Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T01:09:07.173Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gladstone's Resignation of the Liberal Leadership, 1874-1875

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Matthew R. Temmel
Matthew R. Temmel*
Affiliation:
University of WashingtonSeattle
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

W. E. Gladstone resigned twice as leader of the Liberal Party. His final retirement of 1894 has received much attention, but his resignation two decades earlier is not well known. At age sixty-five, the recent loser in a surprise general election, the former prime minister stepped down from the Liberal leadership in January, 1875. Some observers doubted the permanence of his retirement, but previous speculation about the Liberal succession had assumed that Gladstone could hope at most for one further premiership. After he regained the leadership in 1880 and soldiered on as the Grand Old Man at the head of three further governments, Liberal sympathizers dismissed his 1875 resignation in retrospect as an unrevealing mistake, a temporary meandering from the true path of his career.

Recent studies have pointed to the decisive importance of Gladstone's course in the 1870s, especially to the implications of his return to public life. R. T. Shannon ties Gladstone's resignation to his loss of rapport with the popular forces that had once rallied to the banners of Reform and Irish disestablishment. His government's rejection at the polls in 1874 seemed to end “his great romance with the people of England.” Bitter, disillusioned, and mystified about the popular verdict, he resigned his post as Liberal leader. Freed from parliamentary responsibilities, Gladstone went on, almost in spite of his conscious intentions, to capture the soul of popular Liberalism, beginning with his hesitant but inspiring participation in the 1876 agitation against the Bulgarian atrocities, a campaign which held few attractions for the official Liberal hierarchy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , Fall 1976 , pp. 153 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. The fullest treatment is Stansky, Peter, Ambitions and Strategies: The Struggle for the Leadership of the Liberal Party in the 1890s (Oxford, 1964)Google Scholar, Ch. 2; see also Barker, Michael, Gladstone and Radicalism: The Reconstruction of Liberal Policy in Britain, 1886-1894 (New York, 1975)Google Scholar, Ch. 7.

2. Lucy, H. W. (The Member for Chiltern Hundreds), “The Candidates for the Leadership,” Gentleman's Magazine, entirely new series, XIII (1874), 434Google Scholar; Reid, T. W., Cabinet Portraits (London, 1872), pp. 92–99 and 230–43Google Scholar.

3. Shannon, R. T., Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation 1876 (London, 1963; reprinted 1975), pp. 1–4, 273–74Google Scholar, and passim.

4. Hamer, D. A., Liberal Politics in the Age of Gladstone and Rosebery (Oxford, 1972), pp. 63–73Google Scholar.

5. Morley, John, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, 3 vols. (London, 1903), II, 497–506Google Scholar.

6. Magnus, Philip, Gladstone: A Biography (London, 1954)Google Scholar, Ch. 10.

7. Shannon, , Bulgarian Agitation, with George Kitson Clark's introduction (1963), pp. xxiv, 1–4, 9–13Google Scholar.

8. Hamer, , Liberal Politics, pp. 57–78Google Scholar, esp. 60-63.

9. B.M., Gladstone to Lord Shaftesbury, Dec. 11, 1871, copy, Gladstone Papers, Add. MS 44,541, f. 11. (All further references to Add. MS are to the Gladstone Papers in the British Museum unless otherwise stated.)

10. Hammond, J. L., Gladstone and the Irish Nation (London, 1938), pp. 108–11Google Scholar; Morley, , Gladstone, II, 446–47, 461–62, 476Google Scholar; Maehl, W. H., “Gladstone, the Liberals, and the Election of 1874,” Bull. Inst. Hist. Res., XXXVI (1963), 53–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar. At the election the Liberals lost at least 116 seats and fell into a minority of 50 in the new House. The figures were greater once it became clear that the Irish Home Rulers would not abide by the Liberal whip.

11. See Lord Aberdare's account in Morley, , Gladstone, II, 498–99Google Scholar, and his letter to Lord Ripon, Feb. 17, 1874, BM, Ripon Papers, Add. MS 43,535, f. 84; other similar versions in Gardiner, A. G., The Life of Sir William Harcourt, 2 vols. (London, 1923), I, 270Google Scholar.

