Bismarck leveraged France's anger at British policy "to squash Gladstone against the wall, so that he can yap no more." [16] The reasons for pushing London against the wall were numerous. If the Germans and French were successful in discrediting Gladstone and his liberal moral diplomacy, the threat of liberalism and social democracy in Germany would be eliminated. Gladstone as well was sympathetic to the Russians, which got in the way of Anglo-German overtures.