Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

Gladstone, A Biography by Philip MagnusReview by: Asa BriggsIrish Historical Studies, Vol. 9, No. 36 (Sep., 1955), pp. 482-483Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30005296 .

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482 Reviews

GLADSTONE, A BIOGRAPHY. By Philip Magnus. Pp. xiv, 482. London: John Murray. '954. 28s.

LORD MORLEY'S great Life of Gladstone was published in I903: it has withstood the test of time as one of the most impressive of classical biographies. No subsequent study of Gladstone, however much new material it professed to incorporate, either supplanted Morley or qualified Morley's interpretations. Sir Philip Magnus, who has written a very different type of biography, has succeeded where so many others have failed. Instead of dealing in great detail with the externals of Gladstone's political career, he has focussed most of his attention on Gladstone's personality. He has used letters and papers which have not been used before, and they all illuminate his main theme. The result is one of the best biographies which have appeared in the last two decades.

There were two sides to Gladstone's nature, as Mrs Gladstone told Morley-impetuous, uncontrollable energy and iron self-mastery, achieved through natural strength of character and intense spiritual training. The two sides were harmonised by a sense of purpose, which was never purely political, although as he moved from conservatism to liberalism, he increasingly came to discern the greatest moral challenge within the world of politics. Sir Philip directs attention to four significant features of the process of harmonisation. First, it was through unremitting work that Gladstone found relief from chronic mental tension. Second, the nature both of the work and of the tension made it necessary for Gladstone to concentrate on one particular problem at a time-Italy, free trade, or Ireland. Third, as Gladstone separated himself from men of like situation, habits of mind, political training and connections-largely as a result of his over-riding sense of mission-he began to direct his gaze towards the masses, whom he claimed to consider as the supreme tribunal before whom the greatest moral causes could be tried. 'He came to believe that he could best divine God's purpose by consulting the uncorrupted minds and hearts of men in masses everywhere.' Fourth, he always felt a close personal relationship with God. 'The Almighty seems to sustain and spare me for some purpose of His own, deeply unworthy as I know myself to be. Glory be to His name !', he commented in his diary at the end of i868. In an article he wrote in the Nineteenth Century after his final retirement in 1894, he reiterated the same point in generalised form. The inner citadel of Christianity was the private conscience, which deserved to be called the ' vice-regent of God on earth'. Through the operation of the private conscience, God would continue the onward march of mankind.

None of these four main points are solely concerned with the

482 Reviews of Sir Hans Sloane, I leave them mine '. Dr Brooks has now added a fresh link between Dublin and Hans Sloane by paying this tribute to the memory of a man who, if not a great scholar, was a friend of scholars and a great collector, and who may justly be claimed as the principal founder of the British Museum.

AUBREY GWYNN

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Reviews 48 3 evolution of Victorian liberalism or with the leading events of Gladstone's career, but unless they are understood Gladstone and liberalism do not make sense. By directing attention to these points Sir Philip is able not only to dispose of facile controversies concerning Gladstone's 'hypocrisy'; he is able at the same time to illuminate all Gladstone's private and public relationships-with his family, with his opponents, with his colleagues and with Queen Victoria. It was politically significant that 'no statesman in modern times has made so little concession to human weakness '. Indeed, no statesman has

morre alienated those who believed that politics is a matter

of charm and authority or a field of decision between policies of varying degrees of expediency.

In the last twenty years of his life Gladstone saw all his moral world crumble. Politicians arose, who, with little subtlety of mind, dealt in votes almost as a matter of business. Material gains were canvassed on the platform rather than moral challenges. The masses, having secured their political freedom, were turning to strange doctrines in their first and somewhat incoherent attempts to formulate the modern ideals of freedom from want. A new and very non-Gladstonian liberalism was eventually to discover an original and uncongenial synthesis, but Sir Philip shows clearly that collectivism, 'construction' and socialism were all anathema to Gladstone until the end of his life. ' His measures had aimed at the fulfilment of great moral ideas rather than at the distri- bution of small material gains. He had invariably appealed to broad abstract principles, with the object of making men worthier citizens by enhancing their capacities.' Fortunately the full measure of the complexity of the problems of the twentieth century was concealed from him.

Sir Philip's study needs to be supplemented at certain points. More might be said, for instance, of Gladstone's part in the Peel ministry and of the influence which Peel exerted over him, for the Peel ministry shaped the nineteenth century. Similarly the relationship between Gladstone and Chamberlain is not fully explored, significant though it was in the later history of the liberal party. Gladstone the politician is sacrificed at several points to Gladstone the man. In general, however, Sir Philip's study is illuminating at every point which it touches, and deserves to be used alongside Morley by all nineteenth-century historians.

ASA BRIGOGS

Reviews 483

AMERICANS INTERPRET THEIR CIVIL WAR. By Thomas J. Pressly. Pp. vi, 347. Princeton: University Press. 1954. 40s.

MR PRESSLY in Americans interpret their civil war has expounded the views of the causes of the American civil war that have been held or are now held by American historians. In addition he has tried to relate these interpretations to the backgrounds of the historians who have espoused them and to explain their popular and professional appeal by reference to the needs and interests of the times in which they were propounded.

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