131. Sea change

A sea change took place at the 1874 British general election.

The previous year, Gladstone and his government, exhausted by its searing pace of reform, lost a parliamentary vote on what he saw (and many of his colleagues didn’t) as the essential third leg of his tripod of measures to pacify Ireland, the foundation of a Catholic university in Ireland. They resigned but Disraeli, in a brilliant political move, refused to take his place. So Gladstone had buckle on the armour again and his failing government struggled on for a few months more.

Over those months, a scandal hit them and, in the course of reshuffling his ministers, he decided to take on the Chancellorship of the Exchequer himself, a further burden on a man already worn out by his responsibilities.

So, when the election was finally called, the Conservatives went in revitalised while the Liberals fought it already half defeated. The result? For the first time in 33 years, the Conservatives won a parliamentary majority and Disraeli could finally form a government with a chance of lasting a while.

What’s more, a new party representing Irish interests took a big block of seats too. Far from pacifying Ireland, all Gladstone had done was preside over the appearance of a new organisation speaking out against British rule. And even against his own party.

Another episode in the unravelling rule of Britain in Ireland…

Illustration: Gladstone, cartoon by Carlo Pellegrini published in Vanity Fair, 6 February 1869
National Portrait Gallery 1978
Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.