The Life Of William Ewart Gladstone - free ebook by John Morley

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The Life Of William Ewart Gladstone

John Morley

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JOHN MORLEY

JOHN MORLEY

IN THREE VOLUMES—VOL. I ( 1809-1859 ) TORONTO GEORGE N. MORANG &amp; COMPANY, LIMITED 1903 Copyright , 1903, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up, electrotyped, and published October, 1903. Reprinted October, November, 1903. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing &amp; Co.—Berwick &amp; Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. TO THE ELECTORS OF THE MONTROSE BURGHS I BEG LEAVE TO INSCRIBE THIS BOOK IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF THE CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP WITH WHICH THEY HAVE HONOURED ME NOTE The material o

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Book I

Book I

ToC 1809-1831 INTRODUCTORY I am well aware that to try to write Mr. Gladstone's life at all—the life of a man who held an imposing place in many high national transactions, whose character and career may be regarded in such various lights, whose interests were so manifold, and whose years bridged so long a span of time—is a stroke of temerity. To try to write his life to-day, is to push temerity still further. The ashes of controversy, in which he was much concerned, are still hot; perspective,

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX

ToC CHOICE OF PROFESSION Page 82 Mr. Gladstone to his Father Cuddesdon, Aug. 4, 1830 .— My Beloved Father ,—I have a good while refrained from addressing you on a subject of importance and much affecting my own future destiny, from a supposition that your time and thoughts have been much occupied for several months past by other matters of great interest in succession. Now, however, believing you to be more at leisure, I venture to bring it before you. It is, as you will have anticipated, the de

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CHRONOLOGY[394]

CHRONOLOGY[394]

ToC 1832. 1833. 1834. 1835. 1836. 1837. 1838. 1839. 1840. 1841. 1842. 1843. 1844. 1845. 1846. 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 1857. 1858. 1859. [394] All speeches unless otherwise stated were made in the House of Commons....

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Chapter I. The Italian Revolution. (1859-1860)

Chapter I. The Italian Revolution. (1859-1860)

This description extends in truth much beyond the session of a given year to the whole existence of the new cabinet, and through a highly important period in Mr. Gladstone's career. More than that, it directly links our biographic story to a series of events that created kingdoms, awoke nations, and re-made the map of Europe. The opening of this long and complex episode was the Italian revolution. Writing to Sir John Acton in 1864 Mr. Gladstone said to him of the budget of 1860, “When viewed as

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Chapter II. The Great Budget. (1860-1861)

Chapter II. The Great Budget. (1860-1861)

The financial arrangements of 1859 were avowedly provisional and temporary, and need not detain us. The only feature was a rise in the income tax from fivepence to ninepence—its highest figure so far in a time of peace. “My budget,” he wrote to Mrs. Gladstone (July 16), “is just through the cabinet, very kindly and well received, no one making objection but Lewis, who preached low doctrine. It confirms me in the belief I have long had, that he was fitter for most other offices than for that I no

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Chapter III. Battle For Economy. (1860-1862)

Chapter III. Battle For Economy. (1860-1862)

All this time the battle for thrifty husbandry went on, and the bark of the watch-dog at the exchequer sounded a hoarse refrain. “We need not maunder in ante-chambers,” as Mr. Disraeli put it, “to discover differences in the cabinet, when we have a patriotic prime minister appealing to the spirit of the country; and when at the same time we find his chancellor of the exchequer, whose duty it is to supply the ways and means by which those exertions are to be supported, proposing votes with innuen

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Chapter IV. The Spirit Of Gladstonian Finance. (1859-1866)

Chapter IV. The Spirit Of Gladstonian Finance. (1859-1866)

One recorder who had listened to all the financiers from Peel downwards, said that Peel's statements were ingenious and able, but dry; Disraeli was clever but out of his element; Wood was like a cart without springs on a heavy road; Gladstone was the only man who could lead his hearers over the arid desert, and yet keep them cheerful and lively and interested without flagging. Another is reminded of Sir Joshua's picture of Garrick between tragedy and comedy, such was his duality of attitude and

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Chapter V. American Civil War. (1861-1863)

Chapter V. American Civil War. (1861-1863)

At a very early period Mr. Gladstone formed the opinion that the attempt to restore the Union by force would and must fail. “As far as the controversy between North and South,” he wrote to the Duchess of Sutherland (May 29, 1861) “is a controversy on the principle announced by the vice-president of the South, viz. that which asserts the superiority of the white man, and therewith founds on it his right to hold the black in slavery, I think that principle detestable, and I am wholly with the oppo

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Chapter VI. Death Of Friends—Days At Balmoral. (1861-1884)

Chapter VI. Death Of Friends—Days At Balmoral. (1861-1884)

The void thus left was never filled. Of Graham he wrote to the Duchess of Sutherland:— Not many months later (June 1862) he had to write to Mr. Gordon, “We are all sorely smitten by Canning's death,” [pg 089] whose fame, he said, would “bear the scrutinising judgment of posterity, under whose keen eye so many illusions are doomed to fade away.” 68 In the December of 1861 died the Prince Consort. His last communication to Mr. Gladstone was a letter (Nov. 19) proposing to recommend him as an elder

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Chapter VII. Garibaldi—Denmark. (1864)

Chapter VII. Garibaldi—Denmark. (1864)

It was in 1862 that Mr. Gladstone made his greatest speech on Italian affairs. 79 “I am ashamed to say,” he told the House, “that for a long time, I, like many, withheld my assent and approval from Italian yearnings.” He amply atoned for his tardiness, and his exposure of Naples, where perjury was the tradition of its kings; of the government of the pope in the Romagna, where the common administration of law and justice was handed over to Austrian soldiery; of the stupid and execrable lawlessnes

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Chapter VIII. Advance In Public Position And Otherwise. (1864)

Chapter VIII. Advance In Public Position And Otherwise. (1864)

born in the purple of the directing class. A Yorkshire member, destined to a position of prominence, entered the House in 1861, and after he had been there a couple of years he wrote to his wife, that “the want of the liberal party of a new man was great, and felt to be great; the old whig leaders were worn out; there were no new whigs; Cobden and Bright were impracticable and un-English, and there were hardly any hopeful radicals. There was a great prize of power and influence to be aimed at.”

