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The Grand Old Man

R >> Richard B. Cook >> The Grand Old Man




'Men of a thousand shifts and wiles, look here!
See one straightforward conscience put in pawn
To win a world; see the obedient sphere
By bravery's simple gravitation drawn!
Shall we not heed the lesson taught of old,
And by the Present's lips repeated still?
In our own single manhood to be bold,
Fortressed in conscience and impregnable.'

"Mr. Gladstone has never hesitated to counter at sharp right angles the
passion and the fury of the day. Those who represent him as ever strong
upon the strong side, wilfully shut their eyes to half his history. He
challenged Lord Palmerston over the Don Pacifico question, and was
believed to have wrecked himself almost as completely as when in 1876 he
countered even more resolutely the fantastic Jingoism of Lord
Beaconsfield. It is easy for those who come after and enter into the
spoils gained by sacrifices of which they themselves were incapable to
describe the Bulgarian agitation as an astute party move. The party did
not think so. Its leaders did not think so. Some of those who now halloo
loud enough behind Mr. Gladstone were then bitter enough in their
complaint that he had wrecked his party. One at least, who was
constrained to say the other thing in public, made up for it by bitter
and contemptuous cavilings in private. Now it is easy to see that Lord
Beaconsfield was mistaken and that Mr. Gladstone held the winning card
all along. But no one knew it at the time when the card had to be
played, certainly not Mr. Gladstone himself. He simply saw his duty a
dead sure thing, and, like Jim Bludsoe on the burning boat, 'He went for
it there and then.' It turned up trumps, but no one knew how heavy were
the odds against it save those who went through the stress and the
strain of that testing and trying time by his side."

In the summer of 1845 Mr. Gladstone proposed to his intimate friend, Mr.
J.R. Hope, that they should spend the month of September in a working
tour in Ireland, giving evidence of his characteristic desire always to
come in personal contact with any question that he had to discuss. He
suggests "their eschewing all grandeur, and taking little account even
of scenery, compared with the purpose of looking, from close quarters,
at the institutions for religion and education of the country, and at
the character of the people. It seems ridiculous to talk of supplying
the defects of second-hand information by so short a trip; but although
a longer time would be much better, yet even a very contracted one does
much when it is added to an habitual, though indirect, knowledge." The
projected trip, however, had to be abandoned.

Towards the close of the year 1845 Mr. Gladstone issued a pamphlet
entitled "Remarks upon recent Commercial Legislation," in which he not
only discussed the salutary effects of the late commercial policy, but
used arguments clearly showing that he was advancing to the position of
a free-trader. His general conclusion was that English statesmen should
use every effort to disburden of all charges, so far as the law was
concerned, the materials of industry, and thus enable the workman to
approach his work at home on better terms, as the terms in which he
entered foreign markets were altered for the worse against him.

While Mr. Gladstone was so willing to deal generously more than ever
before with the Irish Roman Catholics, his confidence in the Established
Episcopal Church of Ireland was growing less. "I am sorry," he wrote to
Bishop Wilberforce, "to express my apprehension that the Irish Church is
not in a large sense efficient; the working results of the last ten
years have disappointed me. I may be answered, Have faith in the
ordinance of God; but then I must see the seal and signature, and these,
how can I separate from ecclesiastical descent? The title, in short, is
questioned, and vehemently, not only by the Radicalism of the day, but
by the Roman Bishops, who claim to hold succession of St. Patrick, and
this claim has been alive all along from the Reformation, so that lapse
of years does nothing against it."

The name of Dr. Döllinger, the distinguished reformed Roman Catholic,
has been mentioned already in connection with that of Mr. Gladstone. In
the fall of 1845 Mr. Gladstone went to Munich and paid his first visit
to Dr. Döllinger. For a week he remained in daily intercourse with this
eminent divine, and the foundation was laid of a friendship which was
sustained by repeated visits and correspondence, and which lasted until
the doctor's death in 1890.

In the winter of 1845 Mr. Gladstone met with a painful accident that
resulted in a permanent injury to his hand. He was by no means what is
termed a sportsman, yet he was somewhat fond of shooting. His gun was
prematurely discharged while he was loading it, and shattered the first
finger of his left hand, so that amputation was necessary.

