Premierships of William Ewart Gladstone

The first major reform Gladstone undertook was the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland as embodied in the Irish Church Act 1869. This was followed by the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1870 which attempted to protect Irish tenants from unfair treatment from landlords by lending public money to tenants to enable them to buy their holdings. The Act limited landlords' powers to arbitrarily evict their tenants and established compensation for eviction, which varied according to the size of holdings and was not eligible for those evicted for failing to pay rents.[5]

Gladstone's government also passed the Elementary Education Act 1870, which provided England with an adequate system of elementary schools for the first time. It established a system of elective school boards which were founded to provide education where there were no voluntary schools. These boards had the power to levy rates and from which construct schools, employ teachers, and the ability to force children to attend (if they thought fit) those who were receiving no other education. They were also able to pay certain children's fees for voluntary schools.[6]

In 1871 Gladstone's government passed the Trade Union Act making membership of trade unions legal for the first time. However, picketing remained illegal, with the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871 making it a specific criminal offence punishable by three months' hard labour in prison.[7] The Ballot Act 1872 was also passed, which established secret ballots for general and local elections.

The Licensing Act 1872 restricted the opening hours in public houses; regulated the content of beer; gave local authorities the power to determine licensing hours and gave boroughs the option of banning all alcohol. These policies were enforced by the police. This Act was generally unpopular and led to rioting in some towns.[8] The liquor industry had Liberal leanings before the Act but now this totally changed, and from "midsummer 1871 [when the first Licensing Bill was discussed] till the dissolution of 1874 nearly every public-house in the United Kingdom was an active committee-room for the Conservative Party". Gladstone blamed the Act for the Conservative victory in the 1874 general election, writing: "We have been borne down in a torrent of gin and beer".[9]

The Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 remodelled the English court system (establishing the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal) and attempted to abolish the House of Lords as a judicial body for England, but this was not implemented due to the Conservative victory of 1874.

As Gladstone's Secretary of State for War, Edward Cardwell enacted far-reaching reforms of the British Army in what would become known as the Cardwell Reforms.

In 1868 Gladstone appointed Robert Lowe (1811–92) Chancellor of the Exchequer, expecting him to hold down public spending. Public spending rose, and Gladstone pronounced Lowe "wretchedly deficient." Maloney notes that historians concur on that. Lowe systematically underestimated revenue, enabling him to resist the clamour for tax cuts, and to reduce the national debt instead. He insisted that the tax system be fair to all classes. By his own criterion of fairness—that the balance between direct and indirect taxation remain unchanged—he succeeded. Historians point out that this balance had never been a good measure of class incidence and was by that time thoroughly archaic.[10]

Public expenditure on the military and the navy by 1871 was at its lowest level since 1858. Overall, national public expenditure was reduced from £71,000,000 in 1868 to £67,000,000 in 1870 and 1871. However, it rose to £74,604,000 in 1874. Nevertheless, Gladstone was able to produce five surpluses for each year amounting to £17,000,000. He was also able (he resumed the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer in August 1873 till the dissolution of Parliament in early 1874) to reduce the income tax to 3 pence in the pound in 1873, and the next year proposed to abolish it altogether if he won the next general election.[11]

In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 Gladstone attempted to persuade the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to forbear from annexing Alsace and Lorraine from defeated France. Gladstone published an anonymous article in the Edinburgh Review in October 1870 espousing his views, but it did not remain anonymous for long. The Germans remained unconvinced by Gladstone's overtures, however. France would regain both provinces in 1919 and 1944—but only after two World Wars with Germany.

During the American Civil War 1861-1865, Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer favoured British and French intervention on the side of the Confederacy. His advice was rejected by the Prime Minister and Britain remained uninvolved. However, the Confederate ship CSS Alabama had been built in an English port and had subsequently damaged Union shipping. In 1872 Gladstone settled the Alabama Claims by giving the United States $15,500,000 as part of the Treaty of Washington.

Gladstone paid little attention to military affairs but in 1870 pushed through Parliament major changes in Army organisation. Germany's stunning triumph over France proved that the Prussian system of professional soldiers with up-to-date weapons was far superior to the traditional system of gentlemen-soldiers that Britain used.[12] The reforms were designed to centralise the power of the War Office, abolish purchase of officers' commissions, and to create reserve forces stationed in Britain by establishing short terms of service for enlisted men.[13]

Edward Cardwell (1813–1886) as Secretary of State for War (1868–1874) designed the reforms that Gladstone supported in the name of efficiency and democracy. In 1868 he abolished flogging, raising the private soldier status to more like an honourable career. In 1870 Cardwell abolished "bounty money" for recruits, discharged known bad characters from the ranks. He pulled 20,000 soldiers out of self-governing colonies, like Canada, which learned they had to help defend themselves. The most radical change, and one that required Gladstone's political muscle, was to abolish the system of officers obtaining commissions and promotions by purchase, rather than by merit. The system meant that the rich landholding families controlled all the middle and senior ranks in the army. Promotion depended on the family's wealth, not the officer's talents, and the middle class was shut out almost completely. British officers were expected to be gentlemen and sportsmen; there was no problem if they were entirely wanting in military knowledge or leadership skills. From the Tory perspective it was essential to keep the officer corps the domain of gentlemen, and not a trade for professional experts. They warned the latter might menace the oligarchy and threaten a military coup; they preferred an inefficient army to an authoritarian state. The rise of Bismarck's new Germany made this reactionary policy too dangerous for a great empire to risk. The bill, which would have compensated current owners for their cash investments, passed Commons in 1871 but was blocked by the House of Lords. Gladstone then moved to drop the system without any reimbursements, forcing the Lords to backtrack and approve the original bill. Liberals rallied to Gladstone's anti-elitism, pointing to the case of Lord Cardigan (1797–1868), who spent £40,000 for his commission and proved utterly incompetent in the Crimean war, where he ordered the disastrous "Charge of the Light Brigade" in 1854. Cardwell was not powerful enough to install a general staff system; that had to await the 20th century. He did rearrange the war department. He made the office of Secretary of State for War superior to the Army's commander in Chief; the commander was His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge (1819–1904), the Queen's first cousin, and an opponent of the reforms. The surveyor-general of the ordnance, and the financial secretary became key department heads reporting to the Secretary. The militia was reformed as well and integrated into the Army. The term of enlistment was reduced to 6 years, so there was more turnover and a larger pool of trained reservists. The territorial system of recruiting for regiments was standardised and adjusted to the current population. Cardwell reduced the Army budget yet increased its strength of the army by 25 battalions, 156 field guns, and abundant stores, while the reserves available for foreign service had been raised tenfold from 3,500 to 36,000 men.[12]