12. Chatsworth, Granville to Hartington, Feb. 20, n.d. [ca. March 7 or 8], and March 9, 1874, eighth Duke of Devonshire Papers, uncatalogued.

13. Bodleian Library, Harcourt to Frank Hill, n.d. [but March 7 or 8, 1874, confirmed by Daily News leader of March 9], Harcourt Papers. This letter is published but effectively misdated in Gardiner, , Harcourt, I, 282Google Scholar.

14. Chatsworth, Hartington to his father, March 9, 1874, Devonshire Papers, 340.572.

15. Gladstone's letter to Granville, dated March 12, published in thenews-papers March 13, 1874; for interpretation, see ibid., Granville to Hartington, March 11, 1874, Devonshire Papers, 340.573.

16. Times, Aug. 7, 1874.

17. PRO, Goschen to Granville, Jan. 5, 1875, Granville Papers, PRO 30/29/28, quoted in Fitzmaurice, Lord Edmond, The Life of Second Earl Granville, 2 vols. (London, 1905), II, 138–39Google Scholar.

18. Sheffield University Library (hereafter, SUL), Forster to A. J. Mundella, Jan. 3 [1875], Mundella Papers.

19. Gladstone to Lord Halifax, Jan. 20, 1875, Hickleton Papers, A 4/88, consulted on microfilm edition at the Brotherton Library, Leeds.

20. Forster to Mundella, Jan. 12, 1875, Mundella Papers.

21. Spectator, Jan. 16. 1875.

22. Times, Jan. 15, 1875. The drafts of the letter are in the BM, Gladstone Papers, Add. MS 44,762, fols. 147-61.

23. Gladstone, , Autobiographica, ed. Brooke, John and Sorensen, Mary (London, 1971), p. 112Google Scholar; also BM, Gladstone to Roundell Palmer, Sept. 16, 1872, Add. MS 44,296, f. 199.

24. PRO, Gladstone to Lord Cardwell, June 21, 1874, Card well Papers, PRO 30/48/8/52. After Glynne's death in 1874, Gladstone became the legal owner of the Hawarden estates, but he soon transferred title to his eldest son. See Morley, , Gladstone, I, 343–47Google Scholar.

25. BM, Gladstone's notes, Add. MS 44,762, fols. 29, 30, 38, 39 — the last two dated March 7, [1874].

26. Magnus, , Gladstone, p. 229Google Scholar—the linchpin in Magnus's explanation of the resignation; Morley, , Gladstone, II, 500Google Scholar, also quotes this letter but does not give it central importance.

27. The State in its Relations with the Church (4th ed., London, 1841), II, 393–94Google Scholar. The best guide to this work is Vidler, Alec R., The Orb and the Cross: A Normative Study in the Relations of Church and State with Reference to Gladstone's Early Writings (London, 1945)Google Scholar.

28. Foot, M. R. D. and Matthew, H. C. G. (eds.), The Gladstone Diaries, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1968 and 1975), III, 53Google Scholar (Aug. 16, 1840), also quoted in Morley, , Gladstone, I, 182Google Scholar.

29. His thoughts of retirement in the 1840s, as in 1874-75, were closely connected with his growing isolation on religious issues. See Matthew's introduction to vol. III of The Gladstone Diaries, esp. pp. xxv, xxix, xxxii-xxxiii; also III, 106, 336, 676 (May 9, 1841; Dec. 29, 1843; Dec. 16, 1847); Morley, , Gladstone, I, 323, 383Google Scholar.

30. Ibid., I, 325-26; Vidler, Orb and the Cross, passim; Kitson Clark's introduction to Shannon, Bulgarian Agitation; Clark, Kitson, Churchmen and the Condition of England (London, 1973), pp. 88–94Google Scholar.