[Illustration: Loyal Ulster]




CHAPTER VII


MEMBER FOR OXFORD

"Mr. Gladstone's career," says his biographer, G.W.E. Russell,
"naturally divides itself into three parts. The first of them ends with
his retirement from the representation of Newark. The central part
ranges from 1847 to 1868. Happily the third is still incomplete." The
first division, according to Dr. Russell, of this remarkable life, we
have considered, and we now pass on to the development of the second
period. The causes which led up to Mr. Gladstone's retirement from the
representation for Newark to that of Oxford we will now proceed
to trace.

The agitation by the ablest orators against the corn laws had been going
on for ten years, when an announcement was made in the "Times" of
December 4, 1845, that Parliament would be convened the first week in
January, and that the Queen's address would recommend the immediate
consideration of the corn laws, preparatory to their total abolition.
This startling news took the other daily papers by surprise, for there
had been recently a lull in the agitation, and several of them
contradicted it positively. Yet the newspapers had noticed the unusual
occurrence of four cabinet meetings in one week. The original statement
was confirmed. The ministry was pledged to support the measure. The hour
had come, the doom of the corn laws was sealed. Mr. Gladstone's thoughts
and labors for some years past had been leading him away from
Protection, in which he had been brought up, in the direction of Free
Trade; and although he was unable to participate in the last part of the
struggle in Parliament, because he was not a member of the House, he was
yet in harmony with Sir Robert Peel, and indeed is said to have
converted the Premier to Free Trade views. Such a change of views was
not the sudden impulse of an hour. The next step was to announce his
changed convictions. And so upon other occasions in his life, his
attitude on the question of the corn laws led to his separation from
some old and greatly cherished political and personal friends, and among
the first to disapprove of his new departure must have been his own
father, who would think his son was going to ruin the country.

The Duke of Buccleuch and Lord Stanley informed Sir Robert Peel that
they could not support a measure for the repeal of the corn laws, and
Sir Robert Peel, being doubtful whether he could carry through the
proposed measure in the face of such opposition, tendered his
resignation as premier to the Queen. Lord John Russell was called upon
to form a new ministry, but, having failed in this, the Queen desired
Sir Robert Peel to withdraw his resignation, and resume the head of the
government again.

It was found when the list of the new Peel Cabinet was published, that
Mr. Gladstone was a member of it; having accepted the office of Colonial
Secretary, in the place of Lord Stanley, who had resigned because not in
sympathy with the proposed movement and of repeal. Accepting office in a
ministry pledged to repeal the corn laws led to the retirement of Mr.
Gladstone from the House of Commons as the representative for Newark.
The Duke of New Castle, the patron and friend of Mr. Gladstone, was an
ardent Protectionist, and could not sanction the candidature of a
supporter of Free Trade principles. His patronage was therefore
necessarily withdrawn from Mr. Gladstone. Indeed, the Duke had turned
his own son, Lord Lincoln, out of the representation of Nottinghamshire
for accepting office under Sir Robert Peel, and he naturally showed no
mercy to the brilliant but wayward politician, whom his favor had made
member for Newark. Besides, Mr. Gladstone felt he held opposite
principles from those he held when elected, and that unless the
constituency had changed with him, he could no longer honorably continue
to represent them, even if the influence and friendship of the Duke
permitted it.

Accordingly he did not offer himself for re-election, but retired and
issued an address to the electors of Newark, dated January 5, 1846, of
which the following is an extract: "By accepting the office of Secretary
of State for the Colonies, I have ceased to be your representative in
Parliament. On several accounts I should have been peculiarly desirous
at the present time of giving you an opportunity to pronounce your
constitutional judgment on my public conduct, by soliciting at your
hands a renewal of the trust which I have already received from you on
five successive occasions, and held during a period of thirteen years.
But as I have good reason to believe that a candidate recommended to
your favor through local connections may ask your suffrages, it becomes
my very painful duty to announce to you on that ground alone my
retirement from a position which has afforded me so much of honor and of
satisfaction." Mr. Gladstone further goes on to explain that he accepted
office because he held that "it was for those who believed the
Government was acting according to the demands of public duty to testify
that belief, however limited their sphere might be, by their
co-operation." He had acted "in obedience to the clear and imperious
call of public obligation."

It was in this way that Mr. Gladstone became a voluntary exile from the
House of Commons during this important season, and took no part in the
debates, his personal powerful advocacy being lost in the consideration
of the great measure before the House. He was a member of the Cabinet,
but not of the House of Commons. It was no secret, however, that he was
the most advanced Free Trader in the Peel Cabinet, and that the policy
of the government in regard to this great measure of 1846 was to a large
extent moulded by him.