While in opposition Gladstone spoke out against Disraeli's aggressive imperialism. Especially in his Midlothian campaign speeches of 1880 he had expounded on his Liberal philosophy of government. The major concern of the campaign was with foreign affairs; with evangelical fervour he articulated his vision of a world community, governed by law, and protecting the weak. The basis was universalism and inclusiveness; his emotional appeals reached to the sense of concern for others, rising eventually to the larger picture of the unity of mankind.[18] Gladstone intended to restore right conduct and right principles when he returned to office, but public opinion—especially among the rural gentry—forced his government to continue imperial defence and expansion, most notably in Egypt.[19] At a time when France, Germany and others were rapidly expanding their empires, he opposed expanding the British Empire.[20]

Gladstone won the 1880 election on the back of his Midlothian campaign against Disraeli's support for the Ottoman Empire. He proceeded to reverse Disraeli's foreign policy by withdrawing the British garrison in Kandahar in Afghanistan and wanted to cede Cyprus to Greece, although he was dissuaded from this by Lord Granville.[21] Although he had denounced the annexation of the Transvaal in the election campaign, he announced in January 1881 that self-government was not going to happen. The Boers rebelled against this in February and drove the British out by force at the Battle of Majuba Hill. Gladstone implemented the Pretoria Convention later in August which ended the First Boer War. In October in a speech at Leeds, Gladstone proclaimed: "While we are opposed to imperialism, we are devoted to the empire".[22]

However, in 1882 a nationalist revolt occurred in Egypt, headed by Colonel Urabi. There was a perceived danger to the Suez Canal, and therefore British communications with its to Indian empire, as well as to British holders of Egyptian bonds.[23] At first, Gladstone appealed to the Concert of Europe to take collective action, although this was met by unenthusiastic responses. France initially sent warships to join the Royal Navy at Alexandria, but refused to send military forces in fear of weakening its defences against Germany. On 10 July Gladstone instructed that an ultimatum be given to Urabi to halt military fortifications of Alexandria within twelve hours. Urabi did not answer and so on 11 July the Royal Navy bombarded the city while the French withdrew. This resulted in rioting and Gladstone got from Parliament £2,300,000 and raised the income tax from 5d. to 6½d. to finance a military campaign.[24] The decision to go to war met with opposition from within the Liberal Party, and the Radical MP John Bright resigned from the Cabinet in protest.[25] On 19 August British troops commanded by Sir Garnet Wolseley landed at Port Said and on 13 September defeated Urabi's forces at the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir. On hearing news of the British victory Gladstone was ecstatic and ordered salutes of the guns in Hyde Park in their honour.[26]

In January 1884 Gladstone consented to sending General Gordon to the Sudan to report on the best means of evacuating Egyptian garrisons there in the aftermath of the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad's rebellion. When Gordon arrived in the Sudan he wanted to hold the capital, Khartoum. At first Gladstone refused to send a relief expedition but a few months later he consented and in October 1884 General Wolseley embarked from Cairo to Khartoum but arrived there too late to save Gordon, who had died when Khartoum fell to the Mahdi. "No single event in Gladstone's career made him more unpopular"[27] and a vote of censure in the Commons reduced the government's majority to fourteen.

Enormous publicity was accorded the case of Charles Bradlaugh, who was elected as a Liberal to Parliament again and again but could not be seated because he was an atheist. Bradlaugh was a conventional Liberal on most issues, but he was also a highly controversial proponent of birth control. The technical issue was whether an atheist could "affirm" his loyalty rather than "swear to God." Gladstone fought to get Bradlaugh seated, but took a legalistic approach which allowed the Conservatives to attack the Liberals with an appeal to religious sentiment. The Liberals were split and their cause suffered. Bradlaugh was finally seated in 1886 and in 1888 Parliament passed a law that allowed affirmations instead of oaths.[28]

With very little publicity Gladstone after 1880 was increasingly estranged from Queen Victoria on issues of Church of England patronage. Gladstone's policy was to nominate bishops and deans solely on the basis of merit and leadership ability. The Queen, encouraged by Disraeli, favoured moderates who would restrain the High Church party (which tended to support the Liberals).[29][30]

• Matthew, H. C. G. and M. R. D. Foot, eds. Gladstone Diaries. With Cabinet Minutes & Prime-Ministerial Correspondence (13 vol; vol 14 is the index; 1968–1994); includes diaries, important selections from cabinet minutes and key political correspondence. online at Questia are vol. 1, 4, 6–7, and 11–14.; vol. 14 pp. 1–284 includes brief identification of the 20,000+ people mentioned by Gladstone.