1892 - 1894

William Gladstone (1809-1898) started his career in politics as a Tory. He was elected to the Commons in 1832 at the age of twenty-three, and held junior office in Peel's brief minority government of 1834-35. During the Peel administration of 1841-46, he became President of the Board of Trade, and came to accept Peel's case - resisted by the majority of Tories - for the reform of the Corn laws. When Peel resigned in the Tory split which followed their repeal, so did Gladstone, and on Peel's death in 1850, Gladstone was left as Leader of the small band of Tories who had been loyal to him. He led them into the coalition government of Lord Aberdeen in 1852, becoming chancellor of the exchequer. In 1855 the government resigned following the attack in the Commons on its handling of the war. Making a decisive break with the Tories, he returned to the chancellorship in Palmerston's Liberal administration of 1859-65, despite a poor relationship with the prime minister. When the premier died in 1865 Russell succeeded him, while Gladstone remained as chancellor consolidating his reputation for fiscal rectitude. But after the government's defeat on its reform bill in 1866 and its resignation, Russell retired to the Lords, and when the Liberals were successful at the 1868 election Gladstone became Prime Minister for the first time. After the Liberal defeat of 1874 he resigned his Leadership of the party; but he returned to politics and secured the premiership in a popular election campaign of unprecedented energy in 1880 centred around his outrage at Conservative foreign policy. In government, Gladstone's party proved difficult to manage, and after achieving a third Reform Act in 1884 it collapsed in 1885; but the election of that year made it possible for Gladstone to take over power from Lord Salisbury's minority government early in 1886. The prime minister's determination to push through home rule for Ireland shocked and split the Liberals, and led to their loss of power at a snap election the same year. In opposition for the next six years, Gladstone nurtured his plans for home rule; but when the Liberals regained power in the election of 1892 the Home Rule Bill was thrown out by the Lords. Gladstone resigned from his last premiership in 1894, and died four years later.