31. Morley, , Gladstone, I, 200Google Scholar. For a different appraisal of Morley's work, stressing his lack of religious empathy with his subject and the excessive political emphasis of the biography, see Foot's, introduction to The Gladstone Diaries, I, xxv–xxvi, xxxi–xxxiiGoogle Scholar, and his article “Morley's Gladstone: A Reappraisal,” Bull. J. Rylands Lib., LI (Spring, 1969), 368–80Google Scholar; also Cockshut, A.O.J., Truth to Life: The Art of Biography in the nineteenth Century (London, 1974), pp. 179–92Google Scholar. Magnus emphasizes the private and religious sides of Gladstone's life, but he fails to relate Gladstone's religion to his politics, usually treating them as separate rather than unitary activities.

32. BM, Gladstone's note, Add. MS 44,762, f. 169, later dated “ab. F. 12” [about Feb. 12, 1874]; cf. election speech at Greenwich, , Times, Jan. 29, 1874Google Scholar.

33. Morley, , Gladstone, II, 503Google Scholar, quoting a draft of Jan. 1875, BM, Add. MS 44,762, f. 152.

34. BM, Gladstone to Bright, Jan. 18, 1875, Bright Papers, Add. MS 43,385, f. 254.

35. BM, Gladstone's note, later dated “ab. F. 12” [about Feb. 12, 1874], sent to Granville, Jan. 1875, Add. MS 44,762, f. 169.

36. Ibid., f. 168.

37. In 1875 Gladstone characterized himself as “almost a solitary representative of opinions respecting political economy which, 30 years ago, were the opinions of all men of any note in both political parties alike.” 3 Hansard 225: 1596 (July 16, 1875).

38. BM, Gladstone to Newman Hall, Nov. 23, 1871, copy, Add. MS 44,540, f. 175b.

39. See the correspondence between Gladstone and Bright, BM, Aug. 21, 25, and 27, 1873, Add. MS 44,113, fols. 63ff., partly quoted in Morley, , Gladstone, II, 309–10, 646Google Scholar. In the biography Morley diminished Gladstone's role in framing the religious provisions of the 1870 Act and exaggerated his closeness to a radical Nonconformist solution. At the time Morley's views were not so generous. After Gladstone's remarks at Hawarden in 1873, Morley thought that his words “commit him to Voluntary Schools & Church Supremacy for the rest of his life.” Birmingham University Library, Morley to Chamberlain, Aug. 18, 1873, Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/12.

40. Morley, , Gladstone, II, 495Google Scholar; see also Bailey, John (ed.), The Diary of Lady Frederick Cavendish, 2 vols. (London, 1927), II, 168Google Scholar.

41. BM, Dale to Newman Hall, Nov. 16, 1871, forwarded to Gladstone, Add. MS 44,188, f. 107.

42. Chamberlain, , “The Next Page of the Liberal Programme,” Fortnightly Review, new series, No. 94 (Oct. 1874)Google Scholar; Bright, 's speech, Times, Jan. 26, 1875Google Scholar. Chamberlain, unlike many real Nonconformists, overlooked Gladstone's moral fervor and dismissed him as an eccentric in 1874-75.

43. Blachford to Dean Church, Jan. 17, 1875, Letters of Frederic, Lord Blachford, ed. Marinden, George Eden (London, 1896), p. 360Google Scholar.

44. The resolutions, debated in the House on July 9 and 15, 1874, are discussed in Lathbury, D. C. (ed.), Correspondence on Church and Religion of William Ewart Gladstone, 2 vols. (London, 1910), I, 388–91Google Scholar, with text in appendix.

45. Gladstone to his wife, Aug. 4, 1874, ibid., I, 393-94; cf. Morley, , Gladstone, II, 501–2Google Scholar.

46. Gladstone to the Queen, Jan. 22, 1874, Lathbury, , Correspondence, I, 384Google Scholar. The Public Worship Bill is discussed in Marsh, P. T., The Victorian Church in Decline: Archbishop Tait and the Church of England 1868-1882 (Pittsburgh, 1969), Ch. 7, where the above letter is also quoted, p. 161Google Scholar.