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Chapter IX. Defeat At Oxford—Death Of Lord Palmerston—Parliamentary Leadership. (1865)

Chapter IX. Defeat At Oxford—Death Of Lord Palmerston—Parliamentary Leadership. (1865)

Oct. 1, 1864. —I still feel much mental lassitude, and not only shrink from public business, but from hard books. It is uphill work. Oct. 21. —A pamphlet letter from Lord Palmerston about defence holds out a dark prospect. Oct. 22. —Wrote, late in the day, my reply to Lord Palmerston in a rather decisive tone, for I feel conscious of right and of necessity. To Mrs. Gladstone. Nov. 9. —After more than a fortnight's delay, I received yesterday evening the enclosed very unfavourable letter from Lor

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Chapter X. Matters Ecclesiastical. (1864-1868)

Chapter X. Matters Ecclesiastical. (1864-1868)

— Eur. , Troades , 884. O thou, upholder of the earth, who upon earth hast an abiding place, whosoever thou art, inscrutable, thou Zeus, whether thou be necessity of nature, or intelligence of mortal men, on thee I call; for, treading a noiseless path, in righteousness dost thou direct all human things. The reader will have surmised that amidst all the press and strain in affairs of state, Mr. Gladstone's intensity of interest in affairs of the church never for an instant slackened. Wide as the

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Chapter XI. Popular Estimates. (1868)

Chapter XI. Popular Estimates. (1868)

On the other side Lord Shaftesbury, to whom things ecclesiastical were as cardinal as they were to Mr. Gladstone, ruefully reflected in 1864 that people must make ready for great and irrevocable changes. Palmerston was simply the peg driven through the island of Delos: unloose the peg, and all would soon be adrift. “His successor, Gladstone, will bring with him the Manchester school for colleagues and supporters, a hot tractarian for chancellor, and the Bishop of Oxford for ecclesiastical advise

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Chapter XII. Letters. (1859-1868)

Chapter XII. Letters. (1859-1868)

As I said in our opening pages, Mr. Gladstone's letters are mostly concerned with points of business. They were not with him a medium for conveying the slighter incidents, fugitive moods, fleeting thoughts, of life. Perhaps of these fugitive moods he may have had too few. To me, says Crassus in Cicero, the man hardly seems to be free, who does not sometimes do nothing. 132 In table-talk he could be as disengaged, as marked in ease and charm, as any one; he was as willing as any one to accept top

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Chapter XIII. Reform. (1866)

Chapter XIII. Reform. (1866)

The antecedents of the memorable crisis of 1866-7 were curious. Reform bills had been considered by five governments since 1849, and mentioned in six speeches from the throne. Each political party had brought a plan forward, and Lord John Russell had brought forward three. Mr. Bright also reduced his policy to the clauses of a bill in 1858. In 1859 Lord Derby's government had introduced a measure which old whigs and new radicals, uniting their forces, had successfully resisted. This move Mr. Gla

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Chapter XIV. The Struggle For Household Suffrage. (1867)

Chapter XIV. The Struggle For Household Suffrage. (1867)

The general character of the operations of 1867, certainly one of the most curious in our parliamentary history, was described by Mr. Gladstone in a fragment written thirty years after. Time had extinguished the volcanic fires, and the little outline is sketched with temper and a sort of neutrality:— When the parliament reassembled in 1867, parties and groups were curiously distributed. The two great bodies were the regular supporters of the Tory ministry, and those grouped around us who had bee

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Chapter XV. Opening Of The Irish Campaign. (1868)

Chapter XV. Opening Of The Irish Campaign. (1868)

Writing to his brother-in-law, Lord Lyttelton, in April 1865, Mr. Gladstone sets out pretty summarily the three incidents that had been taken to mark the line of his advance in the paths of extreme and visionary politics. When it was written, his speech on the franchise the previous year had not ripened, 162 and his speech on the Irish church was only on the eve, nor did he yet know it, of taking shape as a deliberate policy of action. To Lord Lyttelton. 11 Carlton House Terrace, S.W., April 9,

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Chapter XVI. Prime Minister. (1868)

Chapter XVI. Prime Minister. (1868)

During the election (Nov. 23) Mr. Gladstone published his Chapter of Autobiography , the history of his journey from the book of 1838 to the resolutions thirty years later. 170 Lord Granville told him frankly that he never liked nor quite understood the first book; that the description of it in the new “Chapter” gave him little pleasure; that he had at first a feeling that the less a person in Mr. Gladstone's position published, the better; and that unnecessary explanation would only provoke fre

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Chapter I. Religious Equality. (1869)

Chapter I. Religious Equality. (1869)

Meanwhile his own course was clear. He did not lose a day:— The general situation he described to Bishop Hinds on the last day of the year:— The preparation of the bill went rapidly forward:— In February Lord Granville thought that it might do good if the Queen were to see Bishop Magee. Mr. Gladstone said to him in reply (Feb. 7, '69):— On Feb. 12, the Queen wrote to Mr. Gladstone from Osborne:— He replied on the following day:— Feb. 13. —First the bishop suggests that the endowments posterior t

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Chapter II. First Chapter Of An Agrarian Revolution. (1870)

Chapter II. First Chapter Of An Agrarian Revolution. (1870)

“I have studied the Irish land question,” said Bright, “from a point of view almost inaccessible to the rest of your colleagues, and from which possibly even you have not had the opportunity of regarding it.... I hope you are being refreshed, as I am, after the long nights in the House—long nights which happily were not fruitless. I only hope our masters in the other House will not undo what we have done.” Mr. Gladstone replied the next day, opening with a sentence that, if addressed to any one

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Chapter III. Education—The Career And The Talents. (1870)

Chapter III. Education—The Career And The Talents. (1870)

What Mr. Gladstone cared for was the integrity of religious instruction. What he disliked or dreaded was, in his own language, the invasion of that integrity “under cover of protecting exceptional consciences.” The advance of his ideas is rather interesting. So far back as 1843, 190 in considering the education clauses of the Factory bill of that year, he explained to Lord Lyttelton that he was not prepared to limit church teaching in the schools in the exposition of scripture. Ten years later,

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Chapter IV. The Franco-German War. (1870)

Chapter IV. The Franco-German War. (1870)

If there be a fear abroad that England has forever abjured a resort to force other than moral force, is that fear justified by facts? In 1853, joining with France, we made ourselves the vindicators of the peace of Europe; and ten years later, be it remembered, in the case of Denmark we offered to perform the same office, but we could get no one to join us. Is it desirable that we should go further? Is England so uplifted in strength above every other nation, that she can with prudence advertise

