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139-632: The name "coupon" was coined by Liberal leader H. H. Asquith , disparagingly using the jargon of rationing with which people were familiar in the context of wartime shortages. The letters all contained the same simple text: Dear ... We have much pleasure in recognizing you as the Coalition Candidate for (name of constituency). We have every hope that the Electors will return you as their Representative in Parliament to support

278-617: A Trade Union Act passed that same year clarified the legal position of trade unions while also restoring their political power, together with the financial position of the Labour Party. In 1914, local authorities received grants from the government to provide maternal and child welfare services. while the Criminal Justice Administration Act passed that same year compelled magistrates to allow for sufficient time to be made for paying fines. As noted by

417-591: A Liberal (1904–1924) authored Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909). The Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs , who had their origins in an aristocratic faction in the reign of Charles II and the early 19th century Radicals . The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown and increasing the power of Parliament . Although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves,

556-489: A Liberal base were deeply split. Ensor notes that, "London society, following the known views of the Queen, practically ostracized home rulers." The new Liberal leader was the ineffectual Lord Rosebery . He led the party to a heavy defeat in the 1895 general election . The Liberal Party lacked a unified ideological base in 1906. It contained numerous contradictory and hostile factions, such as imperialists and supporters of

695-426: A School Medical under the 1907 scheme. This measure ensured that more children had access to free medical care. From 1912, Exchequer grants were paid to education authorities providing medical treatment for children, and by 1914, 214 out of the (then) 317 local authorities were providing some kind of medical treatment for children. Regulations introduced in 1911 concerning the smelting of materials containing lead and

834-628: A commitment to a modernised version of welfare capitalism." By implementing the reforms outside the English Poor Laws , the stigma attached to a needy person obtaining relief was also removed. After 1911 Liberals turned to other issues, but never abandoned their support for the welfare programmes. During the 1906 general election campaign, neither of the two major parties made poverty an important election issue and no promises were made to introduce welfare reforms. The Liberals led first by Henry Campbell-Bannerman and later H. H. Asquith won

973-584: A dangerous rival, and rejoiced at the chance to destroy her. They meant to fight a hard-headed war by ruthless methods; they condemned Liberal 'softness' before the war and now. The Liberals insisted on remaining high-minded. Many of them had come to support the war only when the Germans invaded Belgium. [...] Entering the war for idealistic motives, the Liberals wished to fight it by noble means and found it harder to abandon their principles than to endure defeat in

1112-596: A dominion beyond. Gladstone finally retired in 1894. Gladstone's support for Home Rule deeply divided the party, and it lost its upper and upper-middle-class base, while keeping support among Protestant nonconformists and the Celtic fringe. Historian R. C. K. Ensor reports that after 1886, the main Liberal Party was deserted by practically the entire whig peerage and the great majority of the upper-class and upper-middle-class members. High prestige London clubs that had

1251-592: A government. Historian Robert Blake explains the dilemma: [T]he Liberals were traditionally the party of freedom of speech, conscience and trade. They were against jingoism, heavy armaments and compulsion. [...] Liberals were neither wholehearted nor unanimous about conscription, censorship, the Defence of the Realm Act , severity toward aliens and pacifists, direction of labour and industry. The Conservatives [...] had no such misgivings. Blake further notes that it

1390-605: A half-penny rate for the support of art galleries, while the Old Age Pensions Act 1911 improved residency requirements for entitlement to pensions. The Intestate Husband's Estate (Scotland) Act 1911 provided widows in Scotland with the same right as in England to a first charge of £500 on the property of her deceased husband if he died intestate , while a Public Works Loans Act passed that same year authorised

1529-558: A landslide victory and began introducing wide-ranging reforms as soon as they took office. The Conservative government in office before the Liberals came to power passed the Unemployed Workmen Act 1905 and the Employment of Children Act in 1905. Slum housing was also cleared for new houses to be built. Much of this legislation was left for local authorities to implement – their attitudes affected whether legislation

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1668-681: A lesser role in party affairs after 1900. The party, furthermore, also included Irish Catholics, and secularists from the labour movement. Many Conservatives (including Winston Churchill ) had recently protested against high tariff moves by the Conservatives by switching to the anti-tariff Liberal camp, but it was unclear how many old Conservative traits they brought along, especially on military and naval issues. The middle-class business, professional and intellectual communities were generally strongholds, although some old aristocratic families played important roles as well. The working-class element

1807-713: A massive victory: Labour increased their position slightly, but the Asquithian Liberals were decimated. Those remaining Liberal MPs who were opposed to the Coalition Government went into opposition under the parliamentary leadership of Sir Donald MacLean who also became Leader of the Opposition . Asquith, who had appointed MacLean, remained as overall Leader of the Liberal Party even though he lost his seat in 1918. Asquith returned to Parliament in 1920 and resumed leadership. Between 1919 and 1923,

1946-448: A new system of protectionist tariffs. Campbell-Bannerman was able to rally the party around the traditional liberal platform of free trade and land reform and led them to the greatest election victory in their history. This would prove the last time the Liberals won a majority in their own right. Although he presided over a large majority, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was overshadowed by his ministers, most notably H. H. Asquith at

2085-528: A pension if they had been to prison in the last 10 years. On 31 December 1908 a total of 596,038 pensions had been granted. In 1906, the Factory and Workshop Act 1901 ( 1 Edw. 7 . c. 22) was amended to include laundries, and under the Labour Exchanges Act 1909 labour exchanges were set up in order to help unemployed people find work, by providing centres where a large number of employers and

2224-523: A provisional government and armed resistance in Ulster . The Ulster Protestants had the full support of the Conservatives, whose leader, Bonar Law , was of Ulster-Scots descent. Government plans to deploy troops into Ulster had to be cancelled after the threat of mass resignation of their commissions by army officers in March 1914 ( see Curragh Incident ). Ireland seemed to be on the brink of civil war when

