1 See, e.g., Robert Southey to Anna Bray, 8 Jan. 1833 in Letters of Robert Southey: a selection, ed. M. H. Fitzgerald (London, 1912), p. 473.

2 W. E. Gladstone, ‘Private. A visit to Newark’, 27 Nov. 1832 in The prime ministers’ papers series: W. E. Gladstone, ed. John Brooke and Mary Sorensen (4 vols, London, 1971–81), ii, 19.

3 W. E. Gladstone, memorandum, 26 [?] May 1833 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44803h, f. 18).

4 Macintyre, Angus, The Liberator: Daniel O’Connell and the Irish party, 1830–1847 (New York, 1965), pp 38 Google Scholar, 52–3, 176–83.

5 Newbould, Ian, Whiggery and reform, 1830–41: the politics of government (Stanford, 1990), pp 134–144 Google Scholar.

6 Entries for 13 Mar., 2 Apr. 1833 in The Gladstone diaries, ed. M. R. D. Foot and H. C. G. Matthew (14 vols, Oxford, 1968–94), ii, 17, 21.

7 Hansard 3, xix, 293 (8 July 1833).

8 W. E. Gladstone to John Gladstone, 9 July [1833] (Gladstone’s Library (hereafter G.L.), Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 223, f. 114).

9 Hansard 3, xxi, 4–5 (4 Feb. 1834).

10 W. E. Gladstone to John Gladstone, 5 Feb. [1834] (G.L., Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 223, f. 169).

11 Kanter, Douglas, The making of British unionism, 1740–1848: politics, government and the Anglo–Irish constitutional relationship (Dublin, 2009), p. 202 Google Scholar.

12 Jackson, Alvin, The two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the survival of the United Kingdom, 1707–2007 (Oxford, 2012), pp 284–288 Google Scholar.

13 F. B. O. Cole to W. E. Gladstone, 11 July 1883 (G.L., Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 1527); B. O. Cole, ‘A last memory of Sir Walter Scott: from the “memorial of a tour” by Owen Blayney Cole’ in Cornhill Magazine, 3^rd ser., lv (1923), p. 257; Butler, Perry, Gladstone: church, state and Tractarianism; a study of his religious ideas and attitudes, 1809–1859 (Oxford, 1982), pp 24–25 Google Scholar; Matthew, H. C. G., Gladstone, 1809–1898 (Oxford, 1997), p. 21 Google Scholar n.; Jagger, P. J., Gladstone: the making of a Christian politician; the personal religious life and development of William Ewart Gladstone, 1809–1832 (Allison Park, 1991), p. 133 Google Scholar.

14 The British Library’s main catalogue identifies Cole as the author of twenty-one books between 1845 and 1886.

15 O. B. Cole to W. E. Gladstone, 10 Feb. 1834 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44137, ff 20–21).

16 ‘The Rev. Charles Stuart Stanford: translator of Plato’s Dialogues’ in Dublin University Magazine, xvi (1840), p. 267.

17 For Gladstone’s involvement with the Liverpool Standard, see Checkland, S. G., The Gladstones: a family biography, 1764–1851 (Cambridge, 1971), pp 237, 260 Google Scholar; a selection of his contributions is located in G.L., Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 1550.

18 W. E. Gladstone to O. B. Cole, 15 Feb. [1834] (G.L., Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 722, letter 4).

19 O. B. Cole to W. E. Gladstone, 19 Feb. [1834] (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44137, f. 22).

20 C. S. Stanford to W. E. Gladstone, 21 Feb. 1834 (ibid., Add. MS 44354, f. 26).

21 Entries for 25 and 28 Feb. 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 25. Gladstone’s letter to Cole has not been found; none of his letters to Stanford have been traced.

22 Macintyre, Liberator, p. 190.

23 Hawkins, Angus, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th earl of Derby, i: Ascent, 1799–1851 (Oxford, 2007), pp 137–140 Google Scholar.

24 Entry for 15 May 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 107.

25 Entry for 17 May 1834 in ibid., p. 108.

26 W. E. Gladstone, ‘Political article for the Dublin Univ. Magazine’ (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44681, ff 12–28, quotation at ff 27–8).

27 Stanford to W. E. Gladstone, 19 May 1834 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44354, ff 36–7).

28 Entry for 23 May 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 109; Stanford to W. E. Gladstone, 22 Aug. 1834 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44354, f. 54).

29 Hawkins, Forgotten prime minister, pp 141–2.

30 Entries for 9, 24, and 28 June 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 111, 114–15.

31 W. E. Gladstone, ‘Irish church property’, 9, 24, and 28 June 1834 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44723, ff 109–14, quotations at ff 111, 114).