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Chapter V. Neutrality And Annexation. (1870)

Chapter V. Neutrality And Annexation. (1870)

On July 16 he wrote to Cardwell at the war office:— The figures of the army and navy were promptly supplied to the prime minister, Cardwell adding with, a certain shrillness that, though he had no wish to go either to Antwerp or anywhere else, he could not be responsible for sending an expedition abroad, unless the army were fitted for that object by measures taken now to increase its force. Cardwell sent him a paper by a high military authority, on which Mr. Gladstone made two terse ironic comm

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Chapter VI. The Black Sea. (1870-1871)

Chapter VI. The Black Sea. (1870-1871)

At the close of the Crimean war in 1856 by the provisions of the treaty of Paris, Russia and Turkey were restrained from constructing arsenals on the coast of the Euxine, and from maintaining ships of war on its waters. No serious statesman believed that the restriction would last, any more than Napoleon's restraint on Prussia in 1808 against keeping up an army of more than forty thousand men could last. Palmerston had this neutralisation more at heart than anybody else, and Lord Granville told

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Chapter VII. “Day's Work Of A Giant”. (1870-1872)

Chapter VII. “Day's Work Of A Giant”. (1870-1872)

The most marked administrative performance of Mr. Gladstone's great government was the reform and reorganisation of the army. In Mr. Cardwell he was fortunate enough to have a public servant of the first order; not a political leader nor a popular orator, but one of the best disciples of Peel's school; sound, careful, active, firm, and with an enlightened and independent mind admirably fitted for the effective despatch of business. Before he had been a month at the war office, the new secretary

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Chapter VIII. Autumn Of 1871. Decline Of Popularity. (1871-1872)

Chapter VIII. Autumn Of 1871. Decline Of Popularity. (1871-1872)

After a laborious and irksome session, “in which, we have sat, I believe, 150 hours after midnight,” the House rose (Aug. 21). Mr. Gladstone spent some time at Whitby with his family, and made a speech to his eldest son's constituents (Sept. 2) on the ballot, and protesting against [pg 378] the spirit of “alarmism.” Towards the end of the month he went on to Balmoral. On September 26 he was presented with the freedom of Aberdeen, and made a speech on Irish home rule, of which, as we shall see, h

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Chapter IX. Washington And Geneva. (1870-1872)

Chapter IX. Washington And Geneva. (1870-1872)

On the day on which she sailed (July 29), the government made up its mind that she should be detained, on the strength of affidavits that had been almost a week in their hands. The bird of prey had flown. The best definition of due diligence in these matters would seem to be, that it is the same diligence and exactness as are exercised in proceedings relating to imposts of excise or customs. We may guess how different would have been the vigilance of the authorities if a great smuggling operatio

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Chapter X. As Head Of A Cabinet. (1868-1874)

Chapter X. As Head Of A Cabinet. (1868-1874)

Of Mr. Gladstone as head of his first cabinet, we have a glimpse from Mr. Stansfeld:— To this we may add some words of Lord Granville used in 1883, but doubtless just as true of 1868-74:— Imputing his own qualities to others, and always keen to make the best of people and not the worst, if he had once invited a man to office, he held on to him to the last possible moment. “The next most serious thing to admitting a man into the cabinet,” he said, “is to leave a man out who has once been in.” Not

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Chapter XI. Catholic Country And Protestant Parliament. (1873)

Chapter XI. Catholic Country And Protestant Parliament. (1873)

Well knowing the hard work before him, Mr. Gladstone applied himself with his usual indomitable energy to the task. “We go to Oxford to-morrow,” he writes to Lord Granville (Nov. 12), “to visit Edward Talbot and his wife; forward to London on Thursday, when I dine with the Templars. My idea of work is that the first solid and heavy bit should be the Irish university—some of this may require to be done in cabinet. When we have got that into shape, I should be for taking to the yet stiffer work of

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Chapter XII. The Crisis. (1873)

Chapter XII. The Crisis. (1873)

A week of lively and eventful interests followed,—not only interesting in the life of Mr. Gladstone, but raising points with important constitutional bearings, and showing a match between two unsurpassed masters of political sword-play. The story was told generally and partially in parliament, but the reader who is curious about either the episode itself, or Mr. Gladstone's modes of mind and action, will find it worth a little trouble to follow details with some closeness. March 11. —H. of C. Sp

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Chapter XIII. Last Days Of The Ministry. (1873)

Chapter XIII. Last Days Of The Ministry. (1873)

A few personal jottings will be found of interest:— April 7, 1873. —H. of C. The budget and its reception mark a real onward step in the session. 23.—Breakfast with Mr. C. Field to meet Mr. Emerson. 30.—I went to see the remains of my dear friend James Hope. Many sad memories but more joyful hopes. May 15. —The King and Queen of the Belgians came to breakfast at ten. A party of twenty. They were most kind, and all went well. To the Queen (May 19).—Mr. Gladstone had an interview yesterday at Chis

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Chapter XIV. The Dissolution. (1874)

Chapter XIV. The Dissolution. (1874)

So much for the charitable tale that he only bethought him of the income-tax, when desperately hunting for a card to play at a general election. The prospect was dubious and dark. To Mr. Bright he wrote from Hawarden (Aug. 14):— In the early part of the year his mind was drawing towards a decision of moment. On January 8, 1874, he wrote a letter to Lord Granville, and the copy of it is docketed, “First idea of Dissolution.” It contains a full examination of the actual case in which they found th

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Chapter I. Retirement From Leadership. (1874-1875)

Chapter I. Retirement From Leadership. (1874-1875)

A member of the great government of 1868, in a letter to one of his family, gave an account of the final meeting of the cabinet:— Here is Mr. Gladstone's own account, written twenty-three years later, and confirmed by all other accessible papers of the moment:— He found specific reasons for withdrawal in the state of the party (Feb. 12):— In another fragment of the same date, he says:— The situation proved, as Lowe had foreseen, an anarchic experiment. Mr. Gladstone went up to London for the ses

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Chapter II. Vaticanism. (1874-1875)

Chapter II. Vaticanism. (1874-1875)

The pope had been despoiled of territory, his sway within the walls of Rome itself was in constant danger, his most powerful protector north of the Alps had been weakened and humiliated by protestant Prussia. He was now to be compensated for his calamities by a majestic demonstration of his hold upon the spiritual allegiance of millions of adherents in every portion of the habitable globe. The twentieth ecumenical council assembled in St. Peter's at Rome on December 8, 1869. In this gathering of

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Chapter III. The Octagon.