It is also known that his representations of the effects of Free Trade
on the industry of the country and the general well-being of the people
strengthened the Premier in his resolve to sweep away the obnoxious corn
laws. His pamphlet on recent commercial legislation had prepared the way
for the later momentous changes; and to Mr. Gladstone is due much of the
credit for the speedy consummation of the Free Trade policy of the Peel
Ministry. Mr. Gladstone may be regarded as the pioneer of the movement.

Just at this time a calamity occurred in Ireland which furnished Sir
Robert Peel an additional argument for the prompt repeal of the corn
laws; namely, a prospective famine, owing to the failure of the potato
crop. With threatened famine in Ireland, such as had never been
experienced, the Prime Minister saw clearly that corn must be admitted
into the country free of duty. The Anti-Corn Law League was growing
powerful and even irresistible, while both in England and Ireland many
landlords of influence, who did not belong to the League, were in
sympathy with the movement started by the Premier and ready to extend to
him a hearty support.

But the friends of Protection did not leave the Premier without
opposition. Knowing that Sir Robert Peel's personal influence was
greater than that of any minister who had "virtually governed the
empire," they used every means at their command, fair and unfair, to
defeat the bill. However, their efforts were destined to failure. Some
contended that the presentation and passage of the corn law repeal bill
ought to be left to the Liberals. But Free Trade had not received the
support of every member of the Liberal party, and Sir Robert Peel was in
a position to carry out the measure, and it was not in accordance with
the wisdom of practical politics to halt. Indeed, at this very juncture,
Mr. Cobden wrote to the Premier that he had the power, and that it would
be disastrous to the country for him to hesitate. Writing from
Edinburgh, Lord John Russell announced his conversion to total and
immediate repeal of the corn laws. Sir Robert Peel hesitated no longer,
but, feeling that the crisis had arrived, determined to grapple with it.
It was duty to country before and above fancied loyalty to party to be
considered. It is strange what remedies some men deem sensible,
suggested to prevent famine in Ireland.

"Obviously the Government was in difficulties. What those difficulties
were it was not hard to guess. In the previous autumn it had become
known that, after a long season of sunless wet, the potatoes had
everywhere been attacked by an obscure disease. The failure of this crop
meant an Irish famine. The steps suggested to meet this impending
calamity were strange enough. The head of the English peerage
recommended the poor to rely on curry-powder as a nutritious and
satisfying food. Another duke thought that the government could show no
favor to a population almost in a state of rebellion, but that
individuals might get up a subscription. A noble lord, harmonizing
materialism and faith, urged the government to encourage the provision
of salt fish, and at the same time to appoint a day of public
acknowledgment of our dependence on Divine goodness. The council of the
Royal Agricultural Society, numbering some of the wealthiest noblemen
and squires in England, were not ashamed to lecture the laborers on the
sustaining properties of thrice-boiled bones."

When Parliament assembled the Premier entered into an explanation of the
late ministerial crisis, and unfolded his projected plans. He said that
the failure of the potato crop had led to the dissolution of the late
government, that matters now could brook no further delay; that prompt
action must now be taken on the Corn Laws; that the progress of reason
and truth demanded it; that his opinions on the subject of Protection
had undergone a great change; that the experience of the past three
years confirmed him in his new views; that he could not conceal the
knowledge of his convictions, however much it might lay him open to the
charge of inconsistency; that, though accused of apathy and neglect, he
and his colleagues were even then engaged in the most extensive and
arduous inquiries into the true state of Ireland; and that, as these
inquiries progressed, he has been forced to the conclusion that the
protection policy was unsound and consequently untenable.

It is worthy of note that Mr. Disraeli, the future Parliamentary rival
of Mr. Gladstone, took part, as a member of the House of Commons, in the
discussion of the question under consideration. The following words show
his attitude: "To the opinions which I have expressed in this House in
favor of Protection I adhere. They sent to this House, and if I had
relinquished them I should have relinquished my seat also." "It would be
an unprofitable talk," writes Barnett Smith, "to unravel the many
inconsistencies of Lord Beaconsfield's career; but with regard to this
deliverance upon Protection, the curious in such matters may turn back
to the records of 1842, when they will discover that at that time he was
quite prepared to advocate measures of a Free Trade character. But we
must pass on from this important question of the Corn Laws, with the
angry controversy to which it gave rise. Sir Robert Peel brought forward
his measure, and after lengthened debate in both Houses, it became law,
and grain was admitted into English ports under the new tariff."

