A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

The Grand Old Man

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




The session of 1863 was barren of important subjects of debate, and
hence unusual interest was centered in the Chancellor's statement, which
was another masterly financial presentation, and its leading
propositions were cordially received. The whole reduction of taxation
for the year was £3,340,000, or counting the total reductions, present
and prospective, of £4,601,000. This still left a surplus of £400,000.

In four years £8,000,000 had been paid for war with China out of the
ordinary revenues. A proposition to subject charities to the income tax,
although endorsed by the whole cabinet, led to such powerful opposition
throughout the country that it was finally withdrawn. The arguments of
the Chancellor were endorsed by many who were opposed to the
indiscriminate and mistaken beneficence which was so prevalent on
death-beds.

A bill was introduced at this session by Sir Morton Peto, entitled the
"Dissenters' Burial Bill," the object of which was to enable
Nonconformists to have their own religious rites and services, and by
their own ministers, in the graveyards of the Established Church. The
bill was strongly opposed by Lord Robert Cecil and Mr. Disraeli. Mr.
Gladstone favored the measure. The bill was rejected, and Mr. Gladstone
at a later period discovered that his progress in ecclesiastical and
political opinions was creating a breach between himself and his
constituents at Oxford.

Mr. Gladstone's financial scheme for 1864 was received with undiminished
interest. It was characterized as "a policy of which peace, progress and
retrenchment were the watchwords." An available surplus of £2,260,000
enabled him to propose reductions.

The subject of reform, which had been coming up in the House of Commons
in one way or another and agitating the House and the country since
1859, when the Conservative party was beaten on the question, reappeared
in 1864. The question of lowering the borough franchise came up, and Mr.
Gladstone startled the House and the country by his declaration upon the
subject of reform, which showed the rapid development of his views upon
the subject. The Conservative party was filled with alarm, and the hopes
of the Reform party correspondingly elated. "The eyes of all Radical
Reformers turned to Mr. Gladstone as the future Minister of Reform in
Church and State. He became from the same moment an object of distrust,
and something approaching to detestation in the eyes of all steady-going
Conservatives."

Mr. Gladstone said: "I say that every man who is not presentably
incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or political
danger, is morally entitled to come within the pale of the
constitution." This declaration was the first note sounded in a conflict
which, twelve months later, was to cost Mr. Gladstone his seat for
Oxford University, and finally to culminate in the disruption of the
Liberal Government. The general feeling in regard to this speech was
that if the Liberal party had failed in its duty on the subject of
reform in the existing Parliament after Mr. Gladstone's utterances,
that the condition of things must undergo a change, so great was the
effect of his speech in the country. The bill, which was presented by a
private member and lost, was made memorable by the speech of the
Chancellor. The eyes of careful political leaders were again turned
towards Mr. Gladstone, and strong predictions made of his coming
exaltation to the Premiership. Mr. Speaker Denison said, in October,
1864: "I now anticipate that Mr. Gladstone will be Premier. Neither
party has any leader. I hope Mr. Gladstone may get support from the
Conservatives who now support Palmerston." And these expectations were
known to Mr. Gladstone himself, for Bishop Wilberforce had a
conversation with him and writes: "Long talk with Gladstone as to
Premiership: he is for acting under John Russell." Again to Mr.
Gladstone: "Anything which breaks up, or tends to break up, Palmerston's
supremacy, must bring you nearer to the post in which I long to see you,
and, if I live, shall see you." Lord Palmerston himself said: "Gladstone
will soon have it all his own way; and whenever he gets my place we
shall have strange things."

The hostile feeling towards the Palmerston government, which had been
growing in intensity, chiefly on the ground of its foreign policy,
reached its full height in a fierce battle between the Ministry and the
Opposition. July 4, 1864, Mr. Disraeli brought forward his motion of
"no confidence." Mr. Gladstone replied for the government, and sought to
rebut the accusations made by the leader of the Opposition. He said that
it was the very first time in which the House of Commons had been called
upon to record the degradation of the country, simply for the sake of
displacing a ministry.