Chapter III. The Octagon.

As for Mr. Gladstone's own share, he explains his case in what he says (1865) to the widow of Mr. Cobden: “Of the kind of correspondence properly called private and personal, I have none: indeed for many long long years it has been out of my power, except in very few instances, to keep up this kind of correspondence.” The exceptions are few indeed. Half of the contents of this crowded little chamber are papers of business,—nightly letters to the Queen, telling her what had gone on in the House a

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Chapter IV. Eastern Question Once More. (1876-1877)

Chapter IV. Eastern Question Once More. (1876-1877)

— Bryon. Preserved in the Octagon is a large packet of notes on “Future Retribution,” and on them is the docket, “ From this I was called away to write on Bulgaria. ” In the spring of 1876 the Turkish volcano had burst into flame. Of the Crimean war the reader has already seen enough and too much. 338 Its successes, in Mr. Gladstone's words, by a vast expenditure of French and English life and treasure, gave to Turkey, for the first time perhaps in her bloodstained history, twenty years of a rep

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Chapter V. A Tumultuous Year. (1878)

Chapter V. A Tumultuous Year. (1878)

Of 1878 Mr. Gladstone spoke as “a tumultuous year.” In January, after a fierce struggle of five months in the Balkan passes, the Russian forces overcame the Turkish defence, and by the end of January had entered Adrianople and reached the Sea of Marmora. Here at San Stefano a treaty of peace was made at the beginning of March. The last word of the eastern question, as Lord Derby said in those days, is this: Who is to have Constantinople? No great Power would be willing to see it in the hands of

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Chapter VI. Midlothian. (1879)

Chapter VI. Midlothian. (1879)

Turn not faint of heart. What doest thou? Let not weariness overcome thee. After the general election of 1874, Mr. Gladstone resolved not again to offer himself as candidate for Greenwich, and in 1878 he formally declined an invitation from the liberals in that constituency. At the end of the year it was intimated to him that he might have a safe seat in the city of Edinburgh without a contest. In January 1879, more ambitious counsels prevailed, and it was resolved by the liberal committee of Mi

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Chapter VII. The Eve Of The Battle. (1879)

Chapter VII. The Eve Of The Battle. (1879)

Before leaving Dalmeny at the end of his campaign, Mr. Gladstone wrote a letter to Mr. Bright, a copy of which, along with the reply, and two letters from Lord Wolverton, he left tied up in a separate packet. To Mr. Bright. Nov. 28, 1879. —You will probably recollect that during your last visit to Hawarden you suggested to me in a walk the expectation or the possibility that when the return of liberals to power seemed probable, there might be a popular call for my resuming the leadership of the

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Chapter VIII. The Fall Of Lord Beaconsfield. (1880)

Chapter VIII. The Fall Of Lord Beaconsfield. (1880)

In an easy case any man can plead, and against shattered walls the puniest strength prevails; 'tis the overthrow of standing towers and frowning ramparts that tests manhood. At last one day (March 8) when Mr. Gladstone was “writing a little on Homer,” he heard the fated news that the dissolution was announced. Lord Beaconsfield published the famous letter to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, and in deep accents and sonorous sentences endeavoured to make home rule the issue of the election. Shrewd

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Chapter IX. The Second Ministry. (1880)

Chapter IX. The Second Ministry. (1880)

April 11, Sun. —Church, 8-½ a.m. , Holy Communion; 11 a.m. Wrote etc. Read Gospel for the 19th Century . Examined liturgical books. Further conversation with Wolverton on the London reception, on Leeds, and on the great matter of all. April 12. —Wolverton went off in the morning, and is to see Granville and Hartington to-day. Read Brugsch's Hist. Egypt . Guy Mannering. Wrote some memoranda of names applicable to this occasion. Hard day. But all are pretty hard in this my “ retirement. ” April 13

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II

II

From the moment when it became clear that Lord Beaconsfield would be swept out of office, it was just as clear to sensible men that only one successor was possible. It was Mr. Gladstone, as everybody knew and said, who had led and inspired the assault. A cabinet without him would hold its councils without the most important of the influences on which it depended. If the majorities that carried the election could have been consulted on the choice of a minister, nobody doubted upon whom with unani

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III

III

The last meeting of the outgoing cabinet was held on April 21. What next took place has been described by Mr. Gladstone himself in memoranda written during the days on which the events occurred. Interview with Lord Hartington. April 22, 1880. At 7 p.m. Hartington came to see me at Wolverton's house and reported on his journey to Windsor. The Queen stood with her back to the window—which used not to be her custom. On the whole I gathered that her manner was more or less embarrassed but towards hi

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IV

IV

The usual embarrassments in building a government filled many days with unintermittent labour of a kind that, like Peel, Mr. Gladstone found intensely harassing, though interesting. The duty of leaving out old colleagues can hardly have been other than painful, but Mr. Gladstone was a man of business, and lie reckoned on a proper stoicism in the victims of public necessity. To one of them he wrote, “While I am the oldest man of my political generation, I have been brought by the seeming force of

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Budget Of 1860

Budget Of 1860

Mr. Gladstone replied the same day :— ... You think, 1. That I bound myself to the reduction of the tea and sugar duties as a policy for future occasions, and not merely for the issue then raised. 2. That in like manner I was bound to the reduction and abolition of the income-tax. 3. That even if there arose in the system of our expenditure a great change, involving an increase of ten or fifteen millions of money over 1853, I was still in consistency bound to hold over the first chance of reduct

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The Cabinet. 1860

The Cabinet. 1860

2. In foreign policy generally the most combative have been: Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Duke of Newcastle, the chancellor. The least combative: Duke of Somerset, Duke of Argyll, Granville, Gibson, Herbert, Lewis, Grey, W.E.G., Wood, the same in feeling but not active. 3. In defences and expenditure, the most alarmed, or most martial (as the case may be), have been: Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Duke of Newcastle, S. Herbert, followed by Duke of Somerset, the chancellor, Granville,

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Session Of 1860

Session Of 1860

Page 59 Mr. Gladstone to Herbert Gladstone March 10, 1876. —Mr. Pitt's position in the Revolutionary war was, I think, a false one. To keep out of that war demanded from the people of this country an extraordinary degree of self-control, and this degree of it they did not possess. The consequence of our going into it was to give an intensity and vitality to the struggle, which but for the tenacity of English character it would not have possessed. Mr. Pitt did not show the great genius in war whi