2363-465: 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 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. Historically,

2502-714: A result of the dispute over the Budget, the new government introduced resolutions (that would later form the Parliament Bill) to limit the power of the Lords. The Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith , asked Edward VII to create sufficient new Liberal peers to pass the Bill if the Lords rejected it. The King assented, provided that Asquith went back to the polls to obtain an explicit mandate for the constitutional change. The Lords voted this 1910 Parliament Bill down, so Asquith called

2641-499: A rival. Most historians have since agreed that the coupon essentially sealed the fate of those Liberals who were not fortunate enough to receive the Coalition's backing. Those Liberals that Lloyd George chose to abandon were left defenceless against Coalition candidates, who had a full claim on the spirit of national unity and patriotism that characterised Britain's war weary mood following the end of hostilities. The election result

2780-732: A second general election in December 1910 , and again formed a minority government. Edward VII had died in May 1910, but George V agreed that, if necessary, he would create 500 new Liberal peers to neutralise the Conservative majority in the Lords. The Conservative Lords then backed down, and on 10 August 1911, the House of Lords passed the Parliament Act 1911 by a narrow 131–114 vote. In his War Memoirs , Lloyd George said of this time, "the partisan warfare that raged round these topics

2919-570: A shipbuilding programme for that year was accelerated to boost labour demand, while loans sanctioned by the Local Government Board since the early summer for 'works of public utility' (such as street improvements, waterworks, and sewerage) had exceeded £700,000. Spending on relief work and public works was also significantly increased to alleviate unemployment, while the Local Government Board regulations governing

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3058-552: A sort of vague nondenominational Christianity. Under the proposal many Anglicans and Catholics would lose the right to use the schools to teach their religion to their children. The House of Lords, where the Liberals were outnumbered 5 to 1, rewrote the bill and made it even more favourable to the Anglicans, so no compromise was possible. The Nonconformists had been a major factor in the Liberal landslide of 1906, and they dominated

3197-475: A strong appeal to the nonconformist middle-class Liberal element, which felt liberated by the departure of the aristocracy. 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

3336-564: A strong, welfare-oriented, and interventionist state. After the historic 1906 victory, the Liberal Party introduced multiple reforms on a range of issues, including health insurance , unemployment insurance , and pensions for elderly workers, thereby laying the groundwork for the future British welfare state . Some proposals failed, such as licensing fewer pubs, or rolling back Conservative educational policies. The People's Budget of 1909, championed by David Lloyd George and fellow Liberal Winston Churchill , introduced unprecedented taxes on

3475-443: A week (estimates of the value of this in 2010 are difficult to ascertain, the average wage of a labourer being around 30s. a week ) to single men and women; this sum could be collected at the local post office. In January 1910, 75% of Liberal candidates dwelt on pensions in their election addresses, making it, in the words of one historian, "one of the central Liberal themes of the election". The pensions were means-tested (to receive

3614-410: A week and free medical treatment in return for a payment of 4d a week. Sick pay would be paid for 26 weeks of sickness. The medical treatment was provided by doctors who belonged to a "panel" in each district. Doctors received a fee from the insurance fund for each panel patient they treated. The Act also gave workers the right to unemployment pay of 7s 6d a week for 15 weeks in return for a payment of 2½d

3753-506: A week. This scheme was also financed through the contributions of workers and government. Although only a minority of workers were insured by this scheme, it nevertheless covered a number of trades and industries, such as shipbuilding, which were particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in employment. Although the National Health Insurance scheme was not universal in its coverage, it was nevertheless of great benefit to

3892-564: Is that the British people were so deeply divided over numerous issues, but on all sides, there was growing distrust of the Asquith government. There was no agreement whatsoever on wartime issues. The leaders of the two parties realized that embittered debates in Parliament would further undermine popular morale and so the House of Commons did not once discuss the war before May 1915. Taylor argues: The Unionists, by and large, regarded Germany as

4031-562: The 1918 general election , Lloyd George, hailed as "the Man Who Won the War", led his coalition into a khaki election . Lloyd George and the Conservative leader Bonar Law wrote a joint letter of support to candidates to indicate they were considered the official Coalition candidates—this " coupon ", as it became known, was issued against many sitting Liberal MPs, often to devastating effect, though not against Asquith himself. The coalition won

4170-596: The Chanak Crisis , and his corrupt sale of honours. He resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Bonar Law . Liberal welfare reforms The Liberal welfare reforms (1906–1914) were a series of acts of social legislation passed by the Liberal Party after the 1906 general election . They represent the Liberal Party's transition rejecting the old laissez faire policies and enacting interventionist state policies against poverty and thus launching

4309-683: The First World War broke out in August 1914. Asquith had offered the Six Counties (later to become Northern Ireland ) an opt out from Home Rule for six years (i.e., until after two more general elections were likely to have taken place) but the Nationalists refused to agree to permanent Partition of Ireland . Historian George Dangerfield has argued that the multiplicity of crises in 1910 to 1914, political and industrial, so weakened

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4448-554: The Irish Nationalists . Although the Lords now passed the budget, the government wished to curtail their power to block legislation. Asquith was required by King George V to fight a second general election in December 1910 (whose result was little changed from that in January) before he agreed, if necessary, to create hundreds of Liberals peers. Faced with that threat, the Lords voted to give up their veto power and allowed

4587-517: The 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 areas, Lib-Lab candidates were popular, and they received sponsorship and endorsement from trade unions . In the first election after the Act was passed (1885), thirteen were elected, up from two in 1874. The Third Reform Act also facilitated

