Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party (the SDP) to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats.

The Gladstonian era

For the next thirty years Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. The "Grand Old Man", as he became known, was Prime Minister four times and the powerful flow of his rhetoric dominated British politics even when he was out of office. His rivalry with the Conservative leader Benjamin Disraeli became legendary. Gladstone was a High Church Anglican and enjoyed the company of aristocrats, but he grew more and more radical as he grew older: he was, as one wit put it, "a Tory in all but essentials". Queen Victoria, who had grown up as a Whig under the tutelage of Melbourne, became a Tory in reaction against Gladstone's moralising Liberalism.

Related Topics:
Benjamin Disraeli - High Church - Queen Victoria

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Gladstone's great achievements in office were his reforms to education, land reform (particularly in Ireland, where he ended centuries of landlord oppression), the disestablishment of the (Protestant) Church of Ireland, the introduction of democratic local government, the abolition of patronage in the civil service and the army, and the Third Reform Act which greatly extended democracy by giving the vote to almost all adult males. In foreign policy Gladstone was an anti-imperialist and an avoider of foreign entanglements, but even he found it hard to resist the imperialist ideology of Victorian Britain.

Related Topics:
Ireland - Disestablishment - Church of Ireland - Third Reform Act

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In 1874 Gladstone was defeated by the Tories under Disraeli, mainly because of a sharp recession. He formally resigned as Liberal leader and was succeeded by the Marquess of Hartington, but he soon changed his mind and returned to active politics. He was appalled by Disraeli's pro-Ottoman foreign policy and during 1880 he conducted the first modern outdoor mass election campaign in Britain, known as the Midlothian campaign. In 1880 the Liberals won a huge election victory, and Hartington had no choice but to stand aside and allow Gladstone to resume office.

Related Topics:
1874 - Recession - The Marquess of Hartington - Ottoman - 1880 - Midlothian campaign

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Among the consequences of the Third Reform Act was giving the vote to the Catholic peasant masses of Ireland, and the consequent creation of an Irish Nationalist Party led by Charles Stewart Parnell. In 1885 this party won the balance of power in the House of Commons, and demanded Irish Home Rule (that is, the status of a self-governing Dominion for Ireland) as the price of support for a continued Gladstone ministry. Gladstone personally supported Home Rule, but a strong Liberal Unionist faction led by Joseph Chamberlain and the last of the Whig grandees, Hartington, bitterly opposed it.

Related Topics:
Irish Nationalist Party - Charles Stewart Parnell - 1885 - Irish Home Rule - Dominion - Liberal Unionist - Joseph Chamberlain

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The result was a catastrophic split in the Liberal Party, and heavy defeat in the 1886 election at the hands of Lord Salisbury. There was a final weak Gladstone ministry in 1892, but it also was dependent on Irish support and broke up on the rocks of Irish Home Rule. Gladstone finally retired in 1894, and his ineffectual successor, Lord Rosebery, led the party to another heavy defeat in 1895. Gladstone had dominated the Liberal Party for so long that it was lost without him.

Related Topics:
1886 election - Lord Salisbury - 1892 - 1894 - Lord Rosebery - 1895

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