William Ewart Gladstone was an English statesman and both Tory and Liberal member of parliament. He was born in 1809 at Liverpool in 1809 and and died in 1898. After some years at Eton he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1828, and graduated in 1831, with high honours. After leaving Oxford he spent six months in Italy. In 1832 the first Reform Act was passed, and William Gladstone's public career commenced by his being returned as member of parliament for Newark, and when Peel assumed office in 1834 ho accepted the post of Junior Lord of the Treasury. At this period he was a Tory, and as his party quickly went out it was not until 1841 that he again held any public office, in which year he became, under Peel, Vice-president of the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint.
In 1842 great fiscal reforms were inaugurated, some of which were understood to be due to William Gladstone. Having become President of the Board of Trade, he carried, in 1843, a measure for the abolition of restrictions on the exportation of machinery, and in 1844 he carried a railway bill, establishing cheap trains. He took part with Peel in the repeal of the corn-laws, a course which cost him his seat for Newark.
In 1847 he was returned for Oxford University, and he then supported the bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities, the repeal of the Navigation Laws, etc. He now began to develop remarkable ability as a financier, and fiercely attacked Disraeli's Budget of 1852. The same year he became Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Earl of Aberdeen, a post which he also held for a short time in 1855 under LordPalmerston.
In 1858 he became High Commissioner Extraordinary to the Ionian Islands, and his Studies on Homer appeared about the same time. In 1859 he again took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer under LordPalmerston. At the general election of 1865 William Gladstone was returned for South Lancashire, and on the decease of LordPalmerston he became the Liberal leader in the Commons in the Russell administration, still continuing to hold the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. The Government, being defeated on the reform question, went out in 1866, and LordDerby came into power. In 1867 a Reform Bill, establishing household suffrage in burghs, was carried by the Conservatives, but to the final shape of it William Gladstone and Bright materially contributed.
In 1868 William Gladstone succeeded in abolishing compulsory church rates, and he also carried his resolutions dealing with the Irish Church, but his Irish Church Suspensory Bill was rejected by the Lords. At the general election of 1868 he lost his seat for South Lancashire, but was returned by Greenwich. There being a great Liberal majority in the new parliament Disraeli was soon forced to resign, and William Gladstone became premier.
Next year he carried his bill for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, and in 1870 his Irish Land Act, the English Education Act being also passed. In 1871 army purchase was abolished by royal warrant.
The Ballot Act and the Scottish Education Act were passed in 1872. Parliament was dissolved in 1874, and the Conservatives ousted William Gladstone from office, as they had secured a good majority. During Lord Beacons-field's tenure of office William Gladstone denounced the Bulgarian atrocities, the Anglo-Turkish Treaty, and the Afghan War, and his speeches during his candidature for Midlothian greatly helped to render the government unpopular.
In 1880 the general election reinstated William Gladstone firmly into power (Midlothian being now his constituency), and his second Irish Land Bill became law in the following year. In 1882 a Prevention of Crimes and an Arrears Act for Ireland were passed, and in 1883 measures relating to bankruptcy, etc, were also carried. In 1884 the bill extending household suffrage to the counties was carried, and the Gladstone ministry fell the next year. LordSalisbury, who had formed an administration, got the Redistribution of Seats Bill passed, and under it took place the general election of 1885, William Gladstone still continuing to represent Midlothian. Next year LordSalisbury resigned after an adverse vote in the Commons, and William Gladstone again came into power. He now introduced a Home Rule bill for Ireland on April the 8th, 1886. It failed to pass the Commons, and the result of the general election which followed was emphatically adverse to William Gladstone's proposals. He had to make way for LordSalisbury, but in 1892 he again became premier. After passing a Home Rule bill through the Commons he resigned office in 1894, and next year retired from political life. His works include The State in its Relations with the Church (1838); Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age; Juventus Mundi; Homeric Synchronism;
Landmarks of Homeric Study; The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture, etc. Research William Gladstone
Abbreviations
Research William Gladstone
