How Well Did Gladstone's Legislative Programme of 1868-74 Carry Out Liberal Aims?

The way in which the Liberals as a party and Gladstone as a public figure became almost indistinguishable among the British public after 1870 is indicative of the way in which personality dominated not only parliamentary politics but a broader understanding of ideologies in Victorian Britain. In this way, the Gladstonian Liberalism 'of definite grievance and redress, Church rates and University tests, Army purchase and Irish disestablishment, and a humane and frugal distrust of Empire, aristocracy, adventure and war' that superseded many existing assumptions about the political direction of the Liberal party makes any assessment of how faithfully Gladstone delivered on 'Liberal aims' somewhat difficult. This is a problem compounded by the inherently factional nature of the disparate groups that comprised Liberal parliamentary grouping; in this light, the fact that they maintained some semblance of discipline for the better part of Gladstone's first ministry is arguably testament to his capacity to unite, rather than to an existing unanimity of aims. Even so, the ministry's implementations were not without internal opposition - for instance, considerable resistance to Civil Service reform from Whig elements (even within the cabinet) serves to substantiate the observation that identifying 'Liberal aims' is not entirely straightforward. All of this considered, an examination of how far Gladstone's reforms conflicted with the general will of his party, as far as it can be discerned, shall be conducted herein.

Gladstone's attempts to establish equality of opportunity in Britain during his first administration have been likened to a moral crusade, predicated upon deep personal convictions rather than party political realities. This approach is clear as early as 1854, when Gladstone (as Chancellor of the Exchequer) set up the Northcote-Trevelyan enquiry to examine ways of making the Civil Service more meritocratic. The lack of appetite for such progress among his parliamentary colleagues meant that only paltry advances were made until Gladstone secured an Act of Parliament in 1871. Even here, the Earl of Clarendon was able to secure an exemption for the Foreign Office from the rules of open competition newly applied to Civil Service entry. The need for Gladstone to make concessions of this nature exemplifies the occasionally incohesive nature of the Liberal Party at the time. Clarendon, who held high office in the Whig administrations of Melbourne and Russell, had an attitude towards foreign policy that would have placed him at significant political odds with more radical cabinet colleagues such as John Bright, and the relative stability of the Liberals' internal coalition, such as it was, underlines Gladstone's success in satisfying their aims while maintaining an identifiably Gladstonian programme of government. The overriding objective to maintain a united Liberal Party was made clear some years before: when the party was formally constituted on 6th June 1859, The Times reported Lord John Russell's sentiment that essential to its success would be that 'the three great sections of [it] - the old Whigs, the Peelites, and the advanced Liberals, should each be represented.' An awareness of the potential for disunity is clear here, and could arguably have informed the esprit de corps that underpinned Gladstone's first administration.

Much of Gladstone's legislation, however, can justifiably be seen as the fulfilment of long-standing 'Liberal aims.' The 1869 Irish Church Act was passed by the Commons in the teeth of fierce Conservative opposition, largely by dint of the wholehearted support of most of the 387 Liberal MPs, who had favoured Irish disestablishment for some time. Likewise, the misgivings many Liberals had about an overly powerful Church were tempered by the University Tests Act of 1871, which went some way to reducing the influence of the Church in the governance of the ancient universities, removing the requirement for all academic staff at Oxford and Cambridge to be practicing Anglicans. However inconsistently such requirements may have been applied beforehand, the legislation embodied for many Liberals the zeal with which he set about rectifying presupposed grievances with which they had taken issue for some time. However, Disraeli's readiness to continue along a similar path a few years later could imply that Gladstone's actions were symptomatic not of the Liberals' grievances, but of a general feeling that such academic reforms were overdue.

The item of Gladstonian legislation that can most easily be seen to typify the Victorian Liberal Party is the 1870 Education Act. Not only did it have considerable and positive social repercussions, but it also avoided the kind of interventionism that many Liberals viewed with suspicion. Furthermore, the restrictions it placed on the power of the Church, whose role in academia has already been discussed, pleased the majority of the parliamentary party. However, Nonconformists remained unconvinced. Many were underwhelmed by the limited scope (as they saw it) of the aforementioned Irish Church Act, and alighted too upon the tendency of the Education Act to fall short of the kind of dramatic change they desired. For instance, where they had hoped for the wholesale secularisation of education, the Act made provision for government grants to be awarded to