4726-757: The Labourers (Ireland) Act 1911 applied the dormant portion of the Irish Suitors' Fund to the purposes of the Labourer's Cottages' Fund, while bestowing authority upon the Irish Land Commission "to extend the limit of advances which may be made" for the provision of allotments and houses from £4.5 million to £5.5 million, while also providing further powers for the demolition of unhealthy cottages. The Public Health (Ireland) Act empowered Irish local authorities to set up regulations for

4865-620: The Liberal Unionists in 1886 (they eventually joined the Conservative Party); the faction of labour union members that joined the new Labour Party ; the split between factions led by Asquith and that led by Lloyd George in 1918–1922 ; and a three-way split in 1931. Many prominent intellectuals were active in the party, including philosopher John Stuart Mill , economist John Maynard Keynes , and social planner William Beveridge . Winston Churchill during his years as

5004-660: The Second Boer War demonstrated the undernourishment and illness among the working classes, and there were fears over future generations being unable to maintain military control of Britain's empire. Also, following an unfavourable report by the Board of Education's inspectors on infant education in 1906, school provision for children under five was restricted (previously, the normal age for the entry of working-class children into full-time education had been three). The Notification of Births Act 1907 sought to quantify and analyse

5143-717: The Second Reform Act was passed by agreement between the parties), Gladstone won a huge victory at the 1868 election and formed the first Liberal government. The establishment of the party as a national membership organisation came with the foundation of the National Liberal Federation in 1877. The philosopher John Stuart Mill was also a Liberal MP from 1865 to 1868. 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

5282-612: The "People's Tax" of 1910 included a stiff tax on pubs, and during the First World War, their hours were sharply restricted from about 18 hours a day to 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 . Beer and alcohol consumption fell in half from 1900 to 1920, in part because there were many new leisure opportunities. In 1906 a major education bill failed to pass, to the annoyance of Nonconformists Protestants who were angry that since 1902 local rates were used to support Church of England schools. Liberals sought to limit religious teaching in all schools to

5421-436: The "rich" in order to subsidize "working" citizens and the ill and injured. Lloyd George argued that his budget would eliminate poverty, and commended the budget thus: This is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this generation has passed away, we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time, when poverty, and

5560-610: The 1850s and 1860s. A leading Peelite was William Gladstone, who was a reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859 when the remaining Peelites, Radicals and Whigs agreed to vote down the incumbent Conservative government. This meeting was held at the Willis' rooms in London on 6 June 1859. This led to Palmerston's second government. However,

5699-459: The 1890s "became Conservative in all but name." The government could force the unwilling king to create new Liberal peers, and that threat did prove decisive in the battle for dominance of Commons over Lords in 1911. The late nineteenth century saw the emergence of New Liberalism within the Liberal Party, which advocated state intervention as a means of guaranteeing freedom and removing obstacles to it such as poverty and unemployment. The policies of

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5838-493: The 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning as an alliance of Whigs , free trade –supporting Peelites , and reformist Radicals in the 1850s, by the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone . Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule , the party returned to government in 1905 and won a landslide victory in the 1906 general election . Under prime ministers Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905–1908) and H. H. Asquith (1908–1916),

5977-647: The 650 seats it contested. At the 1987 general election , its share of the vote fell below 23% and the Liberals and the SDP merged in 1988 to form the Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD), who the following year were renamed the Liberal Democrats . A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989. The Liberals were a coalition with diverse positions on major issues and no unified national policy. This made them repeatedly liable to deep splits, such as that of

6116-524: The 7s 6d was not enough to live on. Unemployment and sickness pay also only lasted for a limited time. Free medical care was available to only a wage-earner, not the wife or children or grandparents and other relatives. The new National Health Insurance scheme also did not provide coverage for all forms of medical care. It did not provide cover for special advice while many people could not get acquire dental, ophthalmic or other treatment through NHI. Also, other people were not covered for convalescent homes, while

6255-556: The Boers; near-socialists and laissez-faire classical liberals ; suffragettes and opponents of women's suffrage ; antiwar elements and supporters of the military alliance with France . Nonconformists – Protestants outside the Anglican fold – were a powerful element, dedicated to opposing the established church in terms of education and taxation. However, the non-conformists were losing support amid society at large and played

6394-523: The Conservatives' main rival. By the 1950s, the party had won as few as six seats at general elections. Apart from a few notable by-election victories, its fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. At the 1983 general election , the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, but won only 23 of

6533-468: The Conservatives. The 1906 general election also represented a shift to the left by the Liberal Party. According to Rosemary Rees, almost half of the Liberal MPs elected in 1906 were supportive of the 'New Liberalism' (which advocated government action to improve people's lives), ) while claims were made that "five-sixths of the Liberal party are left wing." Other historians, however, have questioned

6672-537: The Exchequer, Edward Grey at the Foreign Office, Richard Burdon Haldane at the War Office and David Lloyd George at the Board of Trade. Campbell-Bannerman retired in 1908 and died soon after. He was succeeded by Asquith, who stepped up the government's radicalism. Lloyd George succeeded Asquith at the Exchequer and was in turn succeeded at the Board of Trade by Winston Churchill , a recent defector from

6811-522: The Government has not dared to challenge the nation to rise above itself, is one among many signs. [...] The war is, in fact, not being taken seriously. [...] How can any slacker be blamed when the Government itself is slack. Asquith's Liberal government was brought down in May 1915 , due in particular to a crisis in inadequate artillery shell production and the protest resignation of Admiral Fisher over

6950-623: The Liberal Government during its time in office. The Housing of the Working Classes and Town Planning Act, as noted by one study, “liberalized still further the terms of housing loans, increasing the proportion of money needed which could be lent and the time for repayment. Local authorities could borrow all or part of the money required from the Public Works Loan Commissioners for 60 years (80 for

