The Second Gladstone Government, 1880-1885: Retirement, Cabinet, and Party

Abstract We have seen how in Midlothian did Gladstone ‘hammer with all my little might at the fabric of the present Tory power’. The result of the general election of March and April 1880 was a Liberal majority over the Conservatives of 137, with the Irish Home Rulers winning 65 seats, an even more spectacular victory than the Liberal majority of between 56 and 76 which Gladstone had calculated in November 1878 as likely from the evidence of by-elections† Elected comfortably, as predicted in Midlothian, and, without visiting the constituency, overwhelmingly in Leeds‡ Gladstone went secretly from Edinburgh to Hawarden, rejecting plans for a triumphal entry into London-mindful perhaps of his trenchant condemnation of the Roman triumph of Beaconsfield and Salisbury in 1878§-and soon began an article on the Tory debacle.