Page "History of the United Kingdom" Paragraph 72

William Ewart Gladstone ( 1809 – 1898 ) was the Liberal counterpart to Disraeli, serving as prime minister four times ( 1868 – 74, 1880 – 85, 1886, and 1892 – 94 ).

His financial policies, based on the notion of balanced budgets, low taxes and laissez-faire, were suited to a developing capitalist society but could not respond effectively as economic and social conditions changed.

Called the " Grand Old Man " later in life, he was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to British workers and lower middle class.

The deeply religious Gladstone brought a new moral tone to politics with his evangelical sensibility and opposition to aristocracy.

His moralism often angered his upper-class opponents ( including Queen Victoria, who strongly favoured Disraeli ), and his heavy-handed control split the Liberal party.

His foreign policy goal was to create a European order based on cooperation rather than conflict and mutual trust instead of rivalry and suspicion ; the rule of law 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 the Germans with a Bismarckian system of manipulated alliances and antagonisms.