As a member of a Liberal government, Glad stone stood committed to parliamentary reform. His Whig colleagues discovered with alarm that this late convert was not merely a reformer; he was a democrat. He declared, from the Treas ury bench, that the laboring class had a moral right to come within the pale of the constitu tion. There was now only one link between the Liberal champion and the Toryism of his youth; he was still member for the University of Oxford. That link was severed when the Uni versity rejected him in 1865. Mr. Gladstone appealed to the people of Lancashire, and en tered on the first of those oratorical campaigns which were to change the face of English politics.
The franchise question was settled, for a time, by the Tories in 1867, and the popular vote of 1868 was a personal vote for Mr. Gladstone. With a wide and varied electorate, and many interests competing for notice, the people are easily persuaded to accept the supremacy of one man, who, like General Jackson, °acts always for the good of the country)) Under such con ditions the leader of opposition, if he knows his business, has his rival at a disadvantage. It is the men in power who have to make terms with foreign governments and to protect the national purse; however well they do, it is always easy to show that they might have done better. Mr. Disraeli made good use of his opportunities, and in 1873 the tide of Liberal success was ebbing rapidly. Mr. Gladstone was alarmed, and he would fain have made his de feat on the Irish University question an excuse for bringing his opponents into office. Disraeli saw the snare and avoided it, and the wisdom of his tactics was justified by the Conservative victory of 1874. As a leader of opposition, Mr. Gladstone disregarded what were then sup posed to be the conventions of party life. He retired from responsible leadership; returned to the field just at the moment when his action was most likely to embarrass his successors; and finally presented himself to the country as a candidate for power. In the election of 1880 his success was complete, and the death of Lord Beaconsfield left him without a personal rival. But once more the tide ebbed as rapidly as it had risen. In a few years it became evi dent that the Liberal party was hopelessly divided on three issues of cardinal importance- disestablishment of the Church, Home Rule for Ireland and the scheme of modified social ism advocated by Mr. Chamberlain. Old badges and cries were out of date. Mr. Parnell was forming an Irish party, so severely disciplined that no member of it could break away or dis obey orders. For a few eventful months there was also a fourth party, a small band of Tories who obstructed their own leaders, addressed themselves in a democratic spirit to the con servative rank and file and made themselves so strong that in 1885 Lord Salisbury was com pelled to take them into partnership.
At the general election of 1885 Mr. Glad stone endeavored to keep his party undivided by postponing all troublesome questions. He did not declare against Home Rule, but he pointed out the danger of allowing Mr. Parnell to hold the balance of power. This was his reason for asking the country to give the Lib erals a majority large enough to make them independent of the Irish vote. In the event, parties were so distributed that the Conserva tives and Parnellites, if combined, would be equal or superior in number to the Liberals. Mr. Gladstone accepted Home Rule. It would be quite unfair to represent his conversion as a bid for power and nothing more. The argu both for Home Rule was a strong one, and both the great parties were studying it in a practical spirit. But with all his vast experi ence of affairs, Mr. Gladstone was subject to illusions. He believed that the Irish demand, as presented by him to the electors of England and Scotland, would prove to be irresistible. In this belief he cashiered those of his supporters who refused to follow, and when the House of Commons rejected his proposals, he hurried on a "penal dissolution') and went again to the country. The "classes?' he said, were against him; he appealed to the amasses." The masses responded by placing the Unionists in power.
In the Parliament of 1886-92 the Liberal Unionists occupied a position somewhat analo gous to that of the Peelites in 1850. They were stronger in ability than either of the great parties; they sat on the Liberal benches and co-operated steadly with the Conservatives. Lord Salisbury in office did himself no dis credit ; but he had to make himself responsible for unpopular measures. The Crimes Act of 1887 was in itself a moderate measure. but it was a deep disappointment to many who had begun to hope that Ireland might be governed without repressive legislation. A good many independent Liberals fell quietly into line with their old party; the swing of the pendulum was felt. In 1892 Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister for the fourth time, and entered buoyantly on the task of framing a second scheme of Home Rule. When the scheme ap peared his party saw plainly that it was not an improvement on the bill of 1886. Discipline was maintained; the bill of 1893 was carried through the House of Commons and it was darkly intimated that the House of Lords must accept it or take the consequences. The Lords rejected the bill by a very large majority. Mr. Gladstone was at the end of his physical re sources; he was followed by Lord Rosebery, who, however, was not the man to succeed where the old leader had failed. The election of 1895 vindicated the shrewd forecast of the Lords and restored Lord Salisbury to office.