47. Lathbury, , Correspondence, I, 392Google Scholar, quoting notes made after the debates on the Public Worship Bill, BM, Add. MS 44,762, fols. 142-44. It is important that the Liberation Society's view matched Gladstone's. In a resolution sent to the press and to MP's, the Society declared: “Having regard to the fact that the confusion now prevailing within the Church of England is, in a great degree, the result of a reliance upon legal machinery for the furtherance of spiritual ends, there is ground for the belief that fresh legislation, and additional facilities for litigation, will but aggravate the evils they are intended to remedy, and will, therefore, prove hurtful to both the Church and to religion.” Parliamentary intervention in Church affairs, the Liberation Society anticipated, would deepen the conviction that disestablishment was preferable. Greater London Record Office, County Hall, Liberation Society Minute Book, A/LIB/5, p. 152, Aug. 13, 1874.

48. Forster and Lowe even wished that the bill could be extended to cover “moral discipline” and doctrine rather than just “dresses and gestures.” In any case parliament ought to “assert the supremacy of the law and the State over the Church.” Quoted from Forster's speech, 3 Hansard 221: 67-75 (July 15, 1874). Goschen and Harcourt also violently supported the bill, and Harcourt publicly ridiculed Gladstone's resolutions.

49. Altholz, Josef L., “Gladstone and the Vatican Decrees,” The Historian, XXV (1963), 312–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, based primarily on Gladstone to Granville, Nov. 2, 1874. For details of the scenario, based on fears of a second Franco-Prussian war, see Gladstone, 's article “Italy and Her Church,” Church Quarterly Review (Oct. 1875)Google Scholar, sections 6-11, reprinted in Gleanings of Past Years (London, 1879), VI, 196–201Google Scholar.

50. Vincent, John, The Formation of the Liberal Party 1857-1868 (London, 1966), p. 232Google Scholar.

51. BM, Gladstone to Manning, Aug. 4, 1874, Add. MS 44,250, f. 169.

52. “Ritual and Ritualism,” Contemporary Review (Oct. 1874)Google Scholar, section 35, revised and reprinted in The Church of England and Ritualism (London, 1875)Google Scholar and in Gleanings, vol. VI. Lathbury, the chief expositor of Gladstone's religious views, considered the pamphlet against the Vatican decrees a mistake and at least suspected that Gladstone was not being straightforward in his announced purpose of querying the civil loyalties of English Catholics. See Correspondence, II, 48Google Scholar.

53. BM, Gladstone's note, Jan. 9, 1875, Add. MS 44,762, f. 155.

54. Ibid., fols. 162-66, quoted in full in the Appendix to this article. All unattributed quotations refer to this memorandum.

55. A note of Jan. 1875, ibid., f. 154. The notes are mentioned in the Gladstone-Granville correspondence of Jan. 5, 17, 19, 28, 30, and Feb. 1, 1875. See Ramm, Agatha (ed.), The Political Correspondence of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville 1868-1876 [Camden Third Series, LXXXI-LXXXII] (London, 1952), II, 466–70Google Scholar.

56. Gladstone, , Autobiographica, p. 112Google Scholar; also quoted in Morley, , Gladstone, II, 498Google Scholar.

57. Ibid., II, 498-504.

58. Lathbury, , Correspondence, I, 374Google Scholar.

59. “Ritual and Ritualism,” Gleanings, VI, 126–27 (sections 33-34)Google Scholar.

60. Gladstone to Granville, Dec. 7, 1874, in Ramm, 1868-1876, II, 461-62.

61. BM, Add. MS 44,762, f. 152, following the list of issues in Morley, , Gladstone, II, 503, mentioned above, page 161Google Scholar.

62. BM, Add. MS 44,762, f. 168b, later dated “ab. F. 12” [about Feb. 12, 1874]; cf. Gladstone to Granville, Sept. 3, 1873, in Ramm, 1868-1876, II, 405.

