Quotes from Dick Leonard

The Liberals were in a minority, but were strongly backed by the Irish Nationalists, even though they were themselves divided between pro- and anti-Parnellite factions. Gladstone's last government included three subsequent Liberal prime ministers – Rosebery, Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H.H. Asquith, but his closest associate was John Morley, the Irish Chief Secretary, who was later to write his biography in three extensive volumes.

He transformed the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, was the first politician to campaign actively throughout the whole country, and was the virtual creator of the modern Liberal Party. He then badly split it, by driving out most of the former Whigs, while compensating by building up a great bond of trust among working-class voters.

Perhaps, above all, Gladstone should be seen as an archetypal figure of the Victorian age, though he was never appreciated by its figurehead, whose interests he had tried so devotedly and so unrewardingly to serve.

In fairness to Disraeli, it should be noted that he was much more of an opposition politician than his rival.

Disraeli had no wish to go as far as this, and instead proposed a conference of the great powers of Europe (Austria–Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia) to persuade the Turks to reform their administration.