Gladstone, William Ewart

Gladstone, William Ewart (1809–98), British prime minister and Liberal Party leader. The son of a Liverpool merchant, educated at Eton and Oxford, Gladstone first entered parliament as Conservative MP for Oxford 1832. He supported Peel's increase in the Maynooth grant but felt that his earlier support of an exclusive Anglican polity required him to resign as president of the Board of Trade. As prime minister 1868–74 he carried through the disestablishment of the Anglican church 1869, and enacted the symbolically important Land Act of 1870. His Land Act of 1881 effectively ended the Land War, while the Kilmainham treaty signified his acceptance of Parnell as a nationalist leader with whom a settlement of the Irish question might be made. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to effect this with the home rule bill of 1886. Gladstone's conversion to home rule split the Liberal Party. His second attempt to enact home rule, in 1893, also failed. In March 1894 he resigned as prime minister.

A complex personality, Gladstone's commitment to Ireland was based on a variety of motives: a profound moral sense; an acceptance, born of the Fenian rising of 1867, that Ireland was a separate nationality requiring distinctive treatment; and, relatedly, the realization that constitutional reorganization was necessary if the essential integrity of the United Kingdom and its interests were to be safeguarded. Historians' interpretations of Gladstone and Ireland have tended to mirror political divisions, with Conservative views emphasizing self‐interest as against Liberal interpretations focused on insight and moral purpose. Later work has combined these views, especially the latter, with due appreciation of personal and contextual limitations.

James Loughlin