7089-453: The Liberal Party passed reforms that created a basic welfare state . Although Asquith was the party leader , its dominant figure was David Lloyd George . Asquith was overwhelmed by his wartime role as prime minister and Lloyd George led a coalition that replaced him in late 1916. However, Asquith remained as Liberal Party leader. The split between Lloyd George's breakaway faction and Asquith's official Liberal faction badly weakened

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7228-406: The Liberal Party. In foreign policy, Gladstone was in general against foreign entanglements, but he did not resist the realities of imperialism. For example, he ordered the occupation of Egypt by British forces in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War . 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

7367-582: The Liberal coalition before the war broke out that it marked the Strange Death of Liberal England . However, most historians date the collapse to the crisis of the First World War. The Liberal Party might have survived a short war, but the totality of the Great War called for measures that the Party had long rejected. The result was the permanent destruction of the ability of the Liberal Party to lead

7506-500: The Liberal front bench. But the bitter defeat of their highest priority now became a factor in their loss of enthusiasm for the Liberal Party, and played a key role in its decline. Nevertheless, a few uncontroversial minor education bills did become law. The Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907 introduced what became known as the Free Place System. The Regulations for Secondary Schools issued that year authorised

7645-697: The Liberals lost office to the Conservatives under Sir Robert Peel , but their period in opposition was short because the Conservatives split over the repeal of the Corn Laws , a free trade issue; and a faction known as the Peelites (but not Peel himself, who died soon after) aligned to the Liberal side on the issue of free trade. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen to hold office for most of

7784-733: The Local Education Authority. One-quarter of places in most secondary schools would be reserved for scholarship pupils. Bright working-class children were therefore provided with the opportunity to climb "the educational ladder", while for those pupils who failed the scholarship exam, some LEAs had "Central Schools" which provided a practically based curriculum for children between the ages of 11 and 15. The Irish Universities Act 1908 gave to Roman Catholics new higher education facilities which they had lacked for centuries. In 1906 children were provided with free school meals . However, many local councils ignored this system, as it

7923-569: The New Liberalism are now known as social liberalism . The New Liberals included intellectuals like L. T. Hobhouse , and John A. Hobson . They saw individual liberty as something achievable only under favourable social and economic circumstances. In their view, the poverty, squalor, and ignorance in which many people lived made it impossible for freedom and individuality to flourish. New Liberals believed that these conditions could be ameliorated only through collective action coordinated by

8062-608: The Party and into a third party called Liberal Unionism on the Irish issue. It collaborated with and eventually merged into the Conservative party. The Gladstonian liberals in 1891 adopted The Newcastle Programme that included home rule for Ireland, disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales , tighter controls on the sale of liquor , major extension of factory regulation and various democratic political reforms. The Programme had

8201-478: The Police Force "in a manner advantageous to the Force and the individual policeman, while at the same time relieving the burden on the rates." The Employment of Women Act 1907 repealed two unimportant provisions of the law "which allowed employment of women at night in a mine or factory to an extent inconsistent with the requirements of the International Convention on the subject" that had been signed by Great Britain and thirteen other States at Berne in 1906. In 1908,

8340-412: The Whig-Radical amalgam could not become a true modern political party while it was dominated by aristocrats and it was not until the departure of the "Two Terrible Old Men", Russell and Palmerston, that Gladstone could become the first leader of the modern Liberal Party. This was brought about by Palmerston's death in 1865 and Russell's retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative government (during which

8479-427: The Whigs' demise. The admission of the middle classes to the franchise and to the House of Commons led eventually to the development of a systematic middle-class liberalism and the end of Whiggery, although for many years reforming aristocrats held senior positions in the party. In the years after Grey's retirement, the party was led first by Lord Melbourne , a fairly traditional Whig, and then by Lord John Russell ,

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8618-457: The annual intake should be pupils from elementary schools. The Act also provided Local Education Authorities (LEA) with the power to acquire land for constructing new secondary schools, which led to the coming into being of many county and municipal secondary schools. In 1907, the number of free scholarship places in secondary schools was increased. If working-class pupils passed a scholarship examination, then their fees would be paid for them by

8757-402: The anti-Lloyd George Liberals were called Asquithian Liberals, Wee Free Liberals or Independent Liberals . Lloyd George was increasingly under the influence of the rejuvenated Conservative party who numerically dominated the coalition. In 1922, the Conservative backbenchers rebelled against the continuation of the coalition, citing, in particular, Lloyd George's plan for war with Turkey in

8896-445: 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

9035-419: The availability of first aid treatment, rescue work, and fire precautions at mines, and that same year a central Road Board was established to fund improvements in road conditions, a measure made necessary by the new motor traffic. Upon its introduction the new Board began at once to enable the County Councils to begin tarring the surfaces of main roads. A number of innovations in social welfare were carried by

9174-416: 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. 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

9313-403: The capitalist market, this legislation nevertheless, marked a significant shift in Liberal approaches to the state and social reform, approaches that later governments would slowly expand and that would grow into the welfare state after the Second World War. What was new in these reforms was the underlying assumption that the state could be a positive force, that the measure of individual freedom...

