Abstract
This substantial volume of fourteen scholarly essays is testament to the continuing attention paid by historians to the life and career of William Gladstone. Perhaps Churchill is the only British Prime Minister about whom more has been written. It might be wondered if much remains to be discovered, but these essays do break new – if sometimes peripheral – ground as well as demonstrating how many aspects of Gladstone's 60 years in politics are still contested.
Just as his contemporaries differed in their assessments of his achievements and motives, so too do the contributors to this collection. Frank M. Turner contends that Gladstone, because he ‘stood profoundly at one with his age’, now seems ‘elusive, irrelevant or difficult to approach’ (p. 17). In contrast, Eugenio Biagini finds that ‘the great Victorian continues to be part of the current debate’ and ‘has continued to be relevant for the age’ (pp. 310–1). This latter view receives some support from Deryck M. Schreuder whose discussion of Gladstone and internationalism concludes that his ‘experience remains a rich source of reflection on international politics and the role of great powers’ (p. 290). Roland Quinault, in surveying his attitude to war, also suggests that Gladstone cast a shadow long enough to influence Tony Blair's policy towards Iraq.
Two other complex issues with which Gladstone grappled – the suppression of the slave trade and Ireland's economic problems – are examined by Richard Huzzey and Allen Warren, respectively, while C. Brad Faught discusses the few weeks in which Gladstone, as High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, failed to persuade the islanders to remain under British rule. This excursion into colonial politics took place in the 1850s, at a time when, as Richard A. Gaunt relates, Gladstone presented himself as a Peelite Conservative. Chris Wrigley documents how his reputation, not many years later, became that of a radical whose policies were widely admired by working people.
In the remaining essays, Jenny West diagnoses Gladstone's medical problems and considers their possible significance while Denis Paz traces the diverging course of two friendships. Gladstone's passion for felling trees began, Peter Sewter shows, as a form of exercise but led cartoonists to depict him as a woodcutter, clearing away old restrictions. Finally, two contributors focus on other imagery: Joseph S. Meisel makes some interesting observations on photographs and paintings of Gladstone, as does Mark Nixon on medallions featuring the elder statesman.