Editing Liberal Party (UK) (section)

=== Gladstone era ===
{{Main|Premierships of William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstonian liberalism|Foreign policy of William Ewart Gladstone}}
[[File:Acgladstone2.jpg|thumb|left|William Gladstone]]
For the next 30 years, Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. William Gladstone served as prime minister four times (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886, and 1892–94). His financial policies, based on the notion of [[balanced budget]]s, low taxes and ''[[laissez-faire]]'', were suited to a developing capitalist society, but they could not respond effectively as economic and social conditions changed. Called the "Grand Old Man" later in life, Gladstone was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to the [[working class]] and to the lower middle class. Deeply religious, Gladstone brought a new moral tone to politics, with his evangelical sensibility and his opposition to aristocracy.<ref>J. P. Parry, ''Democracy and Religion: Gladstone and the Liberal Party, 1867–1875'' (1989), p. 174.</ref> His moralism often angered his upper-class opponents (including [[Queen Victoria]]), and his heavy-handed control split the Liberal Party.<ref>H. C. G. Matthew, "Gladstone, William Ewart (1809–1898)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004).</ref><ref>J. L. Hammond and M. R. D. Foot, ''Gladstone and Liberalism'' (1952).</ref>

In foreign policy, Gladstone was in general against foreign entanglements, but he did not resist the realities of imperialism. For example, he ordered the [[History of Egypt under the British|occupation of Egypt]] by British forces in the 1882 [[Anglo-Egyptian War]].<ref>R. C. Mowat, "From Liberalism to Imperialism: The Case of Egypt 1875–1887", ''Historical Journal'' 16#1 (1973), pp. 109–124 focus on Lord Cromer as a Liberal imperialist. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637918 online].</ref> His goal was to create a European order based on co-operation rather than conflict and on mutual trust instead of rivalry and suspicion; the [[rule of law]] was to supplant the reign of force and self-interest. This Gladstonian concept of a harmonious [[Concert of Europe]] was opposed to and ultimately defeated by a [[Bismarckian]] system of manipulated alliances and antagonisms.<ref>Graham D. Goodlad, ''British foreign and imperial policy, 1865–1919'' (2000), p. 21.</ref>

As prime minister from 1868 to 1874, Gladstone headed a Liberal Party which was a coalition of Peelites like himself, Whigs and Radicals. He was now a spokesman for "peace, economy and reform". One major achievement was the [[Elementary Education Act 1870]] ([[33 & 34 Vict.]] c. 75), which provided England with an adequate system of elementary schools for the first time. He also secured the abolition of the [[purchase of commissions in the British Army]] and of religious tests for admission to [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]]; the introduction of the [[secret ballot]] in elections; the legalization of [[Trade unions in the United Kingdom|trade unions]]; and the reorganization of the [[Judiciaries of the United Kingdom|judiciary]] in the [[Judicature Acts|Judicature Act]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Pearce|first=Robert and Stearn, Roger|title=Access to History, Government and Reform: Britain 1815–1918|edition=2|pages=56–57|publisher=[[Hodder & Stoughton]]|year=2000}}</ref>

Regarding Ireland, the major Liberal achievements were land reform, where he [[Irish Land Acts|ended centuries of landlord oppression]], and the [[State religion#Disestablishment|disestablishment]] of the (Anglican) [[Church of Ireland]] through the [[Irish Church Act 1869]].

In the [[1874 United Kingdom general election|1874 general election]], Gladstone was defeated by the Conservatives under [[Benjamin Disraeli]] during a sharp economic recession. He formally resigned as Liberal leader and was succeeded by the [[Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire|Marquess of Hartington]], but he soon changed his mind and returned to active politics. He strongly disagreed with Disraeli's pro-[[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] foreign policy and in 1880 he conducted the first outdoor mass-election campaign in Britain, known as the [[Midlothian campaign]]. The Liberals won a large majority in the [[1880 United Kingdom general election|1880 election]]. Hartington ceded his place and Gladstone resumed office.

==== Ireland and Home Rule ====
{{Main|Irish Home Rule movement}}
Among the consequences of the [[Third Reform Act]] (1884) was the giving of the vote to many [[Irish Catholics]]. In the [[1885 United Kingdom general election|1885 general election]] the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] held the balance of power in the House of Commons and demanded [[Irish Home Rule]] as the price of support for a continued Gladstone ministry. Gladstone personally supported Home Rule, but a strong [[Liberal Unionist]] faction led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]], along with the last of the Whigs, Hartington, opposed it. The Irish Home Rule bill proposed to offer all owners of Irish land a chance to sell to the state at a price equal to 20 years' purchase of the rents and allowing tenants to purchase the land. [[Irish nationalist]] reaction was mixed, Unionist opinion was hostile, and the election addresses during the [[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886 election]] revealed English radicals to be against the bill also. Among the Liberal rank and file, several Gladstonian candidates disowned the bill, reflecting fears at the constituency level that the interests of the working people were being sacrificed to finance a costly rescue operation for the landed élite.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 2639536|title = The Liberal Party and Gladstone's Land Purchase Bill of 1886|journal = The Historical Journal|volume = 32|issue = 3|pages = 627–641|last1 = Goodlad|first1 = Graham D.|year = 1989|doi = 10.1017/S0018246X00012450| s2cid=154679807 }}</ref> Further, Home Rule had not been promised in the Liberals' election manifesto, and so the impression was given that Gladstone was buying Irish support in a rather desperate manner to hold on to power.

