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XXII. Gladstone, Queen Victoria, and the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, 1868—9

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

J.C. Beckett
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Extract

On 23 January 1869 Gladstone visited Queen Victoria at Osborne and presented two papers relating to the proposed disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, ‘one of them on the general policy and effect of the measure, the other a dry recital of the purport of what would be the leading clauses of a bill’. The memorandum here presented is the former of these papers. Two copies of it are known, one in the Royal Archives at Windsor (D 25/6), the other among the Gladstone papers in the British Museum (Add. MS 44757, ff. 72-96v). The copy at Windsor is in Gladstone’s own hand, that in the British Museum is presumably the work of a secretary, though the hand has not been identified. Apart from insignificant variations, mainly in punctuation, the two copies are identical. That which follows is the version in the Royal Archives and is printed by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen. The paragraph-arrangement of the original hasbeen preserved, but the punctuation and use of capitals have been standardised according to the practice of this journal.

Type
Select Documents
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 49 , March 1962 , pp. 38 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1962

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References

1 Gladstone to Queen Victoria, 21 Jan. 1869. Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd series, ed. Buckle, G.E., i. 577-8Google Scholar; Morley, , Life of Gladstone (ed. 1903), ii. 260 Google Scholar.

2 I am indebted for this information to Mr Robert Mackworth-Young, librarian at Windsor Castle, and to Mr H.R. Aldridge, deputy keeper in the department of manuscripts, British Museum, respectively.

3 Morley, , Gladstone, ii. 260 Google Scholar.

4 Gladstone to E. Sullivan (Irish attorney general), 26, 29 Dec. 1868(B.M., Add MS 44417, ff. 261, 280).

5 Morley, , Gladstone, ii. 258-9Google Scholar.

6 Gladstone to E.A. Stopford, archdeacon of Meath, 24 Dec. 1868, 11 Jan. 1869 (B.M., Add. MS 44417, ff. 246-9, Add. MS 44418, f. 124).

7 Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd series, i. 562 Google Scholar.

8 B.M., Add. MS 44756, ff. 67-8.

9 Morley, , Gladstone, ii. 260 Google Scholar.

10 Queen Victoria to Gladstone, 31 Jan. 1869 (Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd series, i. 578-9. Cf. Sir Theodore Martin, Queen Victoria as I knew her, pp. 50-51. Martin was at Osborne at the time and was asked by the queen to make a summary of the papers presented by Gladstone; his account of the affair is inaccurate in detail, but it bears witness to the queen’s inability to follow Gladstone’s arguments.

11 Queen Victoria to Gladstone, 31 Jan. 1869 (Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd series, i. 578-9; same to same, 4 Feb., 6 Feb. 1869 ( Guedalla, P., The queen and Mr Gladstone, i. 157 159-60Google Scholar).

* But see subsequent paper.

† The whole of the life-interest monies may reach, or even pass, six millions sterling.