32 Kanter, Making of British unionism, pp 203–6.

33 W. E. Gladstone to John Gladstone, 5 July [1834] (G.L., Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 223, f. 212).

34 Kanter, Making of British unionism, p. 211.

35 Entry for 28 July 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 120.

36 Entry for 30 July 1834 in ibid., p. 121.

37 Macintyre, Liberator, p. 191.

38 Hansard 3, xxv, 1204 (11 Aug. 1834).

39 Entry for 14 Aug. 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 123.

40 Entry for 18 Aug. 1834 in ibid., p. 124.

41 MacDonagh, Oliver, The emancipist: Daniel O’Connell, 1830–47 (London, 1989), p. 107 Google Scholar.

42 Entry for 25 Aug. 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 125.

43 Stanford to W. E. Gladstone, 22 Aug. 1834 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44354, f. 54).

44 Entries for 29 Aug., 12–16 Sept. 1834 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 125, 128.

45 W. E. Hall, ‘The “Dublin University Magazine” and Isaac Butt, 1834–1838’ in Victorian Periodicals Review, xx, no. 2 (Summer 1987), pp 44–5.

46 Isaac Butt to W. E. Gladstone, 22 Sept. 1834 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44354, f. 56).

47 W. E. Gladstone to O. B. Cole, 13 Oct. [1834] (G.L., Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 722, letter 19). This letter is misplaced between correspondence from 1838 and 1840.

48 W. E. Gladstone to Robertson Gladstone, 10 Nov. [1834] (ibid., MS 568, f. 99).

49 W. E. Gladstone to J. W. Worthington, 15 Feb. 1844 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44527, f. 170).

50 In the election for the University of Oxford in the summer of 1847, for instance, Gladstone found himself having to defend his votes against the degradation of W. G. Ward in 1844 and in favour of the Maynooth bill in 1845. Were Gladstone to be elected, one opponent argued, ‘the history of the future will be far different from that of the past. The Tractarian will not desert his Tractarian friends. … Great joy for Newman, Oakeley, Paley, and the rest when the man after their own heart is the representative of the University’ (Untitled press clipping, [1847], G.L., Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 1557).

51 Peel discontinued his subscription to the D.U.M. in 1835; see Spence, Joseph, ‘Isaac Butt, Irish nationality and the conditional defence of the Union, 1833–70’ in D. George Boyce and Alan O’Day (eds), Defenders of the Union: a survey of British and Irish unionism since 1801 (London, 2001), p. 67 Google Scholar.

52 W. E. Gladstone, ‘My earlier political opinions’, 16 July 1892 in Gladstone, ed. Brooke & Sorensen, i, 44.

53 Evans, Eric, ‘“The strict line of political succession”? Gladstone’s relationship with Peel: an apt pupil?’ in David Bebbington and Roger Swift (eds), Gladstone centenary essays (Liverpool, 2000), p. 38 Google Scholar.

54 Gaunt, Richard, ‘Gladstone and Peel’s mantle’ in Roland Quinault, Roger Swift, and Ruth Clayton Windscheffel (eds), William Gladstone: new studies and perspectives (Farnham, 2012), pp 32–33 Google Scholar.

55 Gladstone, W. E., A chapter of autobiography (London, 1868), pp 19–25 Google Scholar; O’Rourke, John, The centenary life of O’Connell (8th ed., Dublin, n.d.), pp 283–286 Google Scholar; Gladstone, W. E., The Irish question (New York, 1886), p. 10; Gladstone, W. E., ‘Daniel O’Connell’ in Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, xxv (1889), pp 151–152 Google Scholar.

56 W. E. Gladstone, ‘My earlier political opinions’, 16 July 1892, ‘Early parliamentary life, 1832–52’, 3 June 1897 in Gladstone, ed. Brooke & Sorensen, i, 40–2, 55–6.

57 Schreuder, D. M., ‘The making of Mr Gladstone’s posthumous career: the role of Morley and Knaplund as “monumental masons”, 1903–27’ in Bruce L. Kinzer (ed.), The Gladstonian turn of mind: essays presented to J. B. Conacher (Toronto, 1985), p. 212 Google Scholar.

58 Correspondence on church and religion of William Ewart Gladstone, ed. D. C. Lathbury (2 vols, New York, 1910), i, 14–15; Gladstone’s speeches: descriptive index and bibliography, ed. Arthur Tilney Bassett (London, 1916), p. 91.

