




                               The Life Of

                         William Ewart Gladstone

                                    By

                               John Morley

                        In Three Volumes--Vol. III.

                               (1890-1898)

                                 Toronto

                   George N. Morang & Company, Limited

                             Copyright, 1903

                         By The Macmillan Company





CONTENTS


Book VIII. 1880-1885
   Chapter I. Opening Days Of The New Parliament. (1880)
   Chapter II. An Episode In Toleration. (1880-1883)
   Chapter III. Majuba. (1880-1881)
   Chapter IV. New Phases Of The Irish Revolution. (1880-1882)
   Chapter V. Egypt. (1881-1882)
   Chapter VI. Political Jubilee. (1882-1883)
   Chapter VII. Colleagues--Northern Cruise--Egypt. (1883)
   Chapter VIII. Reform. (1884)
   Chapter IX. The Soudan. (1884-1885)
   Chapter X. Interior Of The Cabinet. (1895)
   Chapter XI. Defeat Of Ministers. (May-June 1885)
   Chapter XII. Accession Of Lord Salisbury. (1885)
Book IX. 1885-1886
   Chapter I. Leadership And The General Election. (1885)
   Chapter II. The Polls In 1885. (1885)
   Chapter III. A Critical Month (December 1885)
   Chapter IV. Fall Of The First Salisbury Government. (January 1886)
   Chapter  V. The New Policy. (1886)
   Chapter VI. Introduction Of The Bill. (1886)
   Chapter VII. The Political Atmosphere. Defeat Of The Bill. (1886)
Book X. 1886-1892
   Chapter I. The Morrow Of Defeat. (1886-1887)
   Chapter II. The Alternative Policy In Act. (1886-1888)
   Chapter III. The Special Commission. (1887-1890)
   Chapter IV. An Interim. (1889-1891)
   Chapter V. Breach With Mr. Parnell. (1890-1891)
   Chapter VI. Biarritz. (1891-1892)
   Chapter VII. The Fourth Administration. (1892-1894)
   Chapter VIII. Retirement From Public Life. (1894)
   Chapter IX. The Close. (1894-1898)
   Chapter X. Final.
Appendix
   Irish Local Government, 1883. (Page 103)
   General Gordon's Instructions. (Page 153)
   The Military Position In The Soudan, April 1885. (Page 179)
   Home Rule Bill, 1886. (Page 308)
   On The Place Of Italy. (Page 415)
   The Naval Estimates Of 1894.
   Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet Colleagues. (Page 525)
Chronology
Footnotes






BOOK VIII. 1880-1885




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


    Il y a bien du factice dans le classement politique des hommes.
                                                    --GUIZOT.

    There is plenty of what is purely artificial in the political
    classification of men.



I


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 into the midst of
the vortex of political action and contention. It has not been in my power
during these last six months to have made notes, as I would have wished,
of my own thoughts and observations from time to time; of the new access
of strength which in some important respects has been administered to me
in my old age; and of the remarkable manner in which Holy Scripture has
been applied to me for admonition and for comfort. Looking calmly on this
course of experience, I do believe that the Almighty has employed me for
His purposes in a manner larger or more special than before, and has
strengthened me and led me on accordingly, though I must not forget the
admirable saying of Hooker, that even ministers of good things are like
torches, a light to others, waste and destruction to themselves."

One who approached his task in such a spirit as this was at least
impregnable to ordinary mortifications, and it was well; for before many
days were over it became perceptible that the new parliament and the new
majority would be no docile instrument of ministerial will. An acute chill
followed the discovery that there was to be no recall of Frere or Layard.
Very early in its history Speaker Brand, surveying his flock from the
august altitude of the Chair with an acute, experienced, and friendly eye,
made up his mind that the liberal party were "not only strong, but
determined to have their own way in spite of Mr. Gladstone. He has a
difficult team to drive." Two men of striking character on the benches
opposite quickly became formidable. Lord Randolph Churchill headed a
little group of four tories, and Mr. Parnell a resolute band of five and
thirty Irishmen, with momentous results both for ministers and for the
House of Commons.

No more capable set of ruling men were ever got together than the cabinet
of 1880; no men who better represented the leading elements in the
country, in all their variety and strength. The great possessors of land
were there, and the heirs of long governing tradition were there; the
industrious and the sedate of the middle classes found their men seated at
the council board, by the side of others whose keen-sighted ambition
sought sources of power in the ranks of manual toil; the church saw one of
the most ardent of her sons upon the woolsack, and the most illustrious of
them in the highest place of all; the people of the chapel beheld with
complacency the rising man of the future in one who publicly boasted an
unbroken line of nonconformist descent. They were all men well trained in
the habits of business, of large affairs, and in experience of English
life; they were all in spite of difference of shade genuinely liberal; and
they all professed a devoted loyalty to their chief. The incident of the
resolutions on the eastern question(1) was effaced from all (M1) memories,
and men who in those days had assured themselves that there was no return
from Elba, became faithful marshals