The Contributions of William Gladstone

Every country has a leader who helps change the country and the world. William was that leader in Great Britain. Born in 1809 to a self-made Scottish merchant, which taught him to help the average person; he entered the politics at the age of 22 in 1833 where he was a “tireless administrator” with “tremendous eye for detail” (Wilson 112). At first a very strong Tory, who felt that any electoral reform would lead to revolution, he became one of the founding members of the Liberal Party in 1859. He would later say that “I was brought up to distrust and to dislike liberty, and I learned to believe in it. That is the key to all my change” (Wilson 102). As Prime Minister and leader of the Opposition for many years he “was the standard bearer [and champion of many reforms], and his gov from 1868 to 1874 was one of the foremost reforming administrations of the century” (Tompson 287). His ability “to manage big crowds and to use the power of the crowd as an extra-parliamentary weapon” (Wilson) allowed him to push tough legislation through Parliament and “his sheer bigness, and grandeur, and moral weightiness was never to be repeated on the political scene” (Wilson 118, 103). William Gladstone was a British statesman whose reforms had a greater influence than Queen Victoria.

With the era named after Queen Victoria, many people believe that Queen Victoria was the most important person of this age. The Queen wasn’t popular until later in life. People hated her for her refusal to come out of mourning after the death of her husband and her unenlightened political views. The royal pair had an active role together until 1861 where she went into prolonged sadness and never made public appearances. She emerged 1870s to a much-diminished role in g...

... middle of paper ...

...y 2012. .

Findling, John E., ed. Events That Changed Great Britain Since 1689. Ed. Frank W. Thackeray. Westport: Greenwood, 2002. 75-80. Print.

Kagan, Donald, Steven E. Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. "Great Britain Toward Democracy." The Western Heritage: Since 1300. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 684-87. Print.

Olechnowicz, Andrzej. The Monarchy and the British Nation, 1780 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.

Tompson, Richard S. Great Britain: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. New York: Facts On File, 2003. Print.

"William Ewart Gladstone." Spartacus Educational. Web. 14 May 2012. .

Wilson, A. N. "William Ewart Gladstone." Eminent Victorians. London: W.W. Norton &, 1989. 99-132. Print.