59 Correspondence on church and religion, ed. Lathbury, ii, 229–31.

60 Cole, B. (ed.), ‘Unpublished letters from Gladstone to my father’ in Cornhill Magazine, 3^rd ser., lvii (1924), pp 568–569 Google Scholar. Gladstone provided only the month and day in the original letter, now held at Gladstone’s Library (Glynne-Gladstone papers, MS 722, letter 19).

61 Hammond, J. L., Gladstone and the Irish nation (London, 1938)Google Scholar, dust jacket and pp 7, 721.

62 Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 91 n. 5, 107 n. 5, 109 n. 2.

63 Ibid., p. 107 n. 6.

64 Ibid., p. 128 n. 4.

65 Ibid., pp 111 n. 12, 115 n. 5.

66 Matthew, Gladstone, pp 46, 652 n. 51.

67 Houghton, W. E., et al. (eds), The Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals, 1824–1900 (5 vols, Toronto, 1966–1989)Google Scholar, iv, 222.

68 Hall, W. E., Dialogues in the margin: a study of the Dublin University Magazine (Washington, D.C., 1999), pp 10–11 Google Scholar.

69 Spence, ‘Isaac Butt’, p. 67.

70 We wish to thank David Bebbington, Angus Hawkins, and Roland Quinault for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

71 Dublin University Magazine, iv (1834), pp 473–84. Gladstone’s capitalisation, punctuation, and spelling have been retained.

72 A common prophetic refrain; see Jeremiah 6:14, 8:11, Ezekiel 13:10, 16.

73 The reform legislation of 1832 had enfranchised £10 householders in the English (and Welsh), Scottish, and Irish boroughs, subject to additional registration, residency, and rate-paying requirements.

74 On 28 May 1834, William IV assured a clerical deputation, led by the archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh, of his ‘deepest’ attachment to the established church: ‘It was for the defence of the religion of the country that was made the settlement of the crown, which has placed me in the situation that I now fill; and that religion, and the Church of England and Ireland (Ireland with peculiar emphasis) … it is my fixed purpose, determination, and resolution, to maintain’ (The Standard, 29 May 1834).

75 The Coronation Oath Act of 1688 (1 Will. and Mar., c. 6) required the monarch to pledge to ‘Maintaine … the Protestant Reformed Religion Established by Law’, and to ‘Preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of this Realme and to the Churches committed to their Charge all such Rights and Priviledges as by Law doe or shall appertaine unto them or any of them.’

76 Cf. Burke, ‘let the Commons in parliament assembled be one and the same thing with the commons at large’ (Speeches of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke (4 vols, London, 1816), ii, 89). Gladstone had been reading the Speeches the previous year; see the entry for 27 Mar. 1833 in Gladstone diaries, ed. Foot & Matthew, ii, 19.

77 In Dec. 1783, George III had successfully encouraged the House of Lords to reject the Fox–North coalition’s East India bill as a prelude to his dismissal of the government ( Cannon, John, The Fox–North coalition: crisis of the constitution, 1782–4 (Cambridge, 1969), pp 133–144)Google Scholar.

78 Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), M.P. 1829–1847; his election for Co. Clare in 1828, though voided owing to his ineligibility as a Roman Catholic to take the seat, precipitated the passage of the Catholic Relief Act in 1829.

79 See Job 19:24.

80 By the terms of the Irish Church Temporalities Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 37), proceeds from the sale of Irish church lands were to be paid into a Perpetuity Purchase Fund, and managed by the Irish ecclesiastical commission that the law had created. On 30 June 1834, the chief secretary, E. J. Littleton, proposed that monies in the Perpetuity Purchase Fund be used to provide a ‘bonus’ to landowners who, under the terms of the government’s Irish tithe bill, voluntarily converted the land tax into a rent charge. The House of Commons approved a resolution embodying this recommendation on 4 July, in committee on the temporalities act, by 235 votes to 171 (Hansard 3, xxiv, 979–80 (30 June 1834), 1211 (4 July 1834)).

81 See the editorial introduction, above, for O’Connell’s amendment to the tithe bill, which reduced the proposed tithe rent charge from 80 to 60 per cent of the current assessment; the Commons approved the amendment by 82 votes to 33 (ibid., xxv, 771 (30 July 1834)).

82 John Charles Spencer (1782–1845), Viscount Althorp, Earl Spencer (1834); chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, 1830–34.

83 Lord John Russell (1792–1878), Earl Russell (1861); paymaster general, 1830–34, and a leading Liberal statesman thereafter; prime minister, 1846–52, 1865–6.

