1859-1886
-
The legacy of Gladstone
The Grand Old Man’s record.
-
Religion and politics
Religion and politics. The impact of the Bradlaugh case on the Berwick-upon-Tweed by-elections of 1880 and 1881.
-
The Hawarden Kite
In November 1885 the Irish Nationalist leader, Charles Stewart Parnell proposed an independent constitution for Ireland and although the Liberal leader, William Gladstone, believed in the necessity of Home Rule by this time, he was also convinced that he needed further time to persuade his Party of this.
-
Chamberlain on the Radical Programme
First speech on the Unauthorised Programme by Joseph Chamberlain – Warrington, September 8 1885.
-
Chamberlain’s Radical Programme
Joseph Chamberlain, the Birmingham manufacturer, took up full time politics in the 1870s. As mayor of Birmingham he built his reputation by successfully importing business methods into local government and the Radical Programme was his attempt to apply his techniques on a national stage.
-
A torrent of gin and beer: the election defeat in 1874
In January 1874, the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, approached Queen Victoria to dissolve parliament, surprising both the opposition and his own party. In his election manifesto, Gladstone promised to reduce local taxes, to cut taxes on consumer products and to repeal the income tax. When the campaign was over, the Liberal landslide of 1868…
-
Gladstone’s first government
After an apprenticeship in government under the Conservative Robert Peel, Gladstone served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Aberdeen’s coalition and Palmerston’s Government of 1859-1865. His energy, administrative and oratorical skills marked him as the Liberal Party’s future leader.
-
William Ewart Gladstone, 1809-1898
Amongst the number of outstanding statesmen in Victorian Britain, Gladstone was unquestionably the greatest. He brought to his public life an exceptional physical, mental and spiritual vitality. He was a man of independent but by no means unchanging mind. His combination of moral zeal and the willingness to think on and on, no doubt explains…
-
Out of Chartism, into Liberalism?
Popular radicals and the Liberal Party in mid-Victorian Britain.