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Mr. Pitt's War Finance

Mr. Pitt's War Finance

Page 66 Mr. Gladstone at Leeds, October 8, 1881 :— I, for my part, look with the deepest interest upon the share that I had in concluding—I will not say so much in concluding, but in conducting on this side of the water, and within the walls of parliament as well as in administration—the proceedings which led to the memorable French treaty of 1860. It is quite true that that treaty did not produce the whole of the benefits that some too sanguine anticipations may possibly have expected from it,

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French Commercial Treaty. 1860

French Commercial Treaty. 1860

Page 87 Mr. Gladstone to Sir Arthur Gordon (Lord Stanmore) Downing Street, April 21, 1861. — My dear Arthur ,—When, within a few days after your father's death, I referred in conversation with you to one or two points in his character, it was from the impulse of the moment, and without any idea of making my words matter of record. Months have now passed since you asked me to put on paper the substance of what I said. The delay has been partly, perhaps mainly, owing to the pressure of other deman

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Lord Aberdeen

Lord Aberdeen

I may first refer to the earliest occasion on which I saw him; for it illustrates a point not unimportant in his history. On an evening in the month of January 1835, during what is called the short government of Sir Robert Peel, I was sent for by Sir Robert Peel, and received from him the offer, which I accepted, of the under-secretaryship of the colonies. From him I went on to your father, who was then secretary of state in that department, and who was thus to be, in official home-talk, my mast

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Cabinet Of 1868-1874

Cabinet Of 1868-1874

On Lord Clarendon's death in June 1870, Lord Granville became foreign secretary; Lord Kimberley, colonial secretary; Viscount Halifax (Sir C. Wood), lord privy seal; and Mr. Forster, vice-president of the privy council, entered the cabinet. On Mr. Bright's resignation in December 1870, Mr. Chichester Fortescue became president of the board of trade; Lord Hartington succeeded him as chief secretary for Ireland; Mr. Monsell was appointed postmaster general without a seat in the cabinet. On Mr. Chi

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Irish Church Bill

Irish Church Bill

Your Majesty has already been apprized by Mr. Gladstone's telegram in cipher of this afternoon, that (under the influence of a strong desire to exhibit patience, and to leave open every opportunity for reconsideration), the third of these courses had been adopted; although there was no doubt that the House of Commons was fully prepared to approve and sustain the first. Lord Granville deemed it just possible that the peers might be prepared to give way before another return of the bill from the H

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Board And Voluntary Schools

Board And Voluntary Schools

Page 312 Mr. Gladstone to Lord Lyttelton Penmaenmawr, Aug. 29, 1861. —-Thanks for the brief notice which you recently took of the Public Schools Commission. I was heartily glad to hear that you had formed a drastic set of questions. I take the deepest interest in the object of the commission, and I have full confidence in its members and organs; and at all times I shall be very glad to hear what you are doing. Meantime I cannot help giving you, to be taken for what it is worth, the sum of my own

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Views On A Classical Education

Views On A Classical Education

But the reason why I trouble you upon the subject is this, that I think the friends of this principle have usually rather blinked the discussion, and have been content with making terms of compromise by way of buying off the adversary, which might be in themselves reasonable unless they were taken as mere instalments of a transaction intended in the long run to swallow up the principle itself. What I feel is that the relation of pure science, natural science, modern languages, modern history, an

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A Soldier At The War Office

A Soldier At The War Office

Page 363 Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Cardwell Jan. 5, 1871. —It was a great advantage before 1854, that there was always a considerable soldier either in the cabinet or at least at the head of an important military department, and politically associated with the government. This we lost by the crude and ill-advised reconstructions of '55. But you, following in this point a wise initiative of your predecessor, have endeavoured to bring the appointment of Sir H. Storks into a position which makes it prob

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Mr. Gladstone's Financial Legacy, 1869

Mr. Gladstone's Financial Legacy, 1869

The following are subjects which I was not able to take in hand:— 1. Abolition of the remaining duty upon corn; an exceeding strong case. 2. I should be much disposed to abolish the tea licences as greatly restrictive of the consumption of a dutiable and useful commodity. I modified them; but am not sure that this was enough. The B.I.R. could throw light on this subject. 3. The probate duty calls, I fear, loudly for change; but I wanted either time or courage to take it in hand. 4. The remaining

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Prince Albert, 1854

Prince Albert, 1854

Page 451 Extract from Mr. Gladstone's letter to the Queen, March 15, 1873 There have been within that period [1830-1873] twelve of what may be properly called parliamentary crises involving the question of a change of government. In nine of the twelve cases (viz., those of 1830, 1835, 1841, 1846, 1852, 1858, 1859, 1866, and 1868), the party which had been in opposition was ready to take, and did take, office. In the other three it failed to do this (viz., in 1832, 1851, 1855), and the old minist

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Parliamentary Crises

Parliamentary Crises

Page 630 On the resignation of the Duke of Argyll, April 1881, Lord Carlingford (Mr. Chichester Fortescue) became lord privy seal. In May 1882, Earl Spencer became lord-lieutenant of Ireland. On Mr. Forster's resignation he was succeeded by Lord Frederick Cavendish, and then by Mr. G. O. Trevelyan, neither of whom had a seat in the cabinet. On the resignation of Mr. Bright in July 1882, Mr. Dodson became chancellor of the duchy, and Sir Charles Dilke president of the local government board. In D

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Cabinet Of 1880-1885

Cabinet Of 1880-1885

On the resignation of the Duke of Argyll, April 1881, Lord Carlingford (Mr. Chichester Fortescue) became lord privy seal. In May 1882, Earl Spencer became lord-lieutenant of Ireland. On Mr. Forster's resignation he was succeeded by Lord Frederick Cavendish, and then by Mr. G. O. Trevelyan, neither of whom had a seat in the cabinet. On the resignation of Mr. Bright in July 1882, Mr. Dodson became chancellor of the duchy, and Sir Charles Dilke president of the local government board. In December 1

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Chronology

Chronology

March 9. Defends commercial treaty. March 12. On Paper Duty Repeal bill. March 26. On Refreshment Houses and Wine Licences bill. April 16. Inaugural address before University of Edinburgh on the Work of Universities. May 3. In support of Representation of the People bill. May 8. On Paper Duty Repeal bill. July 5 and 17. Protests against interference of House of Lords with supply bills. Aug. 6. Defends reduction of Customs Duty on paper. Nov. 8. At Chester on the volunteer movement. 1861. Feb. 8.