84 Frederick Robinson (1782–1859), Viscount Goderich (1827), earl of Ripon (1833); Tory officeholder, 1809–27, and prime minister, 1827–8; secretary for war and colonies, 1830–33, and lord privy seal, 1833–4.

85 Edward Stanley (1799–1869), Lord Stanley (1834), earl of Derby (1851); chief secretary of Ireland, 1830–33, secretary for war and colonies, 1833–4; subsequently a leading Conservative statesman, serving three terms as prime minister, 1852, 1858–9, 1866–8.

86 An oblique reference to the Composition for Tithes (Ireland) Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV, c. 119), which provided for the compulsory composition of tithe, shifting thereby the responsibility for payment from the tenant to the landlord.

87 Cf. John 3:19, ‘And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’

88 See n. 81, above.

89 William Lamb (1779–1848), Viscount Melbourne (1828); chief secretary of Ireland, 1827–8, home secretary, 1830–34, prime minister, 1834, 1835–41.

90 Henry Petty (1780–1863), marquess of Lansdowne (1809); Whig officeholder, 1806–7, 1827–8, lord president of the council, 1830–34, and held cabinet office in successive Liberal governments through 1858.

91 Henry John Temple (1784–1865), Viscount Palmerston (1802); Tory officeholder, 1807–28, foreign secretary, 1830–34, and a leading Liberal statesman thereafter; prime minister, 1855–8, 1859–65.

92 Charles Grant (1778–1866), Baron Glenelg (1835); Tory officeholder, 1813–21, 1823–8, president of the board of control, 1830–34, secretary for war and colonies, 1835–9.

93 By the Government of India Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 85), the governor general was empowered, with the approval of the court of directors, to grant ‘to any Sect, Persuasion, or Community of Christians … such Sums of Money as may be expedient for the Purpose of Instruction or for the Maintenance of Places of Worship’.

94 On 13 Feb. 1834, the government agreed to O’Connell’s motion for a committee of inquiry into the conduct of an Irish judge, Sir William Cusack Smith (1766–1836), a baron of the exchequer since 1801, only to have the House of Commons reverse the decision on 21 Feb. (Hansard 3, xxi, 272–352 (13 Feb. 1834), 695–754 (21 Feb. 1834)).

95 Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850), Tory officeholder, 1810–18, 1822–7, 1828–30, and Conservative prime minister, 1834–5, 1841–6.

96 Peel characterised the Grey ministry’s commission of inquiry into the state of the Irish church as ‘vague, indefinite, [and] interminable’ (Hansard 3, xxiv, 62 (2 June 1834)).

97 The Commons voted to reduce the tithe rent charge from 80 to 60 per cent of the current charge on 30 July 1834, but the report of the royal commission was not published until 1835 (First report of the commissioners of public instruction, Ireland [C 45–7], H.C. 1835, xxxiii, 1–xxxiv, 875).

98 The Lords rejected the tithe bill by 189 votes to 122 (Hansard 3, xxv, 1204 (11 Aug. 1834)).

99 A reference to the litany of the Book of Common Prayer.

100 ‘As tow’rds the wolf the lamb’s inborn repugnance, nature makes my antipathy to thee’; Horace, Epodes, IV, l. 1–2 (trans. Lord Lytton).

101 Edward Ellice (1783–1863), secretary at war, 1833–4.

102 On 2 June 1834, Ellice informed the House of Commons that ‘He had equally in view the support of the Church and the pacification of Ireland’, while on 23 June he claimed to ‘agree with the hon. and learned member for Dublin [O’Connell] in all that he has stated of all the abuses and anomalies of this Church, and of the miseries and oppressions which it has brought on the country’. Gladstone was perhaps guilty of selective quotation here, however, as Ellice went on to state that he wished to remove ‘the miseries and the abuses and anomalies to which I have alluded’, in order ‘to give new strength and security to the Establishment in Ireland’ (Hansard 3, xxiv, 83 (2 June 1834), 762 (23 June 1834)).

103 Cf. 1 Corinthians 13:7, ‘[Charity] believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.’

104 Untraced. Perhaps a gloss on O’Connell’s public letter ‘to the people of Ireland’, 25 Aug. 1834: ‘The House of Commons … knocked off two-fifths of the tithes, and this reduction would now be law, but for the folly of the upper house, and the wickedness of Irish parsons and their advisers. The tithes are, therefore, staggering, and it requires nothing but a peaceable and legal determination on the part of the people, to seek constitutionally for their extinction, in order to have them abolished for ever’ (The Standard, 30 Aug. 1834). See also Gladstone’s memorandum of a conversation with O’Connell on 10 July [1834]: ‘O’Connell said, amongst many other things … that taking half the Irish Church property placed us in a state of transition, and was a prelude to taking all’ (Gladstone, ed. Brooke & Sorensen, ii, 35).

