The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1

The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1?by John Morley

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Title: The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) 1809-1859
Author: John Morley
Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21091]
Language: English
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[Illustration: Walker and Cockrell Photo Sir John Gladstone from a painting by William Bradley]
THE LIFE OF
WILLIAM EWART
GLADSTONE
BY
JOHN MORLEY
IN THREE VOLUMES--VOL. I
(1809-1859)

TORONTO GEORGE N. MORANG & 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 & Co.--Berwick & 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 on which this biography is founded consists mainly, of course, of the papers collected at Hawarden. Besides that vast accumulation, I have been favoured with several thousands of other pieces from the legion of Mr. Gladstone's correspondents. Between two and three hundred thousand written papers of one sort or another must have passed under my view. To some important journals and papers from other sources I have enjoyed free access, and my warm thanks are due to those who have generously lent me this valuable aid. I am especially indebted to the King for the liberality with which his Majesty has been graciously pleased to sanction the use of certain documents, in cases where the permission of the Sovereign was required.
When I submitted an application for the same purpose to Queen Victoria, in readily promising her favourable consideration, the Queen added a message strongly impressing on me that the work I was about to undertake should not be handled in the narrow way of party. This injunction represents my own clear view of the spirit in which the history of a career so memorable as Mr. Gladstone's should be composed. That, to be sure, is not at all inconsistent with our regarding party feeling in its honourable sense, as entirely the reverse of an infirmity.
The diaries from which I have often quoted consist of forty little books in double columns, intended to do little more than record persons seen, or books read, or letters written as the days passed by. From these diaries come several of the mottoes prefixed to our chapters; such mottoes are marked by an asterisk.
The trustees and other members of Mr. Gladstone's family have extended to me a uniform kindness and consideration and an absolutely unstinted confidence, for which I can never cease to owe them my heartiest acknowledgment. They left with the writer an unqualified and undivided responsibility for these pages, and for the use of the material that they entrusted to him. Whatever may prove to be amiss, whether in leaving out or putting in or putting wrong, the blame is wholly mine.
J. M.
1903.
CONTENTS

BOOK I
(1809-1831)
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 1
I. CHILDHOOD 7
II. ETON 26
III. OXFORD 48
BOOK II
(1832-1846)
I. ENTERS PARLIAMENT. 86
II. THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND OFFICE 116
III. PROGRESS IN PUBLIC LIFE. 131
IV. THE CHURCH 152
V. HIS FIRST BOOK 169
VI. CHARACTERISTICS 184
VII. CLOSE OF APPRENTICESHIP 219
VIII. PEEL'S GOVERNMENT 247
IX. MAYNOOTH 270
X. TRIUMPH OF POLICY AND FALL OF THE MINISTER 282
XI. THE TRACTARIAN CATASTROPHE 303
BOOK III
(1847-1852)
CHAPTER PAGE
I. MEMBER FOR OXFORD 327
II. THE HAWARDEN ESTATE 337
III. PARTY EVOLUTION--NEW COLONIAL POLICY 350
IV. DEATH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL 366
V. GORHAM CASE--SECESSION OF FRIENDS 375
VI. NAPLES 389
VII. RELIGIOUS TORNADO--PEELITE DIFFICULTIES 405
VIII. END OF PROTECTION 425
BOOK IV
(1853-1859)
I. THE COALITION 443
II. THE TRIUMPH OF 1853 457
III. THE CRIMEAN WAR 476
IV. OXFORD REFORM--OPEN CIVIL SERVICE 496
V. WAR FINANCE--TAX OR LOAN 513
VI. CRISIS OF 1855 AND BREAK-UP OF THE PEELITES 521
VII. POLITICAL ISOLATION 544
VIII. GENERAL ELECTION--NEW MARRIAGE LAW 558
IX. THE SECOND DERBY GOVERNMENT 574
X. THE IONIAN ISLANDS 594
XI. JUNCTION WITH THE LIBERALS 621
APPENDIX 635
CHRONOLOGY 654
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SIR JOHN GLADSTONE Frontispiece.
From a painting by William Bradley.
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE to face page 86
From a painting by William Bradley.
CATHERINE GLADSTONE " 223
From a painting.
HAWARDEN CASTLE " 337
Book I
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,