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Chapter I. Opening Days Of The New Parliament. (1880)

Chapter I. Opening Days Of The New Parliament. (1880)

There is plenty of what is purely artificial in the political classification of men. On May 20, after eight-and-forty years of strenuous public life, Mr. Gladstone met his twelfth parliament, and the second in which he had been chief minister of the crown. “At 4.15,” he records, “I went down to the House with Herbert. There was a great and fervent crowd in Palace Yard, and much feeling in the House. It almost overpowered me, as I thought by what deep and hidden agencies I have been brought back

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Chapter II. An Episode In Toleration. (1880-1883)

Chapter II. An Episode In Toleration. (1880-1883)

One discordant refrain rang hoarsely throughout the five years of this administration, and its first notes were heard even before Mr. Gladstone had taken his seat. It drew him into a controversy that was probably more distasteful to him than any other of the myriad contentions, small and great, with which his life was encumbered. Whether or not he threaded his way with his usual skill through a labyrinth of parliamentary tactics incomparably intricate, experts may dispute, but in an ordeal beyon

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Chapter III. Majuba. (1880-1881)

Chapter III. Majuba. (1880-1881)

It would almost need the pen of Tacitus or Dante to tell the story of European power in South Africa. For forty years, said Mr. Gladstone in 1881, “I have always regarded the South African question as the one great unsolved and perhaps insoluble problem of our colonial system.” Among the other legacies of the forward policy that the constituencies had decisively condemned in 1880, this insoluble problem rapidly became acute and formidable. One of the great heads of impeachment in Midlothian had

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Chapter IV. New Phases Of The Irish Revolution. (1880-1882)

Chapter IV. New Phases Of The Irish Revolution. (1880-1882)

Two years later he said at Edinburgh:— So came upon them by degrees the predominance of Irish affairs and Irish activity in the parliament of 1880, which had been chosen without much reference to Ireland. A social revolution with the land league for its organ in Ireland, and Mr. Parnell and his party for its organ in parliament, now, in Mr. Gladstone's words, rushed upon him and his government like a flood. The mind of the country was violently drawn from Dulcigno and Thessaly, from Batoum and E

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Chapter V. Egypt. (1881-1882)

Chapter V. Egypt. (1881-1882)

For many months after Mr. Gladstone formed his second ministry, there was no reason to suppose that the Egyptian branch of the eastern question, which for ever casts its [pg 073] perplexing shadow over Europe, was likely to give trouble. The new Khedive held a regularly defined position, alike towards his titular sovereign at Constantinople, towards reforming ministers at Cairo, towards the creditors of his state, and towards the two strong European Powers who for different reasons had the super

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Chapter VI. Political Jubilee. (1882-1883)

Chapter VI. Political Jubilee. (1882-1883)

Things of a day! What is a man? What, when he is not? A dream of shadow is mankind. Yet when there comes down glory imparted from God, radiant light shines among men and genial days. θανεῖν δ᾽ οἷσιν ἀνάγκα, τί κέ τις ἀνώνυμον γῆρας ὲν σκότῳ καθήμενος ἔψοι μάταν;— Ol. i. 131. Die since we must, wherefore should a man sit idle and nurse in the gloom days of long life without aim, without name? The words from “antique books” that I have just translated and transcribed, were written out by Mr. Glads

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Chapter VII. Colleagues—Northern Cruise—Egypt. (1883)

Chapter VII. Colleagues—Northern Cruise—Egypt. (1883)

Sparks of his worth shall show in the little heed he gives either to riches or to heavy toils. The session of 1883 was marked by one legislative performance of the first order, the bill devised against corrupt practices at elections. This invaluable measure was worked through the House of Commons mainly by Sir Henry James, the attorney general, whose skill and temper in a business that was made none the easier by the fact of every man in the House supposing himself to understand the subject, exc

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Chapter VIII. Reform. (1884)

Chapter VIII. Reform. (1884)

The question of extending to householders in the country the franchise that in 1867 had been conferred on householders in boroughs, had been first pressed with eloquence and resolution by Mr. Trevelyan. In 1876 he introduced two resolutions, one for extended franchise, the other for a new [pg 125] arrangement of seats, made necessary by the creation of the new voters. In a tory parliament he had, of course, no chance. Mr. Gladstone, not naturally any more ardent for change in political machinery

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Chapter IX. The Soudan. (1884-1885)

Chapter IX. The Soudan. (1884-1885)

“I look upon the possession of the Soudan,” he proceeded, “as the calamity of Egypt. It has been a drain on her treasury, it has been a drain on her men. It is estimated that 100,000 Egyptians have laid down their lives in endeavouring to maintain that barren conquest.” Still stronger was the Soudanese side of the case. The rule of the Mahdi was itself a tyranny, and tribe fought with tribe, but that was deemed an easier yoke than the sway of the pashas from Cairo. Every vice of eastern rule flo

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Chapter X. Interior Of The Cabinet. (1895)

Chapter X. Interior Of The Cabinet. (1895)

sedative. More perplexing even than the successive problems of the hour, was the threatened disorganisation, not only of his cabinet, but of the party and its future. On January 20 he was forced to London for two Egyptian cabinets, but he speedily returned to Hawarden, whence he immediately wrote a letter to Lord Granville:— January 22, 1885. —Here I am after a journey of 5-½ hours from door to door, through the unsought and ill-deserved kindness of the London and North-Western railway, which en

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Chapter XI. Defeat Of Ministers. (May-June 1885)

Chapter XI. Defeat Of Ministers. (May-June 1885)

Never do counsels of mortal men thwart the ordered purpose of Zeus. What was to be the Irish policy? The Crimes Act would expire in August, and the state of parties in parliament and of sections within the cabinet, together with the approach of the general election, made the question whether that Act should be renewed, and if so on what terms, an issue of crucial importance. There were good grounds for suspecting that tories were even then intimating to the Irish that if Lord Salisbury should co

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Chapter XII. Accession Of Lord Salisbury. (1885)

Chapter XII. Accession Of Lord Salisbury. (1885)

The ministerial crisis of 1885 was unusually prolonged, and it was curious. The victory had been won by a coalition with the Irish; its fruits could only be reaped with Irish support; and Irish support was to the tory victors both dangerous and compromising. The normal process of a dissolution was thought to be legally impossible, because by the redistribution bill the existing constituencies were for the most part radically changed; and a new parliament chosen on the old system of seats and fra

