Gladstone's Political Opponents Denounced Him As A Dangerous Radical And Demagogue

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Gladstone’s Political Opponents Denounced Him As A Dangerous Radical And Demagogue. But He was Really A conservative In Politics And In Outlook. Discuss

Gladstone compared to other politicians stood out far from the rest. Instead of taking a mediocre approach he fought for what he really believed in. By doing this it may explain why his opponents branded him a dangerous radical. Gladstone toured different parts of the nation where he spoke to large groups of working men. He also visited factories, gave working people the impression that he was on their side by creating the Post Office savings, tax on paper, the pale of constitution speech in May 1864, praised self command and had respect for order of working classes. Gladstone strongly disagreed with the conservatives over various issues on foreign policy, finance and admin reform. From this disagreement it is right for his political opponents to brand him a radical due to they were not on the same wavelength of what he had in mind for the prospects of Britain.

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It is fact that Gladstone used speech to enflame emoticons and excite crowds although, by using this effective method (demagogue) it certainly gave him a boost in popularity. He was so immense at doing this that after his tours of areas such as the north in small cities i.e. Gateshead and Manchester he encouraged the working class to become more interested in Politics. This lead to the phrase of him being named the peoples William. During this era of politics Gladstone was one of the first to introduce this new effective method of campaigning. This really displayed to the working class that Gladstone was a leader who would not neglect them but also help them prosper in improving their rights and quality of life in 19th century Britain. His ideology was composed by following Peel’s philosophy of free trade, repeal of the Corn Laws and giving practical support of Peel’s budget.

Trade Unions were a growing threat to the Government due to it meant that workers could go on strike in favor of seeking better working conditions and a rise in salary. It is strongly emphasized that Gladstone used the method of demagogue with links with Trade Union leaders where they received deputations and were able to visit factories due to Gladstone was impressed with their responsibility which led to a Liberal dilemma. Some Liberal MP’s gave their support to the Trade Union movements. Whereas, other MP’s such as Mundella, Morley and Hughes introduced their own bill but withdrew a promise on the Government’s bill. This resulted in Legality of Unions which was recognized and peaceful picketing was made illegal which caused for Trade Unions to campaign against this. By Gladstone’s effective skill in exciting emoticons and crowds by introducing the Trade Unions Act of 1871 this lead to him being denounced as a radical. For years before Gladstone, Trade Unions were illegal and majority of ruling Government’s saw this as an issue which they did not want to approve the right for workers to revolt to their work due to this would disrupt pay rates and the economy.

Although majority of the Liberal Reforms were in favor of the working class, in many ways some reforms saw an opposing effect. When analyzing the Irish universities Bill 1873 Gladstone proposed to create a new university of Dublin which was to combine the queen’s and Peel’s colleges of cork and Belfast. Although in order to avoid religious difficulties subjects such as philosophy and ideology were excluded from the curriculum. This bill resulted in the cabinet not giving full support due to Hartington Irish secretary did not see this as top priority as well, MP’s were not enthusiastic and the bill was defeated by three votes. This defeat caused for Gladstone to resign. This defeat displays that politicians had already denounced him as a dangerous radical and were not ready to give Ireland this radical privilege. This caused for MP’s to revolt against this bill which saw the fall of Gladstone.

Gladstone’s policies of reform did often challenge the concepts accepted by the establishment which summoned evidence of radicalism in Gladstone. Concepts such as paper duty were opposed by the Lords and the Civil service reform was opposed by Whigs in his own party. The Civil Service reform had been appointed by Gladstone in 1853 to investigate appointment in the civil service. Supported by the Administration reform Association in 1855 under Samuel Morley, Northcote- Trevelyan recommended a competitive examination. The examinations introduced still reflected the structure of society. The civil service was divided into two grades which roughly corresponded with society which led to an exam for book-keeping based on English history while the exam for the upper grade was based on classics. Many aristocrats objected to this measure and the foreign office were excluded from the act.

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