Premiership of William Gladstone - Second Government (1880 - 1885)

1885)

In the 1880 general election Gladstone's Liberals won 352 seats, a gain of 110, against 237 for the Conservatives and 63 for the Irish Home Rule League. It was a comfortable margin, but defections always seemed to whittle down the lead and sometimes produced defeat. Despite his age Gladstone was an indefatigable leader and organizer, and the most brilliant speaker; however he wasted energy by serving as his own Chancellor of the Exchequer for a while. His Liberal party was increasingly factionalized between the smaller "radical" contingent and the larger "Whig" grouping. Gladstone selected a relatively weak cabinet that favoured the Whigs. Even so, some Whigs were alienated because of his imperial policy, while the radical leader, Joseph Chamberlain broke away in because they opposed his home rule plan for Ireland.

Gladstone lost momentum by mishandling the Bradlaugh affair, which gave the opposition a religious cudgel they used for years. As a consequence the second term was not nearly as successful as the first.

In 1881 Gladstone was convinced that in order to pass a Land Bill for Ireland, law and order should be restored. In February 1881 the government therefore passed the Peace Preservation (Ireland) Act 1881 which gave the Viceroy of Ireland powers to suspend habeas corpus, and gave him in effect the power to lock up anyone he liked for as long as he liked. This was the Act used to arrest Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell. In August that year Parliament passed the Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 which gave Irish tenants "the three Fs"; fair rent, fixity (security) of tenure; and the right to freely sell their holdings. Gladstone's government also passed the Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act 1882, which cancelled rent arrears for Irish tenants occupying land worth less than £30 per annum who were unable to pay.

The Married Women's Property Act 1882 gave married women the same rights to buy, sell, and own property as unmarried women did and had the effect of women being legally recognized as individuals in their own right for the first time in history.

Gladstone's second government also saw a number of electoral reforms. The Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883 aimed at eliminating corruption in elections and the Representation of the People Act 1884, which gave the counties the same franchise as the boroughs—adult male householders and £10 lodgers—and added about six million to the total number who could vote in parliamentary elections. Parliamentary reform continued with the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

Public expenditure was reduced to slightly under £81,000,000 in 1881 from the £83,000,000 inherited from the previous administration of 1879. However it rose to £89,000,000 in 1885. For nearly three years into his second government Gladstone resumed the office of Chancellor. He abolished the tax on malt for the farmers, funding this by adding one pence on income tax and introducing a duty on beer, in 1880. In 1881 he reduced the income tax to five pence in the pound, funding this by increasing the duty on spirits, probates and legacies. In his last Budget in 1882 Gladstone added to the income tax.

Gladstone's government was unexpectedly defeated on the Budget vote in 8 June 1885 and therefore Gladstone resigned the premiership the next day, with Lord Salisbury forming a minority Conservative administration.