An amusing episode which occurred during this debate is worthy of record
here; Mr. Bernard Osborne "grew amusingly sarcastic at the expense of
the government, though he paid at the same time a great compliment to
Mr. Gladstone. He likened the Cabinet to a museum of curiosities, in
which there were some birds of rare and noble plumage, both alive and
stuffed. There had been a difficulty, unfortunately, in keeping up the
breed, and it was found necessary to cross it with the famous Peelites.
'I will do them the justice to say that they have a very great and noble
Minister among them in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it is to his
measures alone that they owe the little popularity and the little
support they get from this Liberal party.' Describing Mr. Milner Gibson,
the honorable gentleman said he was like some 'fly in amber,' and the
wonder was 'how the devil he got there.' Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright must
have been disappointed in this 'young man from the country.' He had
become insolent and almost quarrelsome under the guidance of the noble
lord. Should that Parliament decide on terminating its own and their
existence, they would find consolation that the funeral oration would be
pronounced by Mr. Newdegate, and that some friendly hand would inscribe
on their mausoleum, 'Rest and be thankful.'" Mr. Disraeli's motion was
lost, and the ministry was sustained.

The budget of 1865 represented the country as in a prosperous financial
condition. The total reduction was over £5,000,000. Such a financial
showing gained the warm approval of the people, and excited but little
opposition in the House. It was evident that a master-hand was guiding
the national finances, and fortunately the Chancellor's calculations
were verified by the continued prosperity of the country. At a later
period, in commenting upon the policy of the two parties--Conservative
and Liberal--Mr. Gladstone said: "From thence it follows that the policy
of the Liberal party has been to reduce the public charges and to keep
the expenditure within the estimates, and, as a result, to diminish the
taxation of the country and the national debt; that the policy of the
Tory government, since they took office in 1866, has been to increase
the public charges, and to allow the departments to spend more than
their estimates, and, as a result, to create deficits and to render the
reduction of taxation impossible. Which policy will the country prefer?"




CHAPTER XIV


LIBERAL REFORMER AND PRIME MINISTER

July, 1865, Parliament having run its allotted course, according to the
constitution, was dissolved, and a general election took place, which
resulted in the Liberal party being returned again with a majority. Mr.
Gladstone's relations with many of his constituents were not harmonious,
owing to his pronounced Liberal views, and his seat for Oxford was
seriously imperilled. Mr. Gathorne Hardy was nominated to run against
him. The High Tory party resolved to defeat him, and he was defeated by
a majority of 180. "The electors preferred the uncompromising defender
of the Church and Toryism to the brilliant statesman and financier."
Almost all of the distinguished residents of Oxford and three-fourths of
the tutors and lecturers of the University voted for Mr. Gladstone, and
his rejection was entirely owing to the opposing vote of non-residents
and the bigotry of the hostile country clergymen of the Church of
England. From the Bishop of Oxford Mr. Gladstone received the following
indignant protest:

"I cannot forbear expressing to you my grief and indignation at the
result. It is needless for me to say that everything I could with
propriety do I did heartily to save our University this great loss and
dishonor, as well from a loving honor of you. You were too great
for them."

"The enemies of the University," observed the _Times_, "will make the
most of her disgrace. It has hitherto been supposed that a learned
constituency was to some extent exempt from the vulgar motives of party
spirit, and capable of forming a higher estimate of statesmanship than
common tradesmen or tenant-farmers."

His valedictory address to his former constituents was short: "After
an arduous connection of eighteen years, I bid you, respectfully,
farewell.... It is one imperative duty, and one alone, which induces me
to trouble you with these few parting words, the duty of expressing my
profound and lasting gratitude for indulgence as generous, and for
support as warm and enthusiastic in itself, and as honorable from the
character and distinctions of those who have given it, as has, in my
belief, ever been accorded by any constituency to any representative."

One event in Parliament, in 1865, contributed much to Mr. Gladstone's
defeat: In March, 1865, Mr. Dillwyn, the Radical member for Swansea,
moved "that the present position of the Irish Church Establishment is
unsatisfactory, and calls for the early attention of her Majesty's
Government."

Sir Stafford Northcote wrote: "Gladstone made a terribly long stride in
his downward progress last night, and denounced the Irish Church in a
way which shows how, by and by, he will deal not only with it, but with
the Church of England too.... He laid down the doctrines that the tithe
was national property, and ought to be dealt with by the State in a
manner most advantageous to the people; and that the Church of England
was only national because the majority of the people still belong
to her."