63. BM, Gladstone to Lord de Grey, Nov. 4, 1869, Ripon Papers, Add. MS 43,513, f. 282, partly quoted in Morley, , Gladstone, II, 300Google Scholar, and Lathbury, , Correspondence, II, 138Google Scholar. See also Roper, Henry, “W. E. Forster's Memorandum of 21 October 1869: A Re-Examination,” British Journal of Educational Studies, XXI (Feb. 1973), 64–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64. BM, Gladstone to Bright, Nov. 25, 1871, Bright Papers, Add. MS 43,385, f. 165, with explanatory memorandum at f. 171; Gladstone, , “Mr. Forster and Ireland,” Nineteenth Century, XXIV (Sept. 1888), 453Google Scholar.

65. BM, Gladstone's memorandum on the religious difficulty, May 28, 1870, Add. MS 44,759, f. 104, with fair copy at f. 112. The plan foundered on the impossibility of applying the same terms to the denominational schools, which were eligible for rate aid at this point in the bill's progress. Despite the impression he gave later, Gladstone had no intention in 1870 of secularizing the denominational schools. He wished in fact to require the school boards to give them rate aid, but the Education Act, as it finally emerged, prohibited this. Instead, the state grants were to be increased.

66. St. Mary of the Angels, Moorhouse Road, London, W.2, Forster to Cardinal Manning, n.d. [probably 1883 or later], Manning Collection. The British and Foreign School Society utilized an undenominational Bible teaching which was more or less adopted by the school boards.

67. Gladstone to Lord Lyttelton, Oct. 25, 1870, Morley, , Gladstone, II, 306Google Scholar; see Lathbury, 's interpretation, Correspondence, II, 125–30Google Scholar.

68. Gladstone to Rev. Septimus Buss, Sept. 13, 1894, Lathbury, , Correspondence, II, 148Google Scholar. For Gladstone's considered view of undenominational religious education, which he specifically linked with Erastianism, see his article, “The Place of Heresy and Schism in the Modern Christian Church,” Nineteenth Century, XXXVI (Aug. 1894), 167–71Google Scholar.

69. BM, Gladstone's memorandum on the religious difficulty, May 28, 1870, Add. MS 44,759, f. 104.

70. PRO, Gladstone to Lord Russell, March 24, 1870, Russell Papers, PRO 30/22/16F, printed in Lathbury, , Correspondence, II, 138Google Scholar.

71. Gladstone to Granville, Sept. 3, 1873, in Ramm, 1868-1876, II, 405.

72. Chatsworth, Gladstone to Hartington, Feb. 2, 1875, Devonshire Papers, 340.601, quoted in Holland, Bernard, The Life of Spencer Compton, Eighth Duke of Devonshire, 2 vols. (London, 1911), I, 149–50Google Scholar.

73. Bodleian, Hartington to Harcourt, Jan. 17, 1875, Harcourt Papers, quoted in Holland, , Devonshire, I, 141Google Scholar; PRO, Hartington to Granville, Jan. 18 and 21, 1875, Granville Papers, PRO 30/29/22A/2.

74. Ibid., Hartington to Granville, Jan. 20, 1875.

75. SUL, Memorandum by Forster, Jan. 26, 1875, Mundella Papers.

76. PRO, Goschen to Granville, Jan. 21, 1875, Granville Papers, PRO 30/29/28; Lowe to Granville, Jan. 17 and 25, 1875, ibid.; Lowe to Goschen, Jan. 23, 1875, in Elliot, A. R. D., The Life of George Joachim Goschen, First Viscount Goschen 1831-1907, 2 vols. (London, 1911), I, 156–57Google Scholar. The party's two elder statesmen, Bright and Gladstone, also favored Hartington, and press reports of their preference helped to turn the tide against Forster, who had enjoyed the major share of newspaper support. See BM, Bright to Gladstone, Jan. 17, 1875, Add. MS 44,113, f. 97; Gladstone to Bright, Jan. 18, 1875, Add. MS 43,385, f. 254.