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Chapter I. Leadership And The General Election. (1885)

Chapter I. Leadership And The General Election. (1885)

The address to his electors, of which he had begun to think on board the Sunbeam , was given to the public on September 17. It was, as he said, as long as a pamphlet, and a considerable number of politicians doubtless passed judgment upon it without reading it through. The whigs, we are told, found it vague, the radicals cautious, the tories crafty; but everybody admitted that it tended to heal feuds. Mr. Goschen praised it, and Mr. Chamberlain, though raising his own flag, was respectful to his

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Chapter II. The Polls In 1885. (1885)

Chapter II. The Polls In 1885. (1885)

As I should have told the reader on an earlier page, Mr. Gladstone had proceeded to his own constituency on November 9. The previous month had found, as usual, endless other interests to occupy him, quite apart from politics. These are the ordinary entries. “Worked, say, five hours on books. Three more hours reduced my books and rooms to apparent order, but much detail remains. Worked mildly on books.” In this region he would have said of disorder and disarray what Carlyle said to dirt, “Thou sh

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Chapter III. A Critical Month (December 1885)

Chapter III. A Critical Month (December 1885)

To Herbert Gladstone. December 10, 1885. —1. The nationalists have run in political alliance with the tories for years; more especially for six months; most of all at the close during the elections, when they have made us 335 (say) against 250 [conservatives] instead of 355 against 230. This alliance is therefore at its zenith. 2. The question of Irish government ought for the highest reasons to be settled at once, and settled by the allied forces, (1) because they have the government, (2) becau

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Chapter IV. Fall Of The First Salisbury Government. (January 1886)

Chapter IV. Fall Of The First Salisbury Government. (January 1886)

serious and embarrassing incident occurred. Lord Carnarvon “threw up the government of Ireland,” and was followed by Sir William Hart Dyke, the chief secretary. 171 A measure of coercion was prepared, its provisions all drawn in statutory form, but who was to warrant the necessity for it to parliament? 172 Though the viceroy's retirement was not publicly known until the middle of January, yet so early as December 17 the prime minister had applied to Mr. Smith, then secretary of state for war, to

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Chapter V. The New Policy. (1886)

Chapter V. The New Policy. (1886)

The first question was, how many of his colleagues in the liberal cabinet that went out of office six months before, would now embark with him in the voyage into stormy and unexplored seas. I should suppose that no such difficulties [pg 291] had ever confronted the attempt at making a cabinet since Canning's in 1827. Mr. Gladstone begins the fragment from which I have already quoted with a sentence or two of retrospect, and then proceeds:— In 1885 (I think) Chamberlain had proposed a plan accept

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Chapter VI. Introduction Of The Bill. (1886)

Chapter VI. Introduction Of The Bill. (1886)

It was not within the compass either of human effort or human endurance even for the most practised and skilful of orators to unfold the whole plan, both government and land, in a single speech. Nor was public interest at all equally divided. Irish land had devoured an immense amount of parliamentary time in late years; it is one of the most technical and repulsive of all political subjects; and to many of the warmest friends of Irish self-government, any special consideration for the owners of

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Chapter VII. The Political Atmosphere. Defeat Of The Bill. (1886)

Chapter VII. The Political Atmosphere. Defeat Of The Bill. (1886)

men did not talk as if they were in for the battle of Armageddon. The attempt to kindle the torch of religious fear or hate was in Great Britain happily a failure. The mass of liberal presbyterians in Scotland, and of nonconformists in England and Wales, stood firm, though some of their most eminent and able divines resisted the new project, less on religious grounds than on what they took to be the balance of political arguments. Mr. Gladstone was able to point to the conclusive assurances he h

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Chapter I. The Morrow Of Defeat. (1886-1887)

Chapter I. The Morrow Of Defeat. (1886-1887)

After the defeat in which his tremendous labours had for the moment ended, he made his way to what was to him the most congenial atmosphere in the world, to the company of Döllinger and Acton, at Tegernsee in Bavaria. “Tegernsee,” Lord Acton wrote to me (Sept. 7), “is an out-of-the-way place, peaceful and silent, and as there is a good library in the house, I have taken some care of his mind, leading in the direction of little French comedies, and away from the tragedy of existence. It has done

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Chapter II. The Alternative Policy In Act. (1886-1888)

Chapter II. The Alternative Policy In Act. (1886-1888)

In the ministry that succeeded Mr. Gladstone in 1886, Sir Michael Hicks Beach undertook for the second time the office of Irish secretary, while Lord Randolph Churchill filled his place at the exchequer and as leader of the House. The new Irish policy was to open with the despatch of a distinguished soldier to put down moonlighters in Kerry; the creation of one royal commission under Lord Cowper, to inquire into land rents and land purchase; and another to inquire into the country's material res

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Chapter III. The Special Commission. (1887-1890)

Chapter III. The Special Commission. (1887-1890)

On the day on which the division was to be taken on the second reading of the Coercion bill, a more formidable bolt was shot. On that morning (April 18th, 1887), there appeared in the newspaper, with all the fascination of facsimile, a letter alleged to be written by Mr. Parnell. It was dated nine days after the murders in the Phœnix Park, and purported to be an apology, presumably to some violent confederate, for having as a matter of expediency openly condemned the murders, though in truth the

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Chapter IV. An Interim. (1889-1891)

Chapter IV. An Interim. (1889-1891)

To Lord Granville. Jan. 13, 1889. —My stay here where the people really seem to regard me as not a foreigner, has brought Italian affairs and policy very much home to me, and given additional force and vividness to the belief I have always had, that it was sadly impolitic for Italy to make enemies for herself beyond the Alps. Though I might try and keep back this sentiment in Rome, even my silence might betray it and I could not promise to keep silence altogether. I think the impolicy amounts al

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Chapter V. Breach With Mr. Parnell. (1890-1891)

Chapter V. Breach With Mr. Parnell. (1890-1891)

It would have been a miracle if the sight of all the methods of coercion, along with the ignominy of the forged letters, had not worked with strong effect upon the public mind. Distrust began to creep at a very rapid pace even into the ministerial ranks. The tory member for a large northern borough rose to resent “the inexpedient treatment of the Irishmen from a party point of view,” to protest against the 'straining and stretching of the law' by the resident magistrates, to declare his opinion

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Chapter VI. Biarritz. (1891-1892)