After all their success in carrying through the important Corn Law
Repeal scheme, the ministry of Sir Robert Peel was doomed to fall upon
an Irish question. The very day that brought their victory in the
passage of the Corn Law Repeal Act in the House of Lords saw the defeat
of the ministry in the House of Commons on their bill for the
suppression of outrage in Ireland. Sir Robert Peel found himself in a
minority of 73 and therefore tendered his resignation. It was accepted
and Sir Robert Peel went out of office forever. Lord John Russell was
sent for by the Queen, and he succeeded in forming a Whig Ministry.

Mr. Gladstone's return to the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel, as we have
seen, cost him his seat in the House of Commons. It was not until the
brief session of 1847, that he appeared again in Parliament. The Queen
dissolved Parliament in person, July, 23d. The election succeeding
turned in many instances upon ecclesiastical questions, and especially
upon the Maynooth grant.

It was announced early in 1847 that one of the two members of the House
of Commons for the University of Oxford intended to retire at the next
general election. Mr. Canning had pronounced the representation of the
university as the most coveted prize of public life, and Mr. Gladstone
himself confessed that he "desired it with an almost passionate
fondness." Mr. Gladstone, as a graduate of Oxford, was looked upon not
only by his contemporaries, but by his seniors and those who came after
him, with feelings of enthusiastic admiration. The feeling then was
reciprocal, and he was proposed for the vacant seat. Sir R.N. Inglis was
secure in his seat, and so the contest lay between Mr. Gladstone and Mr.
Round, who was of the ultra-Protestant and Tory school. The contest
excited the keenest interest and was expected on all hands to be
very close.

Mr. Gladstone in his address to the electors of his _Alma Mater_
confessed that in the earlier part of his public life he had been an
advocate for the exclusive support of the national religion of the
state, but it had been in vain; the time was against him. He said: "I
found that scarcely a year passed without the adoption of some fresh
measure involving the national recognition and the national support of
various forms of religion, and, in particular, that a recent and fresh
provision had been made for the propagation from a public chair of Arian
or Socinian doctrines. The question remaining for me was whether, aware
of the opposition of the English people, I should set down as equal to
nothing, in a matter primarily connected not with our own but with their
priesthood, the wishes of the people of Ireland; and whether I should
avail myself of the popular feeling in regard to the Roman Catholics for
the purpose of enforcing against them a system which we had ceased by
common consent to enforce against Arians--a system, above all, of which
I must say that it never can be conformable to policy, to justice or
even to decency, when it has become avowedly partial and one-sided in
its application."

This address intensified the determination of those opposed to Mr.
Gladstone to defeat him. A great portion of the press was, however, in
his favor. Some of the journals that were enthusiastic for Mr. Gladstone
were very bitter against Mr. Round. Mr. Gladstone's distinguished talent
and industry were lauded, as well as his earnest attachment to the
Church of England. He had, however, renounced the exclusiveness of his
politico-ecclesiastical principles, and no longer importuned Parliament
to ignore all forms of religion but those established by law, or which
were exactly coincident with his own belief. "His election," declared
one journal, "unlike that of Mr. Round, while it sends an important
member to the House of Commons, will certainly be creditable, and may be
valuable to the university; and we heartily hope that no negligence or
hesitation among his supporters may impede his success." Even outside of
church circles the election was regarded with great interest.

The nomination took place July 29th. After the usual ceremony, the
voting commenced in convocation-house, which was densely crowded. So
great was the pressure of the throng that men fainted and had to be
carried out. Mr. Coleridge, afterward Lord Coleridge, was the secretary
of Mr. Gladstone's committee. Distinguished men, among them Sir Robert
Peel, his colleague in the Cabinet, came from a great distance to
"plump" for Mr. Gladstone. The venerable Dr. Routh, then nearly
ninety-two years old, came forth from his retirement at Magdalen College
to vote for him. Mrs. Gladstone, according to Mr. Hope-Scott, was an
indefatigable canvasser for her husband. At the close of the poll the
vote stood: Inglis, 1700; Gladstone, 997; Round, 824. Of course Sir
Robert Inglis, with his "prehistoric Toryism," stood at the head. To the
supporters of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Round must be added 154 who were
paired. Mr. Gladstone received a majority of 173 over his
ultra-Protestant opponent. The total number of those polled exceeded
that registered at any previous election, showing the intense and
general interest in the result.

