The Crimean War also broke up the coali tion ministry. A motion by Roebuck for an inquiry into the condition of the army before Sebastopol was carried by a large majority against the government. Lord Aberdeen at once resigned. Lord Palmerston was the one indispensable man, and he became Prime Min ister. Gladstone gave the government of Lord Palmerston a general support until after the attempt of Orsini on the life of the Emperor Napoleon III in 1858, when Palmerston intro duced his ill-fated Conspiracy to Murder Bill. The government was defeated, Lord Palmerston resigned, and Lord Derby was called on to form a new ministry. Under Derby, Gladstone un dertook a special commission to the Ionian Islands.
The year 1859 saw Lord Palmerston back again in office and Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The budget of 1860 was re markable for its repeal of the paper duties, which passed the House of Lords in the follow ing year; and for the conclusion of a commer cial treaty with France. In the general election of 1865 Gladstone was defeated in Oxford Uni versity and returned for South Lancashire. The death of Lord Palmerston in 1865 called Lord Russell to the position of Prime Minister. Gladstone's mind had long been turning in the direction of an extension or rather expansion 1 of the suffrage. The bill he proposed was de feated (1866), but when Disraeli came into office he "dished the by introducing a reform bill of his own, which was practically a measure of household suffrage for cities and boroughs.
At Christmas 1867 Earl Russell died, and Gladstone became the leader of the Liberal party. About this time his attention began to be attracted to Ireland. He determined that the time had come for the disestablishment of the Episcopal State Church in that country. He defeated the government on a series of resolutions foreshadowing his policy; and the ensuing appeal to the country resulted in the return to power of the Liberals by a large majority, and Gladstone, who had been de feated in South Lancashire, but was returned for Greenwich, became Prime Minister (1868). In his first session he, accomplished his purpose of disestablishing and disendowing the State Church in Ireland. This Parliament was fruitful in important reforms. In 1870 Gladstone began the first of a series of ameliorative measures dealing with the Irish land question. Patronage was abolished in the public service; the system of purchase of commissions was abolished in the army, as were also religious tests in the universities; for the first time in England a national system of elementary education was established, and voting by ballot was intro duced. There is also standing to his credit the
submission of the Alabama claims to arbitra tion,— and that too by one who had supported the national status of the Confederate States. A measure introduced in 1873, which aimed at establishing an Irish university acceptable to both Roman Catholics and Protestants, failed to pass, and shortly thereafter his government resigned office (1874). Disraeli was returned to power, and in the following year Gladstone formally resigned the leadership of the Liberal PartY.
For a time he occupied himself with those literary and historical studies that were always dear to him; but the outbreak of the Bulgarian atrocities in 1875 stirred him to indignant pro test. The foreign policy of the Disraeli govern ment was afterward subjected to severe criti cism, especially in so far as it aimed at bol stering up Turkish power in Europe. He was invited to stand for the county of Midlothian, and delivered a series of speeches throughout 1879 and the spring of 1880 that destroyed the popularity of the Disraeli government, was re turned triumphantly for Midlothian, and again brought back to power.
It was an unpropitious hour at which to re turn to office. In Afghanistan and in South Africa the Beaconsfield government had left behind a legacy of troubles; an agrarian revolution had begun in Ireland, and there the Home Rule party was under the resolute and uncompromising leadership of Parnell. Much as Gladstone abhorred the widening of imperial obligations, his government had to intervene to restore order in Egypt.; the successes of the Mandi in the Sudan and what looked like the desertion of General Gordon, followed by his death at Khartoum, told heavily against the prestige of the ministry. In Ireland, a Land Act was followed by agrarian outrages and boycotting; by a coercion act; the assassination of the chief secretary and the under secretary; and by the imprisonment of Irish leaders. The practice of obstruction was reduced to a fine art by the Irish members in the House of Com mons, and feeling between them and the Liberal government became very embittered. In June 1885 the government was defeated on the budget; Lord Salisbury assumed office; and in an election that followed shortly thereafter, on a franchise which for the first time gave household suffrage to the counties, the balance of power was in the hands of the Irish mem bers.