"It was now felt that henceforth Mr. Gladstone must belong to the
country, and not to the University." He realized this himself, for
driven from Oxford, he went down to South Lancashire, seeking to be
returned from there to Parliament, and in the Free Trade Hall,
Manchester, said: "At last, my friends, I am come among you, and I am
come among you unmuzzled." These words were greeted with loud and
prolonged applause. The advanced Liberals seemed to take the same view,
and regarded Mr. Gladstone's defeat at Oxford by the Conservatives as
his political enfranchisement. His defeat was not wholly unexpected to
himself. In 1860 he said: "Without having to complain, I am entirely
sick and weary of the terms upon which I hold the seat."

Mr. Gladstone felt keenly the separation, for he wrote to the Bishop of
Oxford: "There have been two great deaths, or transmigrations of spirit,
in my political existence--one, very slow, the breaking of ties with my
original party, the other, very short and sharp, the breaking of the tie
with Oxford. There will probably be a third, and no more." And in a
speech at Liverpool, there was something of pathos in his reference to
Oxford, when he said that if he had clung to the representation of the
University with desperate fondness, it was because he would not desert a
post to which he seemed to have been called. But he had now been
dismissed from it, not by academical, but by political agencies.

Mr. Gladstone was elected to represent his native district in
Parliament, and he was at the head of the poll in Manchester, Liverpool,
and all the large towns. The result of the general elections was a
considerable gain to the Liberal party, but that party sustained a
severe loss by the death of Lord Palmerston, October 18, 1865.

A new cabinet was constructed, with Earl Russell as Premier, and Mr.
Gladstone as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Gladstone became for
the first time the recognized leader in the House of Commons, which
then meant virtually Prime Minister, for with the aged Premier in the
House of Lords, and the youthful Chancellor in the Commons, it meant
nothing else. But Earl Russell and his younger colleague were calculated
to work in harmonious action, for they were both Reformers. The ardent
temperament and the severe conscientiousness of the leader was the cause
of much speculation and anxiety as to his management. His first
appearance as leader of the House was therefore waited for with much
curiosity. The new Parliament was opened February 6, 1866, by the Queen
in person, for the first time since the death of Prince Albert. In the
speech from the throne it was announced that Parliament would be
directed to consider such improvements in the laws which regulate the
right of voting in the election of the members of the House of Commons
as may tend to strengthen our free institutions, and conduce to the
public welfare. Bishop Wilberforce wrote: "Gladstone has risen entirely
to his position, and done all his most sanguine friends hoped for as
leader.... There is a general feeling of insecurity of the ministry, and
the Reform Bill to be launched to-night is thought a bad rock."

May 3, 1866, Mr. Gladstone brought forward what was destined to be his
last budget for some years. There was a surplus of over a million and a
quarter of pounds, which allowed a further and considerable reduction
of taxation.

The condition of Ireland was very grave at this time, and as
apprehensions were felt in regard to the Fenians, a bill suspending the
Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland was passed. Mr. Gladstone, in explaining
the necessity for the measure, said that the government were ready at
any time to consider any measure for the benefit of Ireland, but it was
the single duty of the House at the moment to strengthen the hands of
the Executive in the preservation of law and order. The bill was renewed
by the Derby government, and passed as before, as the result of an
anticipated great Fenian uprising under "Head-Centre" Stephens.

During a debate on the bill for the abolition of Church rates, Mr.
Gladstone said that the law requiring Church rates was _prima facie_
open to great objection, but he could not vote for total abolition. He
offered a compromise and proposed that Dissenters be exempted from
paying Church rates, and at the same time be disqualified from
interfering with funds to which they had not contributed. The compromise
was accepted, but failed to become a law.

On the subject of reform, mentioned in the address, there were great
debates, during the session of 1866. The new Cabinet, known as the
Russell-Gladstone Ministry, set themselves to work in earnest upon a
question that had baffled all the skill of various administrations. As a
part of the reform scheme, Mr. Gladstone brought forward a Franchise
Bill in the House of Commons, March 12th.