9452-835: The causes of (and ultimately further reduce) infant mortality. The Probation Act 1907 established a probation service to provide supervision within the community for young offenders as an alternative to prison. In 1908, the Children and Young Persons Act 1908 formed part of the "Children's Charter" which imposed punishments for those neglecting children. It became illegal to sell children tobacco, alcohol and fireworks or to send children begging. Juvenile courts and borstals were created instead for young offenders so they did not have to stand in adult courts and go to adult prisons for most offences. The Education (Scotland) Act 1908 enforced medical inspection, free books and travel, free meals and clothing grants, and some bursaries. Medical inspections began in 1907 but many poor families could not afford

9591-479: The citizenship of their native land. The new Liberalism, while pursuing this great political ideal with unflinching energy, devotes a part of its endeavour also to the removing of the immediate causes of discontent. It is true that man cannot live by bread alone. It is equally true that a man cannot live without bread. The Liberals languished in opposition for a decade while the coalition of Salisbury and Chamberlain held power. The 1890s were marred by infighting between

9730-429: The consequences of the Third Reform Act (1884) was the giving of the vote to many Irish Catholics . In the 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

9869-464: The cost of the doctors fees to get treated; it was not until 1912 that medical treatment was provided. However, education authorities largely ignored the provision of free medical treatment for school children. A tax allowance for children was introduced in 1909 to help families on low incomes. This allowance of £10 a year was introduced for every child below the age of 16 in the case of income tax payers whose income fell below £500 per annum (this rebate

10008-536: The coupon were returned to Parliament. In addition to the Liberal and Conservative candidates who received the coupon, some letters were also sent to Labour supporters of the Coalition (although most were repudiated by the official Labour Party ) and some to members of the patriotic, working class party the National Democratic Party . As Margaret Cole 's memoir of the time makes clear, many competent and patriotic candidates who did not receive

10147-531: The coupon, including sitting Liberal and Labour MPs, found themselves categorised as somehow anti-war or pacifist as a result. Percy Harris , who had been MP for Harborough since 1916, recorded that once the coupon had been allocated to his Conservative opponent it was interpreted as a personal reflection upon him by his constituents who assumed he must have done something wrong for the Liberal Prime Minister to be seen offering his open support to

10286-544: The deformed, grants for open-air schools for victims of tuberculosis , and further state provision for school-meal services. In addition, new provisions for maternity centres, sanitoriums, and ancillary health services under the 1911 national insurance bill were introduced, together with £4 million in loans for local authority housebuilding. The Liberal reforms were funded by David Lloyd George passing his Finance Bill (that he called "the People's Budget ") which taxed

10425-468: 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. 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

10564-498: The disastrous Gallipoli Campaign against Turkey. Reluctant to face doom in an election, Asquith formed a new coalition government on 25 May, with the majority of the new cabinet coming from his own Liberal party and the Unionist (Conservative) party , along with a token Labour representation. The new government lasted a year and a half and was the last time Liberals controlled the government. The analysis of historian A. J. P. Taylor

10703-431: The extent to which the Liberal Party experienced a leftward shift; according to Robert C. Self however, only between 50 and 60 Liberal MPs out of the 400 in the parliamentary party after 1906 were Social Radicals, with a core of 20 to 30. Nevertheless, important junior offices were held in the cabinet by what Duncan Tanner has termed "genuine New Liberals, Centrist reformers, and Fabian collectivists," and much legislation

10842-493: The field. The 1915 coalition fell apart at the end of 1916, when the Conservatives withdrew their support from Asquith and gave it instead to Lloyd George, who became prime minister at the head of a new coalition largely made up of Conservatives. Asquith and his followers moved to the opposition benches in Parliament and the Liberal Party was deeply split once again. Lloyd George remained a Liberal all his life, but he abandoned many standard Liberal principles in his crusade to win

10981-511: The first year. Since the Liberals ran the war without consulting the Conservatives, there were heavy partisan attacks. However, even Liberal commentators were dismayed by the lack of energy at the top. At the time, public opinion was intensely hostile, both in the media and in the street, against any young man in civilian garb and labeled as a slacker. The leading Liberal newspaper, the Manchester Guardian complained: The fact that

11120-573: The future of the party, says historian Trevor Wilson, was its repudiation by ideological Liberals, who decided sadly that it no longer represented their principles. Finally, the presence of the vigorous new Labour Party on the left gave a new home to voters disenchanted with the Liberal performance. The last majority Liberal Government in Britain was elected in 1906. The years preceding the First World War were marked by worker strikes and civil unrest and saw many violent confrontations between civilians and

11259-501: The government in the great task which lies before it. Yours truly, D. Lloyd George A. Bonar Law Some coalition candidates included the wording of the letter in their election addresses . Following confidential negotiations between Lloyd George's coalition Chief Whip , Freddie Guest , and George Younger , chairman of the Conservative Party, over the summer of 1918, it was agreed that 150 Liberals were to be offered

11398-486: The government to develop policies to tackle problems such as infant mortality and slum housing", while administrative reforms were carried out that by 1913 "had resulted in a more effective deployment of medical staff in the infirmaries". Under Part 1 of the National Insurance Act 1911 , compulsory health insurance was provided for workers earning less than £160 per year. The scheme was contributed to by

11537-525: The head of a moderate Liberal rump, but in 1901 he delivered a speech on the government's "methods of barbarism" in South Africa that pulled him further to the left and nearly tore the party in two. The party was saved after Salisbury's retirement in 1902 when his successor, Arthur Balfour , pushed a series of unpopular initiatives such as the Education Act 1902 and Joseph Chamberlain called for

11676-430: The heading of yarn dyed by means of a lead compound prohibited the employment of young persons and prescribed the medical examination "of all workers in the process once every three months". The Trade Boards Act 1909 created boards to set minimum wage criteria that were legally enforceable. The main provision was to set minimum wages in certain trades with the history of low wages, because of surplus of available workers,

11815-424: The heavy drinking by closing as many pubs as possible. Asquith—although a heavy drinker—took the lead in 1908 by proposing to close about one-third of the 100,000 pubs in England and Wales, with the owners compensated through a new tax on surviving pubs. The brewers controlled the pubs and organised a stiff resistance, supported by the Conservatives, who repeatedly defeated the proposal in the House of Lords. However,