The result was a catastrophic split in the Liberal Party, and heavy defeat in the [[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886 election]] at the hands of [[Lord Salisbury]], who was supported by the breakaway [[Liberal Unionist Party]]. There was a final weak Gladstone ministry in 1892, but it also was dependent on Irish support and failed to get Irish Home Rule through the House of Lords.

==== Newcastle Programme ====
{{main|Newcastle Programme}}
Historically, the aristocracy was divided between Conservatives and Liberals. However, when Gladstone committed to home rule for Ireland, Britain's upper classes largely abandoned the Liberal party, giving the Conservatives a large permanent majority in the House of Lords. Following the Queen, High Society in London largely ostracized home rulers and Liberal clubs were badly split. [[Joseph Chamberlain]] took a major element of upper-class supporters out of the Party and into a third party called [[Liberal Unionist Party|Liberal Unionism]] on the Irish issue. It collaborated with and eventually merged into the Conservative party.<ref>[[R. C. K. Ensor]], ''England 1870–1914'' (1936), pp. 206–207.</ref><ref>Peter Fraser, "The Liberal Unionist Alliance: Chamberlain, Hartington, and the Conservatives, 1886–1904." ''English Historical Review'' 77#302 (1962): 53–78.</ref> The Gladstonian liberals in 1891 adopted [[The Newcastle Programme]] that included home rule for Ireland, [[Disestablishmentarianism|disestablishment]] of the [[Church of England in Wales]], [[Alcohol law|tighter controls on the sale of liquor]], major extension of factory regulation and various democratic political reforms. The Programme had a strong appeal to the nonconformist middle-class Liberal element, which felt liberated by the departure of the aristocracy.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chris Cook|title=A Short History of the Liberal Party: The Road Back to Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1p9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA25|year=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|pages=24–26|isbn=9781137056078}}</ref>

==== Relations with trade unions ====
{{Main|History of trade unions in the United Kingdom}}
A major long-term consequence of the Third Reform Act was the rise of [[Lib-Lab]] candidates. The Act split all [[county constituencies]] (which were represented by multiple MPs) into [[single-member constituencies]], roughly corresponding to population patterns. With the foundation of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] not to come till 1906, many trade unions allied themselves with the Liberals. In areas with working class majorities, in particular [[Coal mining in the United Kingdom|coal-mining]] areas, Lib-Lab candidates were popular, and they received sponsorship and endorsement from [[trade union]]s. In the first election after the Act was passed (1885), thirteen were elected, up from two in 1874. The Third Reform Act also facilitated the demise of the Whig old guard; in two-member constituencies, it was common to pair a Whig and a radical under the Liberal banner. After the Third Reform Act, fewer former Whigs were selected as candidates.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pearce|first=Robert and Stearn, Roger|title=Access to History, Government and Reform: Britain 1815–1918|edition=2|page=74|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=2000}}</ref>

==== Reform policies ====
A broad range of interventionist reforms were introduced by the 1892–1895 Liberal government. Amongst other measures, standards of accommodation and of teaching in schools were improved, factory inspection was made more stringent, and ministers used their powers to increase the wages and reduce the working hours of large numbers of male workers employed by the state.<ref>[[Kenneth O. Morgan]], ''The Age of Lloyd George: Liberal Party and British Politics, 1890–1929''.</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2018}}

Historian Walter L. Arnstein concludes:

{{quote|Notable as the Gladstonian reforms had been, they had almost all remained within the nineteenth-century Liberal tradition of gradually removing the religious, economic, and political barriers that prevented men of varied creeds and classes from exercising their individual talents in order to improve themselves and their society. As the third quarter of the century drew to a close, the essential bastions of [[Victorian era|Victorianism]] still held firm: respectability; a government of aristocrats and gentlemen now influenced not only by middle-class merchants and manufacturers but also by industrious working people; a prosperity that seemed to rest largely on the tenets of [[laissez-faire economics]]; and a Britannia that ruled the waves and many a dominion beyond.<ref>Walter L. Arnstein, ''Britain Yesterday and Today: 1832 the Present'' (6th ed. 1992), p. 125.</ref>}}