecting deeply on the immense energy generated by popular government in the United States.

Unshackled from Oxford Losing his Oxford University parliamentary seat in 1865, Gladstone bids farewell to his old academic sanctuary and embraces popular politics in Lancashire, declaring himself "unmuzzled" as he assumes leadership of the Commons.

The drive for household suffrage Gladstone champions franchise expansion through 1866 and 1867, forcing Disraeli’s Tory administration to pass a broad Reform Bill that grants voting rights to urban working-class householders.

The Irish campaign opens In late 1867, Gladstone identifies Irish grievances as the central test of British statecraft, launching an ambitious program targeting the Irish Protestant Church establishment, agrarian tenant rights, and higher education.

Ascent to the Premiership Following a decisive Liberal election victory, Gladstone becomes Prime Minister in December 1868, assembling a highly disciplined cabinet dedicated to systematic administrative and legal reform.

An agrarian and social revolution Between 1869 and 1872, the ministry disestablishes the Irish Church, passes the first Irish Land Act, institutes national elementary education, and enacts the secret ballot to safeguard voters from intimidation.

Prudence in foreign policy When war erupts between France and Prussia in 1870, Gladstone secures Belgian neutrality through swift diplomacy and later settles the hazardous Alabama claims with the United States via international arbitration.

Popularity wanes and the Cabinet falls Accumulated grievances from licensing laws, civil service changes, and a failed Irish University Bill erode the government’s majority, leading to Gladstone’s resignation after the Liberal defeat in the 1874 general election.

The Midlothian crusade and return Emerging from retirement to oppose Beaconsfield's foreign policy on the Eastern Question, Gladstone undertakes his electric 1879–1880 Midlothian campaign, sweeping the country and forming his second ministry in 1880.

The People

• William Ewart Gladstone
• Desire: Seeks to enlarge the nation's productive power through disciplined public finance, promote moral equity in foreign policy, and reform Irish institutions.
• Obstacle: Constrained by cabinet opposition to retrenchment, parliamentary obstruction, entrenched aristocratic privileges, and his own tendency to over-absorb himself in dense theoretical details.
• Transformation: Evolves from a cautious Peelite administrator tied to traditional institutions into an unmuzzled democratic leader capable of swaying vast crowds and steering structural legislative changes.

• Lord Palmerston
• Desire: Aims to preserve traditional British diplomatic prestige, maintain robust naval defenses against France, and prevent radical parliamentary reform.
• Obstacle: Faced with Gladstone’s persistent cabinet resistance against military spending and a growing public appetite for fiscal retrenchment.
• Transformation: Remains a dominant conservative force until his death in 1865, though his passing removes the final barrier to Liberal domestic reform.

• Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield)
• Desire: Strives to outmaneuver the Liberal party, establish Conservative dominance through imperial expansion, and hold executive power.
• Obstacle: Confronted by Gladstone’s formidable mastery of public finance, superior command of legislative detail, and moralized mass campaigns.
• Transformation: Outflanks Liberals by passing the 1867 Reform Act, builds a nationalist foreign policy, but ultimately falls to Gladstone’s Midlothian offensive in 1880.

• Lord Russell
• Desire: Seeks to complete his lifelong legacy of Whig constitutional reform and guide Liberal party policy.
• Obstacle: Sufferings from declining health, party divisions over the franchise, and competing ministerial ambitions.
• Transformation: Serves as Prime Minister after Palmerston, then gracefully yields party leadership to Gladstone in 1867, stepping back into quiet retirement.

• Robert Lowe
• Desire: Aims to enforce strict orthodox political economy and prevent unbridled, emotional legislative changes.
• Obstacle: Struggles against Gladstone's sweeping reforms in land and university education, which conflict with Lowe's rigid doctrines.
• Transformation: Serves as Gladstone's incisive Chancellor of the Exchequer before moving to the Home Office as his intense style draws public criticism.

In Its Own Voice

When reflecting upon the turbulent legislative session of 1860, Gladstone highlighted the conflicting forces driving national policy:

"Rarely, if ever, in the course of our history has there been such a mixture of high considerations, legislative, military, commercial, foreign, and constitutional, each for the most part traversing the rest, and all capable of exercising a vital influence on public policy, as in the long and complicated session of 1860."

Addressing Lord Palmerston during their fierce private debates on government expenditure, Gladstone rejected irresponsible rhetoric while demanding fiscal discipline:

"I think it a mean and guilty course to hold out vague and indefinite promises of vast retrenchment, but I think it will be a healthful day, both for the country and for the party over which you so ably preside, when the word retrenchment, of course with a due regard to altered circumstances, shall again take its place among their battle cries."

Explaining the ethical duties of British foreign diplomacy during the international tensions of 1869, Gladstone wrote to General Grey:

"I do not believe that England ever will or can be unfaithful to her great tradition, or can forswear her interest in the common transactions and the general interests of Europe. But her credit and her power form a fund, which in order that they may be made the most of, should be thriftily used."

What It's Really About

Beneath its rich administrative history, the book examines the relationship between public morality, fiscal governance, and democratic power. Morley presents Gladstone’s finance not merely as a matter of balancing ledgers, but as a deep ethical commitment. In Gladstone's framework, reducing unnecessary taxes and curbing public expenditure are direct methods for expanding human liberty and releasing productive potential. Taxation is viewed as an instrument of national character; wasteful expenditure saps self-reliance, whereas disciplined retrenchment fosters independence across all classes of society.

The work also traces the evolution of constitutional authority in a changing state. It documents how power shifted from traditional landed elites to a wider electorate, and how executive power adapted to meet this shift. Morley explores the ongoing challenge of reconciling a Protestant parliament with a predominantly Catholic Ireland, illustrating how systemic inequality cannot be solved by half-measures or coercion. Finally, the narrative examines the moral responsibilities of a great power in foreign affairs. It contrasts a policy of aggressive intervention with Gladstone’s vision of international law, arbitration, and the economical husbanding of national influence.

Why Read It Today

Morley’s biography offers an insider's view of Victorian governance that remains strikingly relevant to modern political readers. Rather than presenting a sanitized portrait, the book immerses the reader directly in the authentic mechanics of statecraft: cabinet memoranda, private notes, and raw parliamentary debates. Morley writes with administrative clarity, capturing both the intellectual force and the human friction behind major policy decisions. Readers interested in constitutional history, political strategy, and economic policy will find an unmatched case study in how a government formulates budget proposals, manages internal dissent, and executes complex structural reforms.

The book does present real reading difficulties. Its massive scale, detailed discussions of nineteenth-century tax structures, and unedited references to obscure Victorian statutes require patience. Morley assumes a reading audience familiar with the parliamentary figures, ecclesiastical debates, and diplomatic crises of the era. Latin phrases, lengthy epistolary exchanges, and dense financial breakdowns slow the pace.

Yet these challenges are precisely what make the work so rewarding. What stays with the reader is the image of a leader who viewed political life as a serious moral discipline. Gladstone's total commitment to his work—whether cutting down a tree at Hawarden, calculating the exact yields of paper duties, or addressing thousands of voters in the Scottish cold—demonstrates a extraordinary level of political energy. For anyone seeking to understand how modern British political institutions were forged, Morley’s account remains an essential, authoritative masterpiece.