11954-419: The historian C. P. Hill, this legislation was both merciful and economical, as it helped to reduce the prison population. The budget of 1914 brought greater progressivity into the taxation system by increasing levels of direct taxation on the wealthy while also investing more money in social services. The educational grant was increased, with money allocated towards the training of specialist teachers, schools for

12093-545: The land) and Public Utility Societies could borrow two-thirds of the needed cash for 40 years In both cases the interest rate at that time was 372 per cent, but this depended on market fluctuations. Up to 1909 municipal housing had been optional. It now became obligatory where a shortage was judged to exist. The town planning powers conferred have had far-reaching results in preventing congestion in un- built-on areas.” The 1910 Census Bill sought to obtain more information "about both family structure and urban conditions in order for

12232-455: 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 election revealed English radicals to be against

12371-408: The majority of Britons. The scheme safeguarded health and made Britain a fitter nation, while doing much to accustom wage earners to medical attention. Doctors also benefited from the scheme in that it provided most of them with a more reliable and higher income, and led to an increase in the number of doctors. The National Health Insurance scheme arguably paved the way for the eventual establishment of

12510-469: The manufacture of red or orange lead and flaked litharge prohibited the employment of women and young persons in these processes and ordered monthly medical examinations of all employees. The Factory Workshop (Cotton Cloth Factories) Act 1911 provided the Secretary of State with the power to make regulations to improve conditions in cotton cloth factories in relation to ventilation and humidity, while

12649-472: The manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England (many Liberals were Nonconformists ), avoidance of war and foreign alliances (which were bad for business) and above all free trade . For a century, free trade remained the one cause which could unite all Liberals. In 1841,

12788-466: The modern welfare state in the United Kingdom. David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill led in designing and passing the reforms, and building nationwide support. Historian G. R. Searle argues that the reforms had multiple causes, including "the need to fend off the challenge of Labour ; pure humanitarianism; the search for electoral popularity; considerations of National Efficiency; and

12927-426: The more comprehensive and universal National Health Service (NHS). Various measures were introduced to improve the quality of rural life. The Agricultural Holdings Act 1906 allowed farmers to farm their holdings without interference from landlords. The Small Holdings and Allotments Acts of 1907 and 1908 sought to limit the degree to which fixtures and improvements remained the property of landlords, and to increase

13066-477: The more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake. The great figures of reformist Whiggery were Charles James Fox (died 1806) and his disciple and successor Earl Grey . After decades in opposition, the Whigs returned to power under Grey in 1830 and carried the First Reform Act in 1832. The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggism, but it also brought about

13205-613: The notion of balanced budgets , 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. His moralism often angered his upper-class opponents (including Queen Victoria ), and his heavy-handed control split

13344-553: The number of small farmers. The 1908 act empowered county councils to purchase agricultural land to lease as smallholdings. Between 1908 and 1914 some 200,000 acres were acquired by county councils and some 14,000 holdings were created. In Ireland, the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1909 "helped force landlords to sell land to tenants". Under the leadership of David Lloyd George Liberals extended minimum wages to farm workers starting in 1909 then succeeding in 1924. After

13483-537: The only specialist services for those in NHI were for TB and VD. The welfare measures introduced by the Liberal government concerning the sick, the elderly, and the children did, however, lead to a reduction in poverty, with the total number of paupers falling from 916,377 in 1910 to 748,019 by 1914. The Liberal reforms received criticism from those who saw this level of government action to mitigate social evils as interfering with market forces and thus being antithetical to

13622-624: The operations of a free market . One political cartoon of the time criticised the reforms as allegedly socialist in nature. The cost of the reforms was also criticised and there were also critics who suggested that the reforms would not work in practice. There were classical liberals who opposed these reforms; this included Harold Cox , elected as a Liberal in 1906, and who was almost alone among Liberal MPs in his opposition. He considered them to be "eroding freedom" and "undermining individual responsibility". The Liberal journalist and editor of The Economist (1907–1916), F. W. Hirst , also opposed

13761-545: The party formed a Pro-Boer faction that denounced the conflict and called for an immediate end to hostilities. Quickly rising to prominence among the Pro-Boers was David Lloyd George, a relatively new MP and a master of rhetoric, who took advantage of having a national stage to speak out on a controversial issue to make his name in the party. Harcourt and Morley also sided with this group, though with slightly different aims. Campbell-Bannerman tried to keep these forces together at

13900-420: The party. The coalition government of Lloyd George was increasingly dominated by the Conservative Party, which finally ousted him as prime minister in 1922. The subsequent Liberal collapse was quick and catastrophic. With 400 MPs elected in the 1906 election; they had only 40 in 1924. Their share of the popular vote plunged from 49% to 18%. The Labour Party absorbed most of the ex-Liberal voters and then became

14039-406: The passage of the Parliament Act 1911 . As the price of Irish support, Asquith was now forced to introduce a third Home Rule bill in 1912. Since the House of Lords no longer had the power to block the bill, but only to delay it for two years, it was due to become law in 1914. The Unionist Ulster Volunteers , led by Sir Edward Carson , launched a campaign of opposition that included the threat of

14178-452: The payment of a £5 per head grant for each pupil between the ages of 12 and 18, and schools had to conform to certain requirements in order to attain this grant. Schools could not restrict admission to pupils belonging to particular religious denominations, governing bodies had to be reconstituted to include a number of representative governors (some of whom represented the LEA), and at least 25% of

14317-431: The pension scheme, they had to have worked to their "full potential". There were no fixed guidelines as to what "full potential" was, so people who had been briefly unemployed could be penalised. To be eligible, they also had to have lived in the country for 20 years or more, so many immigrants could not claim a pension, or British people who had worked abroad and returned to Britain to retire. Also, pensioners could not claim