Chapter VI. Biarritz. (1891-1892)

To me he wrote (July 10):— To another correspondent who did not share his own religious beliefs, he said (July 5):— When I received your last kind note, I fully intended to write to you with freedom on the subject of The Agnostic Island . But since then I have been at close quarters, so to speak, with the dispensations of God, for yesterday morning my dearly beloved eldest son was taken from the sight of our eyes. At this moment of bleeding hearts, I will only say what I hope you will in conside

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Chapter VII. The Fourth Administration. (1892-1894)

Chapter VII. The Fourth Administration. (1892-1894)

Two generations of mortal men had he already seen pass away, who with him of old had been born and bred in sacred Pylos, and among the third generation he held rule. In 1892 the general election came, after a session that was not very long nor at all remarkable. Everybody knew that we should soon be dismissed, and everybody knew that the liberals would have a majority, but the size of it was beyond prognostication. Mr. Gladstone did not talk much about it, but in fact he reckoned on winning by e

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Chapter VIII. Retirement From Public Life. (1894)

Chapter VIII. Retirement From Public Life. (1894)

“Politics,” wrote Mr. Gladstone in one of his private memoranda in March 1894, “are like a labyrinth, from the inner intricacies of which it is even more difficult to find the way of escape, than it was to find the way into them. My age did something but not enough. The deterioration of my hearing helped, but insufficiently. It is the state of my sight which has supplied me with effectual aid in exchanging my imperious public obligations for what seems to be a free place on ‘the breezy common of

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Chapter IX. The Close. (1894-1898)

Chapter IX. The Close. (1894-1898)

After the first wrench was over, and an end had come to the demands, pursuits, duties, glories, of powerful and active station held for a long lifetime, Mr. Gladstone soon settled to the new conditions of his existence, knowing that for him all that could be left was, in the figure of his great Italian poet, “to lower sails and gather in his ropes.” 309 He was not much in London, and when he came he stayed in the pleasant retreat to which his affectionate and ever-attached friends, Lord and Lady

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Chapter X. Final.

Chapter X. Final.

A year later, in bidding farewell to his constituents “with [pg 536] sentiments of gratitude and attachment that can never be effaced,” he proceeds:— To charge him with habitually rousing popular forces into dangerous excitement, is to ignore or misread his action in some of the most critical of his movements. “Here is a man,” said Huxley, “with the greatest intellect in Europe, and yet he debases it by simply following majorities and the crowd.” He was called a mere mirror of the passing humour

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Irish Local Government, 1883. (Page 103)

Irish Local Government, 1883. (Page 103)

There has also come prominently into view a new and powerful set of motives which, in my deliberate judgment, require us, for the sake of the United Kingdom even more than for the sake of Ireland, to push forward this question. Under the present highly centralised system of government, every demand which can be started on behalf of a poor and ill-organised country, comes directly on the British government and treasury; if refused it becomes at once a head of grievance, if granted not only a new

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General Gordon's Instructions. (Page 153)

General Gordon's Instructions. (Page 153)

This Memorandum, dated April 9, 1885, was prepared by Mr. Gladstone for the cabinet :— The commencement of the hot season appears, with other circumstances, to mark the time for considering at large our position in the Soudan. Also a declaration of policy is now demanded from us in nearly all quarters.... When the betrayal of Khartoum had been announced, the desire and intention of the cabinet were to reserve for a later decision the question of an eventual advance upon that place, should no imm

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The Military Position In The Soudan, April 1885. (Page 179)

The Military Position In The Soudan, April 1885. (Page 179)

There was no absolute decision to proceed to Khartoum at any time; and the declarations of ministers in parliament have [pg 556] treated it as a matter to be further weighed; but all steps have thus far been taken to prepare for it, and it has been regarded as at least probable. In approaching the question whether we are still to proceed on the same lines, it is necessary to refer to the motives which under the directions of the cabinet were stated by Lord Granville and by me, on the 19th of Feb

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Home Rule Bill, 1886. (Page 308)

Home Rule Bill, 1886. (Page 308)

Future judges were to hold the same place in the Irish system as English judges in the English system; their office was to be during good behaviour; they were to be appointed on the advice of the Irish government, removable only on the joint address of the two orders, and their salaries charged on the Irish consolidated fund. The burning question of the royal Irish constabulary was dealt with provisionally. Until a local force was created by the new government, they were to remain at the orders

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The Glasgow Peroration. (Page 492)

The Glasgow Peroration. (Page 492)

After describing the past history of Ireland as being for more than five hundred years 'one almost unbroken succession of political storm and swollen tempest, except when those tempests were for a time interrupted by a period of servitude and by the stillness of death,' Mr. Gladstone went on :— Those storms are in strong contrast with the future, with the present. The condition of the Irish mind justifies us in anticipating. It recalls to my mind a beautiful legend of ancient paganism—for that a

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The Naval Estimates Of 1894.

The Naval Estimates Of 1894.

1. On the normal navy estimate 1888-9 ( i.e. before the Naval Defence Act) of, in round numbers, 4-¼ millions 2. On the first year's total charge under the Naval Defence Act of (1,979,000), 2 millions 3. On the estimates of last year 1893-94 of 3 millions 4. On the total charge of 1893-4 of (1,571,000), 1-½ million 5. On the highest amount ever defrayed from the year's revenue (1892-3), 1-½ million 6. On the highest expenditure of any year under the Naval Defence Act which included 1,150,000 of

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Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet Colleagues. (Page 525)

Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet Colleagues. (Page 525)

All speeches unless otherwise stated were made in the House of Commons. 1880. Feb. “Free trade, railways and the growth of commerce,” in Nineteenth Century . Feb. 27. At St. Pancras on obstruction, liberal unity and errors of government. Feb. 27. On rules dealing with obstruction. March “Russia and England,” in Nineteenth Century . March 5. On motion in favour of local option. March 11. Issues address to electors of Midlothian. March 15. Criticises budget. March 17. At Music Hall, Edinburgh, on

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Chronology

Chronology

March “Russia and England,” in Nineteenth Century . March 5. On motion in favour of local option. March 11. Issues address to electors of Midlothian. March 15. Criticises budget. March 17. At Music Hall, Edinburgh, on government's eastern policy. March 18. At Corstorphine on Anglo-Turkish convention. March 18. At Ratho on neglect of domestic legislation. March 19. At Davidson's Mains on indictment of the government. At Dalkeith on the government and class interests. March 20. At Juniper Green, a

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