The bill satisfied most of the Liberal party. Mr. Robert Lowe, a
Liberal, became one of its most powerful assailants. His enmity to the
working classes made him extremely unpopular. Mr. Horseman also joined
the Conservatives in opposing the bill. Mr. Bright, in a crushing
retort, fastened upon the small party of Liberals, led by these two
members in opposition to the bill, the epithet of "Adullamites." Mr.
Horseman, Mr. Bright said, had "retired into what may be called his
political Cave of Adullam, to which he invited every one who was in
distress, and every one who was discontented. He had long been anxious
to found a party in this house, and there is scarcely a member at this
end of the House who is able to address us with effect or to take much
part, whom he has not tried to bring over to his party and his cabal. At
last he has succeeded in hooking ... Mr. Lowe. I know it was the opinion
many years ago of a member of the Cabinet that two men could make a
party. When a party is formed of two men so amiable and so disinterested
as the two gentlemen, we may hope to see for the first time in
Parliament a party perfectly harmonious and distinguished by mutual and
unbroken trust. But there is one difficulty which it is impossible to
remove. This party of two is like the Scotch terrier that is so covered
with hair that you could not tell which was the head and which was the
tail." This sally, which excited immoderate laughter, remains one of the
happiest examples of Parliamentary retort and badinage.

During this session the Conservative party met at the residence of the
Marquis of Salisbury, and decided upon strongly opposing the measure
proposed by the Liberal government. Mr. Bright characterized it as "a
dirty conspiracy." On the other hand, the country supported the bill,
and great meetings were held in its interest. Mr. Gladstone spoke at a
great meeting at Liverpool. He said: "Having produced this measure,
founded in a spirit of moderation, we hope to support it with
decision.... We have passed the Rubicon, we have broken the bridge and
burned the boats behind us. We have advisedly cut off the means of
retreat, and having done this, we hope that, as far as time is yet
permitted, we have done our duty to the Crown and to the nation." This
was regarded as the bugle-call to the Liberal party for the
coming battle.

The debate began April 12th, and continued for eight nights. "On no
occasion since, and seldom before, has such a flow of eloquence been
heard within the walls of the House of Commons." Mr. Disraeli spoke for
three hours against the bill, and in his speech accused Mr. Gladstone of
introducing American ideas of Government, and of having once assailed
the very principles he now advocated, when in the Oxford Union he spoke
against the Reform Bill of 1832. Mr. Gladstone's reply was one of the
most noteworthy parts of this famous debate. He rose at one o'clock in
the morning to conclude a legislative battle which had begun two weeks
before. "At last," Mr. Gladstone said, "we have obtained a declaration
from an authoritative source that a bill which, in a country with five
millions of adult males, proposes to add to a limited constituency
200,000 of the middle class and 200,000 of the working class, is, in the
judgment of the leader of the Tory party, a bill to reconstruct the
constitution upon American principles.

"The right honorable gentleman, secure in the recollection of his own
consistency, has taunted me with the errors of my boyhood. When he
addressed the honorable member of Westminster, he showed his magnanimity
by declaring that he would not take the philosopher to task for what he
wrote twenty-five years ago; but when he caught one who, thirty-six
years ago, just emerged from boyhood, and still an undergraduate at
Oxford, had expressed an opinion adverse to the Reform Bill of 1832, of
which he had so long and bitterly repented, then the right honorable
gentleman could not resist the temptation."

The bill was put upon its passage. The greatest excitement prevailed.
"The house seemed charged with electricity, like a vast thunder-cloud;
and now a spark was about to be applied. Strangers rose in their seats,
the crowd at the bar pushed half-way up the House, the Royal Princes
leaned forward in their standing places, and all was confusion."
Presently order was restored, and breathless excitement prevailed while
the tellers announced that the bill had been carried by a majority of
only five.

"Hardly had the words left the teller's lips than there arose a wild,
raging, mad-brained shout from floor and gallery, such as has never been
heard in the present House of Commons. Dozens of half-frantic Tories
stood up in their seats, madly waved their hats and hurrahed at the top
of their voices. Strangers in both galleries clapped their hands. The
Adullamites on the Ministerial benches, carried away by the delirium of
the moment, waved their hats in sympathy with the Opposition, and
cheered as loudly as any. Mr. Lowe, the leader, instigator, and prime
mover of the conspiracy, stood up in the excitement of the
moment--flushed, triumphant, and avenged.... He took off his hat, waved
it in wide and triumphant circles over the heads of the very men who had
just gone into the lobby against him.... But see, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer lifts up his hand to bespeak silence, as if he had something
to say in regard to the result of the division. But the more the great
orator lifts his hand beseechingly, the more the cheers are renewed and
the hats waved. At length the noise comes to an end by the process of
exhaustion, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer rises. Then there is a
universal hush, and you might hear a pin drop."