14456-433: The pension, one had to earn less than £31.50 annually) and intentionally low to encourage workers to make their own provisions for the future. An example of how low this amount was is that if an elderly person was to live on their pension alone they fell below Rowntree's poverty line. It was a struggle for elderly persons to claim their pension as they had to prove that they were not drunkards, for example. Also, to qualify for

14595-636: The police and armed forces. Other issues of the period included women's suffrage and the Irish Home Rule movement. After the carnage of 1914–1918, the democratic reforms of the Representation of the People Act 1918 instantly tripled the number of people entitled to vote in Britain from seven to twenty-one million. The Labour Party benefited most from this huge change in the electorate, forming its first minority government in 1924 . In

14734-552: The presence of women workers, or the lack of skills. At first it applied to four industries: chain-making, ready-made dresses. paper-box making, and the machine-made lace and finishing trade. About 70 per cent of their 200,000 workers were women. It was later expanded to coal mining and then to other industries with a preponderance of unskilled manual labour by the Trade Boards Act 1918 , and by 1924 to farm labourers. The Mines Accidents (Rescue and Aid) Act 1910 provided for

14873-424: The provision of smallholdings in the countryside. In addition, the government encouraged the adoption of Fair Wages contracts by local authorities. In 1908, special regulations were made for electrical safety. The 1906 Notice Of Accidents Act simplified and improved "the system of reporting accidents in mines, quarries, factories and workshops." The Police (Superannuation) Act amended the law as to retirement from

15012-493: The reforms and the welfare state in general. Some workers objected to paying 4d per week to the National Insurance contributions. The chant " Taffy was a Welshman , Taffy was a thief" was chanted at Lloyd George by workers and referred to the suggestion that Welshman Lloyd George was taking their wages away from them. However, Lloyd George responded with his famous phrase "Nine pence for four pence" which referenced

15151-653: The reorganization of the judiciary in the Judicature Act . Regarding Ireland, the major Liberal achievements were land reform, where he ended centuries of landlord oppression , and the disestablishment of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland through the Irish Church Act 1869 . In the 1874 general election , Gladstone was defeated by the Conservatives under Benjamin Disraeli during a sharp economic recession. He formally resigned as Liberal leader and

15290-604: The seizure of unsound meat and for inspecting slaughterhouses, while the Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897 was amended in 1911 , extending the powers of local authorities under the Public Health (Scotland) Act to any body of commissioners or trustees authorised to supply water. The Public Libraries (Art Galleries in County Boroughs) (Ireland) Act 1911 empowered Dublin and other county councils to raise

15429-522: The son of a Duke but a crusading radical, and by Lord Palmerston , a renegade Irish Tory and essentially a conservative , although capable of radical gestures. As early as 1839, Russell had adopted the name of "Liberals", but in reality, his party was a loose coalition of Whigs in the House of Lords and Radicals in the Commons. The leading Radicals were John Bright and Richard Cobden , who represented

15568-468: The support of the prime minister and the leader of the Conservative Party at the next general election. According to the figures recorded in Trevor Wilson's book The Downfall of the Liberal Party , 159 Liberal candidates received the coupon. A few of these were Independent Liberals , supporters of Asquith. Of those Liberals receiving the coupon 136 were elected, whereas only 29 who did not receive

15707-417: The termination of a lease to the urban tenant". The Regulations of 1907 for the manufacture of paints and colours prohibited women and young persons from manipulating lead colour (defined as any dry carbonate of lead, red lead or any colour containing either of these substances) and ordered monthly medical examinations of all employees engaged in a lead process. Regulations introduced that same year concerning

15846-404: The third quarter of the century drew to a close, the essential bastions of 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

15985-465: The three principal successors to Gladstone, party leader William Harcourt , former prime minister Lord Rosebery , and Gladstone's personal secretary, John Morley . This intrigue finally led Harcourt and Morley to resign their positions in 1898 as they continued to be at loggerheads with Rosebery over Irish home rule and issues relating to imperialism. Replacing Harcourt as party leader was Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman . Harcourt's resignation briefly muted

16124-472: The turmoil in the party, but the beginning of the Second Boer War soon nearly broke the party apart, with Rosebery and a circle of supporters including important future Liberal figures H. H. Asquith , Edward Grey and Richard Burdon Haldane forming a clique dubbed the Liberal Imperialists that supported the government in the prosecution of the war. On the other side, more radical members of

16263-470: The two general elections of January and December 1910 , the Liberal Party did not have a majority in the House of Commons and was reliant on the support of the 80 or so Irish Nationalist MPs to remain in office. However, a wish to retain the support of the 40 or so Labour Party MPs may have been a factor inclining the Liberal governments to further reforms. In 1912, school clinics were set up to treat children who had been diagnosed as having an illness during

16402-628: The type of work provided by distress committees and local authorities, together with the eligibility of applicants for relief, were both relaxed. In 1909 the construction of back-to-back houses was finally forbidden. For those in Ireland, the Labourers (Ireland) Act 1906 empowered Rural District Councils to acquire land for labourers' cottages and plots, while the Town Tenants Act extended "the principle of compensation for improvements at

16541-490: The unemployed could post jobs and apply for them respectively. By February 1910 eighty-three labour exchanges were open, and proved to be invaluable in helping people find employment. In 1913, these labour exchanges were putting around 3,000 people into a job each day. Another measure taken was the 1909 Development Fund, which was an attempt to provide work in times of Depression. This fund was devoted to increasing employment opportunities through measures such as afforestation and

