154. A great man falls, a lesser one fades

154. A great man falls, a lesser one fades

With both eyesight and hearing fading, Gladstone couldn’t last long after his defeat on Home Rule. Though he lasted as long as he could. Even after almost the entire cabinet prevented him from blocking an increase in naval expenditure, demanded by the admirals, and which he feared would merely add fuel to the fire of an arms race, he still clung on for a while longer. Finally though, in February 1898 he went.

But who would replace him? Would it be Spencer, his favoured candidate despite having opposed Gladstone over the naval expenditure? Well, Victoria didn’t even do him the courtesy of consulting him about his successor, so what he favoured didn’t matter.

Might it be Harcourt, the Chancellor and ‘little Englander’ whose cautious view of imperialism was in line with thinking across the mainstream of the Liberal Party?

Or would it be the Liberal Imperialist Rosebery, who’d keep the party firmly anchored to its right wing?

Well, Victoria was quite an imperialist herself. Rosebery was picked. He head a short-lived, inglorious government, torn by internal dissension – Harcourt couldn’t forgive him for depriving him of a position to which he thought he was entitled – which fifteen months later simply imploded and meekly resigned, letting Salisbury form his third administration.

That was the opening of a Tory decade. It was that long before the Liberals got another chance to form a government.


Illustration: Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, by Henry T. Greenhead, published 23 October 1894, when Gladstone’s successor was a fading Prime Minister. National Portrait Gallery D39875

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.


Jaksot(275)

74. The Storm Breaks

74. The Storm Breaks

Last time, we looked at the developing impact of the French Revolution, but mostly from the French point of view. We saw how France slipped towards increasing violence in its politics and eventually i...

23 Tammi 202214min

73. Slide to war

73. Slide to war

We’re into the slide into the most destructive of the series of wars of that rocked the eighteenth century. It would be a war that had a devastating effect on most of Europe. It was also the last war ...

16 Tammi 202214min

72. France explodes

72. France explodes

The French Revolution! A turning point in the history of the world. Or so it’s frequently claimed. But in the myth-busting spirit of this podcast, this episode questions that belief, without denying t...

9 Tammi 202214min

71. The calm and madness before the storm

71. The calm and madness before the storm

The mid-1780s were a good time for Pitt. He’d mastered the nation’s finances and cleverly manoeuvred government spending not just into balance, but into surplus, despite spending more on the navy than...

1 Tammi 202214min

70. Joys and disappointments of limited government

70. Joys and disappointments of limited government

Like so many good things, this one could have some fairly lousy consequences. Just like the United States, if not quite to the same extent, Britain after the War of American Independence was pushing f...

24 Joulu 202114min

69. On towards the second empire

69. On towards the second empire

Losing an Empire? Not a problem if you’re the world power Britain was in the late eighteenth century. You just have to build a new one. In part that would come from new journeys of so-called discovery...

17 Joulu 202114min

68. New Economics

68. New Economics

As we emerge from the serious instability in Britain caused by the defection of the American colonies and the war that followed, and as we stand on the brink of Britain’s pursuit of a second empire to...

10 Joulu 202114min

67. A new era

67. A new era

After a period of serious instability, the fifth government in a period of a mere two years secured itself a position in which it would last for the best part of two decades. The process was a particu...

3 Joulu 202114min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
mystista
rss-ikiuni
konginkangas
totuus-vai-salaliitto
tsunami
rouva-diktaattori
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
rss-peter-peter
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
historiaa-suomeksi
apinan-vuosi
tiedetta-ja-sirkushuveja-vanhojen-aikojen-podcast
maailmanpuu