105 Perhaps, correctly, ‘sacrificed’.

106 Correctly, Vergniaud; ‘Verguidud’ is likely an editorial misreading of Gladstone’s manuscript.

107 Frederick William Hervey (1769–1859), earl of Bristol (1803), marquess of Bristol (1826); Thomas Hamilton (1780–1858), Lord Binning, Baron Melros (1827), earl of Haddington (1828), Conservative officeholder, 1834–5, 1841–6; John William Ward (1781–1833), Viscount Dudley and Ward (1823), earl of Dudley (1827), foreign secretary, 1827–8.

108 Henry George Herbert (1772–1833), Lord Porchester, earl of Carnarvon (1811); Alexander Baring (1773–1848), Baron Ashburton (1835), Conservative officeholder, 1834–5; Maurice Fitzgerald (1774–1849), knight of Kerry; James Scarlett (1769–1844), Baron Abinger (1835), attorney general, 1827–8, 1829–30; Charles Watkin Williams Wynn (1775–1850), Tory officeholder, 1822–8, secretary at war, 1830–31, Conservative officeholder, 1834–5; Hugh Fortescue (1783–1861), Viscount Ebrington, Baron Fortescue (1839), Earl Fortescue (1841), lord lieutenant of Ireland, 1839–41.

109 Edward Stanley, Sir James Graham, the duke of Richmond, and the earl of Ripon all resigned on the issue of appropriation in May 1834; see the editorial introduction, above.

110 Charles Grey (1764–1845), Viscount Howick (1806), Earl Grey (1807); Whig officeholder, 1806–7, and prime minister, 1830–34.

111 George Howard (1773–1848), Viscount Morpeth, earl of Carlisle (1825); Whig officeholder, 1827–8, minister without portfolio, 1830–34, lord privy seal, 1834; resigned shortly after Grey in July 1834.

112 John George Lambton (1792–1840), Baron Durham (1828), earl of Durham (1833); lord privy seal, 1830–33, Whig officeholder, 1835–7, 1838.

113 Richard Lalor Sheil (1791–1851), M.P. 1831–51, a leading Irish Liberal; held office under Melbourne and Russell, 1839–41, 1846–51.

114 Henry George Ward (1797–1860), M.P. 1832–49; his motion in favour of appropriation on 27 May 1834 split the cabinet, precipitating the resignations of Stanley, Graham, Richmond, and Ripon.

115 Hansard 3, xxiii, 1383 (27 May 1834).

116 Ibid., xv, 567 (12 Feb. 1833).

117 Mahony, Peirce, Observations by Mr. Mahony on the tithe bill (Ireland) for the Right Hon. E. J. Littleton, M.P. (London, 1834)Google Scholar.

118 A slightly inaccurate quotation from the Report of the commissioners of ecclesiastical revenue inquiry, p. 2, H.C. 1834 (523), xxiii, 6: ‘the total net income thereof will be Three million fifty-eight thousand two hundred and forty-eight Pounds’.

119 Althorp sat for Northamptonshire South.

120 Henry Brougham (1778–1868), Baron Brougham and Vaux (1830); lord chancellor, 1830–34.

121 A perceptive assessment of Whig political manoeuvring; on 30 Mar. 1835 Russell, in opposition, moved for a committee of the whole house to consider the Church of Ireland’s temporalities, with the object of directing ‘any surplus … to the general education of all classes of Christians’ (Hansard 3, xxvii, 374 (30 Mar. 1835)).

122 ‘House leech’ is likely an editorial mistake; cf. Proverbs 30:15, ‘The horseleach hath two daughters, crying Give, Give. There are three things that are never satisfied.’

123 The Board of National Education, established in 1831 to supervise the new non-denominational system of primary schooling, consisted of three Anglican, two Catholic, and two Presbyterian commissioners; previously, parliament had allocated money for Irish education to the (Protestant and evangelical) Kildare Place Society.

124 The convocations of Canterbury and York had been suppressed in 1717.

125 Responding to ‘the ministerial journals’, The Standard maintained that the ‘extinction of the power of the Peerage’ would ‘amount to a revolution … which would not leave the monarchy three months’ tenure, or any property in the country worth one year’s purchase’ (The Standard, 23 Aug. 1834).

126 ‘And, for the sake of life, to lose the causes of living’; Juvenal, Satires, VIII, l. 84 (trans. Martin Madan).

127 Cf. Psalm 65:7, ‘Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.’