Editing William Ewart Gladstone (section)

===Franchise===
[[File:William Ewart Gladstone by Rupert Potter.jpg|thumb|Gladstone in 1884, photographed by [[Beatrix Potter#Early life|Rupert Potter]]]]

Gladstone extended the vote to agricultural labourers and others in the [[Representation of the People Act 1884|1884 Reform Act]], which gave the counties the same franchise as the boroughs&nbsp;– adult male householders and £10 lodgers&nbsp;– and added six million to the total number of people who could vote in parliamentary elections.<ref>Jenkins, 487–494.</ref> Parliamentary reform continued with the [[Redistribution of Seats Act 1885]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Partridge|first=Michael|title=Gladstone|url=https://archive.org/details/gladstone0000part|url-access=registration|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|page=[https://archive.org/details/gladstone0000part/page/178 178]|isbn=978-1134606382}}</ref>

Gladstone was increasingly uneasy about the direction in which British politics was moving. In a letter to [[John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|Lord Acton]] on 11 February 1885, Gladstone criticised [[Tory Democracy]] as "demagogism" that "put down pacific, law-respecting, economic elements that ennobled the old Conservatism" but "still, in secret, as obstinately attached as ever to the evil principle of class interests". He found contemporary Liberalism better, "but far from being good". Gladstone claimed that this Liberalism's "pet idea is what they call construction,&nbsp;– that is to say, taking into the hands of the state the business of the individual man". Both Tory Democracy and this new Liberalism, Gladstone wrote, had done "much to estrange me, and had for many, many years".<ref>Morley, ''Life of Gladstone: III'', p. 173.</ref>