"Few, if any, could anticipate at this time, that in the course of one
short year a Conservative Government would find itself compelled to take
up that very question of Reform, whose virtual defeat its opponents now
hailed with such intoxicating expressions of delight." However, the bill
was unexpectedly wrecked June 18th, by an amendment substituting a ratal
instead of a rental basis for the borough franchise. The ministry
regarding this as a vital point, could not agree to it, and consequently
threw up their measure and resigned office. The Queen was unwilling to
accept their resignation. But the ministry felt that they had lost the
confidence of the House, so their resignation was announced June 26th.

The apathy of the people about reform that Earl Russell thought he
perceived, as far as London was concerned, at once disappeared. A great
demonstration was made at Trafalgar Square, where some ten thousand
people assembled and passed resolutions in favor of reform. A serious
riot occurred at Hyde Park in consequence of the prohibition by the
Government of the meeting of the Reform League. The Reformers then
marched to Carleton House Terrace, the residence of Mr. Gladstone,
singing songs in his honor. He was away from home, but Mrs. Gladstone
and her family came out on the balcony to acknowledge the tribute paid
by the people. It is said that Mr. Gladstone, now for the first time,
became a popular hero. Great meetings were held in the interest of
reform in the large towns of the North and the Midlands, where his name
was received with tumultuous applause. Mr. Gladstone was hailed
everywhere as the leader of the Liberal party. Reform demonstrations
continued during the whole of the recess. A meeting was held at
Brookfields, near Birmingham, which was attended by nearly 250,000
people. The language of some of the ardent friends of reform was not
always discreet, but Mr. Gladstone appears to have preserved a calm and
dignified attitude.

In the summer of 1866, Lord Derby had announced his acceptance of office
as Premier, and the formation of a Conservative Cabinet. The
demonstrations of the people compelled the Conservatives to introduce
measures in Liberal Reform. Accordingly, in 1867, Mr. Disraeli and his
colleagues passed a Reform Bill, which, after various modifications, was
far more extreme than that presented by the Liberals and defeated.

Owing to a division in the ranks of the Liberal members on the pending
bill, Mr. Gladstone withdrew from the active leadership of the House,
but soon resumed it. Mr. Bright said, at Birmingham, that since 1832,
there had been no man of Mr. Gladstone's rank as a statesman who had
imported into the Reform question so much of conviction, of earnestness,
and of zeal.

Not long after this deputations from various parts of the country,
accompanied by their representatives in Parliament, called on Mr.
Gladstone to present addresses expressive of confidence in him as
Liberal leader.

Lord Cranborne expressed his astonishment at hearing the bill described
as a Conservative triumph. It was right that its real parentage should
be established. The bill had been modified by Mr. Gladstone. All his
points were conceded. If the adoption on the principles of Mr. Bright
could be described as a triumph, then indeed the Conservative party, in
the whole history of its previous annals, had won no triumphs so simple
as this. In the House of Lords the Duke of Buccleuch declared that the
only word in the bill that remained unaltered was the first word,
"whereas."

"The work of reform was completed in the session of 1868, by the passing
of the Scotch and Irish Reform Bills, a Boundary Bill for England and
Wales, an Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices Prevention Bill, and
the Registration of Voters Bill. The object of the last-named measure
was to accelerate the elections, and to enable Parliament to meet before
the end of 1868."

In the autumn of 1866, Mr. Gladstone and his family again visited Italy,
and at Rome had an audience with Pope Pio Nono. It became necessary two
years later, owing to this interview, for Mr. Gladstone formally to
explain his visit.

In February, 1868, Lord Derby, owing to failing health, resigned. The
Derby Ministry retired from office, and Mr. Disraeli became Prime
Minister. An English author writes: "There was, of course, but one
possible Conservative Premier--Mr. Disraeli--he who had served the
Conservative party for more than thirty years, who had led it to
victory, and who had long been the ruling spirit of the Cabinet."

Copyright (c) 2007. famouswriterz.com. All rights reserved.