77. SUL, Mundella to Leader, 4 o'clock Monday [Feb. 1, 1875], Mundella-Leader Correspondence, partly printed in Armytage, W. H. G., A. J. Mundella (London, 1951), p. 157Google Scholar.

78. Times, Jan. 28, 1875; for interpretation see Northern Echo, Jan. 29, 1875. Hartington had previously written a strong letter of withdrawal, but it was pocketed and never made public by Granville, who then briefed Hartington for his speech. In the meantime Forster initiated plans for his own withdrawal.

79. SUL, Memorandum by Forster, Jan. 26, 1875, Mundella Papers; Mundella to Leader, [Feb. 1, 1875], Mundella-Leader Correspondence.

80. This was the common description of Hartington, e.g., Pall Mall Gazette, Feb. 2, 1875. There is no adequate published study of the process by which Hartington succeeded to the leadership over Forster. But see Holland, , Devonshire, I, 139–51Google Scholar; Reid, Wemyss T., Life of the Right Honourable William Edward Forster, 2 vols. (London, 1888), II, 93–97Google Scholar; and Rossi, John P., “The Selection of Lord Hartington as Liberal Leader in the House of Commons, February, 1875,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, CXIX (Aug. 15, 1975), 307–14Google Scholar.

81. BM, Ripon's diary, Dec. 2, 1878, Ripon Papers, Add. MS 43,641, f. 6.

82. Shannon, Bulgarian Agitation, Chs. 2-4.

83. Hamer, D. A., “Understanding Mr. Gladstone,” New Zealand Journal of History, VI (Oct. 1972), 119–20Google Scholar.

84. For an extreme conspiratorial view, see the leaders in the Leeds Mercury, Jan. 15, 16, and 18, 1875. The articles were written by Wemyss Reid, who was prone to conspiratorial interpretations, but even Goschen could report that some independent members felt that Gladstone had been handled roughly by his colleagues. See Fitzmaurice, , Granville, II, 139Google Scholar.

85. Northern Echo, Jan. 19, 1875; SUL, Forster to Mundella, Dec. 8, 1875, Mundella Papers. On Stead's role in 1876, see Shannon, , Bulgarian Agitation, pp. 49–50, 69–81, 103–4, 116–17Google Scholar.

86. BM, J. Guinness Rogers to Gladstone, June 20 [1876], Add. MS 44,450. On the Liberation Society see above, note 47. The Nonconformist mythology on the education question is discussed in Temmel, M. R., “Liberal versus Liberal, 1874: W. E. Forster, Bradford and Education,” Historical Journal, XVIII (Sept. 1975), esp. 619–22Google Scholar.

87. Shannon, , Bulgarian Agitation, pp. 163–65, 168–71, 273–74Google Scholar; Hamer, , Liberal Politics, pp. 63–78Google Scholar.

88. Chatsworth, Lord Fortescue to Hartington, Dec. 21, 1877, Devonshire Papers, 340.739.

89. See Shannon, , Bulgarian Agitation, pp. 9, 89, 171–90Google Scholar.

90. Bassett, A. Tilney (ed.), Gladstone to His Wife (London, 1936), pp. 209–10Google Scholar (Jan. 12, 1875).

91. Economist, Feb. 14, 1874.

92. Morley, , Gladstone, I, 148Google Scholar, passed over Gladstone's work with the National Society in the 1830s as “fossils of extinct opinion [which] neither interest nor instruct.” In fact, in 1870 Gladstone ascertained the views of the National Society and sought to modify the Education Bill to its wishes. His deep involvement with the Society, especially in 1838-39, can be seen in the many brief references in The Gladstone Diaries, vol. II, and in Robbins, Alfred F., The Early Public Life of William Ewart Gladstone (London, 1894), pp. 346–63Google Scholar. In 1839 he attacked the Whig plans for a Committee of Council on Education, which was to distribute the State grants to undenominational as well as to Anglican schools, as leading to “latitudinarianism and atheism” (p. 361).

93. Times, Aug. 10, 1866, commenting on Gladstone's declining to vote for a bill to end religious tests at the universities.