16680-625: The use of £5.5 million of public money for public works. In 1913, the status of day technical classes was raised to that of junior technical schools. In 1913, five additional wage boards were set up that covered hollow ware making, shirt making, sugar confectionery and food preserving, tin box making, and linen and cotton embroidery, along with a portion of the laundry industry. These extensions led to an additional 140,000 being covered by minimum wage legislation. The Public Health (Prevention and Treatment of Disease) Act 1913 empowered local authorities to formulate tuberculosis schemes, while

16819-603: The war at all costs. He insisted on strong government controls over business as opposed to the laissez-faire attitudes of traditional Liberals. in 1915–16 he had insisted on conscription of young men into the Army, a position that deeply troubled his old colleagues. That brought him and a few like-minded Liberals into the new coalition on the ground long occupied by Conservatives. There was no more planning for world peace or liberal treatment of Germany, nor discomfit with aggressive and authoritarian measures of state power. More deadly to

16958-421: The wealthy in Britain and radical social welfare programmes to the country's policies. In the Liberal camp, as noted by one study, "the Budget was on the whole enthusiastically received." It was the first budget with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the public. It imposed increased taxes on luxuries, liquor, tobacco, high incomes, and land – taxation that fell heavily on the rich . The new money

17097-517: The widespread unpopularity of the Lords to make reducing the power of the Lords an important issue of the January 1910 general election . The Liberals returned in a hung parliament after the election: The Liberals formed a minority government with the support of the Labour and Irish nationalist MPs. The Lords subsequently accepted the Budget when the land tax proposal was dropped. However, as

17236-401: The worker who contributed fourpence, the employer who contributed threepence and the government who contributed twopence. The scheme provided sickness benefit entitlement of nine shillings, free medical treatment and maternity benefit of 30 shillings. An estimated 13 million workers came to be compulsorily covered under this scheme. Part 2 of the Act gave workers the right to sick pay of 9s

17375-416: The wretchedness and human degradation which always follows in its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests. The budget met opposition in the House of Lords and, contrary to British constitutional convention, the Conservatives used their large majority in the Lords to vote down the Budget. In response, the Liberals turned to (what they believed to be)

17514-579: Was catastrophic for these Asquithian Independent Liberals , who retained only 13% of their seats in the Coupon election. Only 28 were returned, and even Asquith lost the seat he had held in East Fife since the 1886 general election . Liberal Party (UK) The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Conservative Party , in

17653-453: Was fully implemented. In 1902 Conservatives passed the Education Act that provided funds for denominational religious instruction in Church of England and Roman Catholic schools. The Nonconformists, who formed a major Liberal constituency, were outraged at the help to their theological enemies, but failed to repeal it. A favourite goal of Protestant nonconformists was to sharply reduce

17792-444: Was later doubled in the 1914 budget). The Education (Choice of Employment) Bill passed in 1910, enabling local authorities to provide vocational guidance for school-leavers, with the Board of Education providing grants to authorities from 1911 onwards to carry out this purpose. By mid-1912, however, only forty-one local authorities had responded. The Old Age Pensions Act 1908 introduced pensions for those over 70. They were paid 5s

17931-603: 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. Historian Walter L. Arnstein concludes: 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

18070-403: Was moving rapidly toward the newly emerging Labour Party. One uniting element was widespread agreement on the use of politics and Parliament as a device to upgrade and improve society and to reform politics. All Liberals were outraged when Conservatives used their majority in the House of Lords to block reform legislation. In the House of Lords, the Liberals had lost most of their members, who in

18209-412: Was not compulsory for them to provide the free meals and the cost to the council was far greater than was subsidised for. The provision of free school meals was made compulsory in 1914, in which year fourteen million meals per school day were served (compared with nine million per school day in 1910 ), most of which were free. In 1912, half of all councils in Britain were offering the scheme. Recruitment for

18348-443: Was not how much the state left people alone, but whether it gave them the capacity to fill themselves as individuals. Contrasting Old Liberalism with New Liberalism, David Lloyd George noted in a 1908 speech the following: [Old Liberals] used the natural discontent of the people with the poverty and precariousness of the means of subsistence as a motive power to win for them a better, more influential, and more honourable status in

18487-405: Was pushed through by the Liberals in government. This included the regulation of working hours, National Insurance and welfare. A political battle erupted over the People's Budget , which was rejected by the House of Lords and for which the government obtained an electoral mandate at the January 1910 election . The election resulted in a hung parliament , with the government left dependent on

18626-510: Was so fierce that by 1913 this country was brought to the verge of civil war". While the Liberal reforms were one of Britain's most ambitious welfare reform programmes, there were several limitations to the reforms they passed. Free school meals were not compulsory. Pensions were refused to those who had not been in work most of their life. The labour exchange programme often managed to find people only part-time casual work. The poor had to pay National Insurance Contributions out of their wages and

18765-525: Was succeeded by the Marquess of Hartington , but he soon changed his mind and returned to active politics. He strongly disagreed with Disraeli's pro- 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 election . Hartington ceded his place and Gladstone resumed office. Among

18904-537: 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 Oxford and Cambridge ; the introduction of the secret ballot in elections; the legalization of trade unions ; and

19043-429: Was the Liberals, not the Conservatives who needed the moral outrage of Belgium to justify going to war, while the Conservatives called for intervention from the start of the crisis on the grounds of realpolitik and the balance of power. However, Lloyd George and Churchill were zealous supporters of the war, and gradually forced the old peace-orientated Liberals out. Asquith was blamed for the poor British performance in

19182-405: Was to be made available for new welfare programmes as well as new battleships. In 1911 Lloyd George succeeded in putting through Parliament his National Insurance Act , making provision for sickness and invalidism, and this was followed by his Unemployment Insurance Act . Historian Peter Weiler argues: Although still partially informed by older Liberal concerns for character, self-reliance, and

19321-440: 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. 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

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