This period of Mr. Gladstone's life has been very properly styled by one
of his biographers, as the transition period. "On one side the
Conservative Free-trader clings fondly and tenaciously to the Toryism of
his youth, on another, he is reaching out toward new realms of Liberal
thought and action. He opposes marriage with a deceased wife's sister on
theological and social grounds, asserting roundly that such marriage is
'contrary to the law of God, declared for three thousand years and
upwards.' He deprecates the appointment of a Commission to enquire into
the Universities, because it will deter intending benefactors from
effecting their munificent intentions. He argues for a second chamber in
Australian legislatures, citing, perhaps a little unfortunately, the
constitutional example of contemporary France. In all these utterances
it is not hard to read the influence of the traditions in which he was
reared, or of the ecclesiastical community which he represents in
Parliament.

"Yet even in the theological domain a tendency towards Liberalism shows
itself. His hatred of Erastianism is evinced by his gallant but
unsuccessful attempt to secure for the clergy and laity of each colonial
diocese the power of self-government. Amid the indignant protests of his
Tory allies, and in opposition to his own previous speech and vote, he
vindicates the policy of admitting the Jews to Parliament. He defends
the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Court of Rome; he
supports the alteration of the parliamentary oath; and, though he will
not abet an abstract attack on Church Rates, he contends that their
maintainance involves a corresponding duty to provide accommodation in
the church for the very poorest of the congregation.

"On the commercial side his Liberalism is rampant. With even fanatical
faith he clings to Free Trade as the best guarantee for our national
stability amid the crash of the dynasties and constitutions which went
down in '48. He thunders against the insidious dangers of reciprocity.
He desires, by reforming the laws which govern navigation, to make the
ocean, 'that great highway of nations, as free to the ships that
traverse its bosom as to the winds that sweep it.'

"And so the three years--1847, 1848, 1849--rolled by, full of stirring
events in Europe and in England, in Church and in State, but marked by
no special incidents in the life of Mr. Gladstone. For him these years
were a period of mental growth, of transition, of development. A change
was silently proceeding, which was not completed for twenty years, if,
indeed, it has been completed yet. 'There have been,' he wrote in later
days to Bishop Wilberforce, 'two great deaths, or transmigrations of
spirit, in my political existence--one, very slow, the breaking of ties
with my original party.' This was now in progress. The other will be
narrated in due course."

One of the features of the general election of 1847 that excited the
wildest popular comment was the election of Baron Rothschild for the
City of London. There was nothing illegal in the election of a Jew, but
he was virtually precluded from taking his seat in the House of Commons,
because the law required every member to subscribe not only to the
Christian religion, but to the Protestant Episcopal faith. To obviate
this difficulty, Lord John Russell, soon after Parliament assembled,
offered a resolution affirming the eligibility of Jews to all functions
and offices to which Roman Catholics were admissible by law. Sir R.H.
Inglis opposed the resolution and Mr. Gladstone, his colleague,
supported it.

Mr. Gladstone inquired whether there were any grounds for the
disqualification of the Jews which distinguished them from any other
classes in the community. They contended for a "Christian Parliament,
but the present measure did not make severance between politics and
religion, it only amounted to a declaration that there was no necessity
for excluding a Jew, as such, from an assembly in which every man felt
sure that a vast and overwhelming majority of its members would always
be Christian. It was said that by admitting a few Jews they would
un-Christianize Parliament; that was true in word, but not in
substance." He had no doubt that the majority of the members who
composed it would always perform their obligations on the true faith of
a Christian. It was too late to say that the measure was un-Christian,
and that it would call down the vengeance of heaven. When he opposed the
last law of the removal of Jewish disabilities, he foresaw that if he
gave the Jew municipal, magisterial and executive functions, we could
not refuse him legislative functions any longer. "The Jew was refused
entrance into the House because he would then be a maker of the law; but
who made the maker of the law? The constituencies; and into these
constituencies had been admitted the Jews. Now were the constituencies
Christian constituencies? If they were, was it probable that the
Parliament would cease to be a Christian Parliament?"

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