Editing William Ewart Gladstone (section)

==Minister under Peel (1841–1846)==
Gladstone was re-elected in 1841. In the second ministry of Robert Peel, he served as [[President of the Board of Trade]] (1843–1845).<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Gladstone, William Ewart |volume=12 |pages=66–72 |first=George William Erskine |last=Russell| author-link = G. W. E. Russell}}</ref>

Gladstone was responsible for the [[Railway Regulation Act 1844]] ([[7 & 8 Vict.]] c. 85), regarded by historians as the birth of the [[regulatory state]], of network industry regulation, of rate of return regulation, and telegraph regulation. Examples of its foresight are the clauses empowering the government to take control of railways in times of war, the concept of [[Parliamentary train]]s, limited in cost to a penny a mile, of universal service, and of control of the recently invented electric telegraph which ran alongside railway lines. Railways were the largest investment (as a percentage of GNP) in human history{{dubious|date=July 2021}} and this bill the most heavily lobbied in parliamentary history.{{dubious|date=July 2021}} Gladstone succeeded in guiding the Act through Parliament at the height of the [[railway bubble]].<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Iain |last1=McLean |first2=Christopher |last2=Foster |title=The political economy of regulation: interests, ideology, voters, and the UK Regulation of Railways Act 1844 |journal=Public Administration |volume=70 |issue=3 |date=1992 |pages=313–331|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9299.1992.tb00941.x }}</ref>

Gladstone became concerned with the situation of "coal whippers". These were the men who worked on London docks, "whipping" in baskets from ships to barges or wharves all incoming coal from the sea. They were called up and relieved through public houses, so a man could not get this job unless he had the favourable opinion of the publican, who looked most favourably upon those who drank. The man's name was written down and the "score" followed. Publicans issued employment solely on the capacity of the man to pay, and men were often drunk when they left the pub to work. They spent their savings on drinks to secure the favourable opinion of publicans and further employment.

Gladstone initiated the [[Coal Vendors Act 1843]] ([[6 & 7 Vict.]] c. 2), which set up a central office for employment. When that act expired in 1856, a select committee was appointed by the Lords in 1857 to look into the question. Gladstone gave evidence to the committee, stating:

{{quote|"I approached the subject in the first instance as I think everyone in Parliament of necessity did, with the strongest possible prejudice against the proposal [to interfere]; but the facts stated were of so extraordinary and deplorable a character, that it was impossible to withhold attention from them. Then the question being whether legislative interference was required I was at length induced to look at a remedy of an extraordinary character as the only one I thought applicable to the case&nbsp;... it was a great innovation".<ref>Viscount Gladstone, ''After Thirty Years'' (Macmillan, 1928), pp. 90–91.</ref>}}

Looking back in 1883, Gladstone wrote that "In principle, perhaps my Coalwhippers Act of 1843 was the most Socialistic measure of the last half century".<ref>{{cite book |first=H. C. G. |last=Matthew |title=Gladstone. 1875–1898 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1995 |page=90}}</ref>

He resigned in 1845 over the [[Maynooth Grant]] issue, which was a matter of conscience for him.<ref>{{cite book |first=John-Paul |last=McCarthy |chapter=History and pluralism: Gladstone and the Maynooth grant controversy |title='Gladstone and Ireland |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2010 |pages=15–140}}</ref> To improve relations with the Catholic Church, Peel's government proposed increasing the annual grant paid to the [[St Patrick's College, Maynooth|Maynooth Seminary]] for training Catholic priests in Ireland. Gladstone, who had previously argued in a book that a Protestant country should not pay money to other churches, nevertheless supported the increase in the Maynooth grant and voted for it in Commons, but resigned rather than face charges that he had compromised his principles to remain in office. After accepting Gladstone's resignation, Peel confessed to a friend, "I really have great difficulty sometimes in exactly comprehending what he means".<ref>By Robert Peel, George Peel (Hon.), George Peel Sir Robert Peel: from his private papers, Volume 3 Spottiswoode and Co London p. 164.</ref> In December 1845, Gladstone returned to Peel's government as [[Secretary of State for War and the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]]. The ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' notes: "As such, he had to stand for re-election, but the strong protectionism of the Duke of Newcastle, his patron in Newark, meant that he could not stand there and no other seat was available. Throughout the corn law crisis of 1846, therefore, Gladstone was in the highly anomalous and possibly unique position of being a secretary of state without a seat in either house and thus unanswerable to parliament."<ref>{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10787|title=William Gladstone|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/10787|year=2004}}</ref>