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Line 65: − − * Gladstone was never a fervent supporter of democracy, stating: ‘I am a firm believer in the aristocratic principle – the rule of the best.’ However, in 1864 he contended that ‘every man who is not presumably incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or of political danger is morally entitled to come within the pale of the constitution’, implying at least a cautious support of household suffrage. For his time in British politics, this could even be interpreted as a relatively positive view on democratic principles. −
→Principles: add democracy
Soon after, with his eyesight and hearing failing him, Gladstone resigned at the age of 84. He would make one more speech in 1896 to denounce the [[Armenian atrocities]], but died in 1898 at the age of 88. He was given a state funeral and buried in [[Westminster Abbey]].
Soon after, with his eyesight and hearing failing him, Gladstone resigned at the age of 84. He would make one more speech in 1896 to denounce the [[Armenian atrocities]], but died in 1898 at the age of 88. He was given a state funeral and buried in [[Westminster Abbey]].
===Democracy===
In May 1864, Gladstone transformed overnight his standing in the country by declaring in the House of Commons that every man is entitled to a vote who is not disqualified by considerations of personal unfitness.<ref> Asa Briggs, ''The Making of Modern England, 1784-1867: The Age of Improvement'' (1959) p 492 </ref> That plea for something like universal suffrage infuriated his chief, the Liberal Prime Minister [[Lord Palmerston]], and cost Gladstone, to his abiding grief, the parliamentary representation of Oxford University. The great world denounced him as an unscrupulous demagogue, but he won wide popular support.
Gladstone was no demagogue; he had convinced himself that the masses who hung upon his words were less exposed than the upper and middle classes to motives of material self-interest; and he started to appeal to the masses accordingly as the highest tribunal. He held that they were entitled to be enfranchised, not because he regarded the franchise as an abstract [[natural right]], but because the respectable way of life of the artisan class proved that it had earned the right to vote and govern as a result of having subjected itself to a rigorous preliminary process of moral self-enfranchisement, through moral self-improvement. He won the confidence of the artisans by appealing not to their self-interest but to their self-respect, and he thereby completed in the political field the work of spiritual emancipation that [[John Wesley]], the founder of [[Methodism]], had begun a century before. Despite his subsequent disillusionment with the masses, Gladstone always ridiculed the blindness and selfishness of the the upper ten thousand and the [[House of Lords]].
The British working class, however, misunderstood Gladstone. They, too, became disillusioned when he failed to become a champion of their material aspirations, to which he never gave a thought. He was committed to laissez-faire. He preferred to rely on private charity; he gave away during his lifetime the greater part of his private fortune and begged others to do the same.
Gladstone's belief that God's purpose could best be divined by consulting the uncorrupted minds and hearts of the masses was the secret of his ascendancy as well as the intense distrust which he inspired. He derived great strength from the working class and it derived great strength from him, so that each for a time became necessary to the other; the strong Christian temper of British popular democracy was the result.
When he became prime minister in 1868 he held that his principal task was to discover a series of high moral missions. He had great moral authority when he tried to rescue the [[Balkans]] from Ottoman misrule, and Ireland from British misrule. He set those missions before the nation in the confident belief that every individual would respond to the voice of God appealing to his conscience — but he did not invariably distinguish quite clearly enough between the voice of the prime minister and that of God.
==Principles==
==Principles==
* Believed that success was the result of hard work and that failure showed a lack of moral spirit. He therefore believed that the poor should help themselves to alleviate their own condition.
* Believed that success was the result of hard work and that failure showed a lack of moral spirit. He therefore believed that the poor should help themselves to alleviate their own condition.
* A strong supporter of the British monarchy, despite [[Queen Victoria|Queen Victoria’s]] dislike of him. She never liked his serious demeanour, and complained: "He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting."
* A strong supporter of the British monarchy, despite [[Queen Victoria|Queen Victoria’s]] dislike of him. She never liked his serious demeanour, and complained: "He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting."
* Described himself as a ‘man in politics’ rather than a politician. He only wanted to do useful work for the good of the country and could never understand his popularity.
* Described himself as a ‘man in politics’ rather than a politician. He only wanted to do useful work for the good of the country and could never understand his popularity.
==Gladstone on the American Constitution==
==Gladstone on the American Constitution==