The foreign policy of William Ewart Gladstone focuses primarily on British foreign policy during the four premierships of William Ewart Gladstone. It also considers his positions as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and while leader of the Liberal opposition. He gave strong support to and usually followed the advice of his foreign ministers, Lord Clarendon, who served between 1868 and 1870, Lord Granville, who served between 1870 and 1874, and 1880 and 1885, and Lord Rosebery, who served in 1886 and between 1892 and 1894. Their policies generally sought peace as the highest foreign policy goal, and did not seek expansion of the British Empire in the way that Disraeli's did. His term saw the end of the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1880, the First Boer War of 1880–1881 and outbreak of the war (1881–1899) against the Mahdi in Sudan.Paul Knaplund, Gladstone's foreign policy (1935).
Paul Hayes says it "provides one of the most intriguing and perplexing tales of muddle and incompetence in foreign affairs, unsurpassed in modern political history until the days of Grey and, later, Neville Chamberlain."Paul Hayes, Modern British Foreign Policy: The Twentieth Century: 1880–1939 (1978) p 1
Opium trade
British traders had developed a highly profitable business of purchasing opium in British India, and selling it on the China market. When the Chinese government tried to shut it down, Whig Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston sent in the Royal Navy. It used brute force to reopen the market in 1840. Gladstone, whose own sister at this time was addicted to opium, was outraged. He supported Conservative leader Robert Peel’s motion to denounce the trade and the government support. Gladstone, then 30 years old, argued that the Chinese government had the right to stop British traders, on account of their: obstinacy in persisting with this infamous and atrocious traffic....Justice in my opinion, is with them; and whilst they, the Pagans, the semi-civilized barbarians have it on their side, we, the enlightened and civilized Christians, are pursuing objects at variance both with justice and with religion....A war more unjust in its origin, or calculated in its progress to cover the country with a permanent disgrace, I do not know and I've not read of....[our] flag is become a pirate flag to protect an infamous traffic.W Travis Hanes III and FrankSanello, The opium wars: the addiction of one empire and the corruption of another (2002) pp 78–79. Peel's vote of censure against the government's handling of the Opium War was defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 262 in favour and 271 against.Hanes and Sanello, p. 79
Gladstone would later repeat his opinions when the Second Opium War with China broke out in 1857. He said that there was no glory in fighting China, that it was more like making war on women and children, and that the basis of British trade there was injustice. Britain should be guided by principles of mercy, peace and justice toward China. Gladstone was on the winning side of this Parliamentary vote, alongside Disraeli. However, Palmerston won the ensuing general election and continued in office as Prime Minister.Knaplund, p. 7; Shannon, Gladstone 1:333.
Chancellor of the Exchequer (1852–1855, 1859–1866) Britain entered the Crimean War in February 1854, and Gladstone introduced his budget on 6 March. Gladstone had to increase expenditure on the military and a vote of credit of £1,250,000 was taken to send a force of 25,000 men to the front. The deficit for the year would be £2,840,000 (estimated revenue £56,680,000; estimated expenditure £59,420,000). Gladstone refused to borrow the money needed to rectify this deficit and instead increased income tax by half, from sevenpence to tenpence-halfpenny in the pound (from 2.92% to 4.38%). By May another £6,870,000 was needed for the war and Gladstone raised the income tax from tenpence halfpenny to fourteen pence in the pound to raise £3,250,000. Spirits, malt, and sugar were taxed to raise the rest of the money needed.Sydney Buxton, Finance and Politics: An Historical Study, 1783–1885. Volume I (1888), pp. 150–51. Gladstone's goal was to turn wealthy Britons against expensive wars. He proclaimed: The expenses of a war are the moral check which it has pleased the Almighty to impose upon the ambition and lust of conquest that are inherent in so many nations ... The necessity of meeting from year to year the expenditure which it entails is a salutary and wholesome check, making them feel what they are about, and making them measure the cost of the benefit upon which they may calculateOlive Anderson, "Loans versus taxes: British financial policy in the Crimean War." Economic History Review (1963): 314–327 . However he did float £6 million in bonds, and his successor borrowed much more. pp. 315–17. online.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer he adopted policies that impacted foreign policy. He was a leading advocate of free trade and low tariffs. At the beginning of 1859, there were 419 duties in existence. The 1860 budget reduced the number of duties to 48, with 15 duties constituting the majority of the revenue. To finance these reductions in indirect taxation, the income tax, instead of being abolished, was raised to 10d. for incomes above £150 and at 7d. for incomes above £100.Sir Wemyss Reid, ed., The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (1899), p. 421. Gladstone's budget of 1860 was introduced on 10 February along with the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty between Britain and France that would reduce tariffs between the two countries.Asaana A. Iliasu, "The Cobden-Chevalier commercial treaty of 1860." Historical Journal 14.1 (1971): 67–98 online. This budget "marked the final adoption of the Free Trade principle, that taxation should be levied for Revenue purposes alone, and that every protective, differential, or discriminating duty ... should be dislodged".Buxton, p. 195.
Relations with Palmerston Although Gladstone served under Lord Palmerston as Chancellor (briefly in 1855, then 1859–65), the two very strong personalities clashed profoundly.David Steele, "Gladstone and Palmerston, 1855–65." in Gladstone, Politics and Religion (Palgrave Macmillan, 1985) pp. 117–147. Especially in foreign policy, each man considered the other to be a dangerous demagogue. To Gladstone, Palmerston was a chauvinist who deliberately excited public opinion against foreign adversaries. Palmerston felt Gladstone's religiosity and sincere declarations of principle were a matter of cant or excessive religious enthusiasm. Palmerston was annoyed that Gladstone was so successful in using enthusiasm, passion, sympathy and simplicity and building public support, especially when he was out of office.Herbert C. F. Bell, Lord Palmerston (1936) 2:234. They both supported Italy and worked together on that issue but they were driven apart on issues of Army, Navy, and finance. Gladstone was the little Englander who believed in international conciliation and peace, and build his base upon the middle-class businessmen who demanded low taxes and economy in government expenditures. Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1852–1855 and 1859–1866) repeatedly tried to cut back on naval and military budgets. In dramatic contrast Palmerston was an adventurer in foreign policy who demanded that England be respected and feared in every foreign capital, a policy that demanded an expensive Royal Navy ready for action.Bell, 2:235. The two men disagreed fundamentally about morality applied to foreign affairs, and defence spending, as well as religious issues and democratic reform.Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (1970) p. 565.
Each of them used publications of diplomatic correspondence in British Blue Books as one avenue to disseminate their views in foreign policy and gain parliamentary and public support. Those were published under Gladstone's premierships, were more restrained than those under Palmerston.
Prime minister 1868–1874
When Gladstone began his first ministry 1 December 1868, his attention focused on domestic issues and the Irish question. With the fall of the Conservative government in 1868, Gladstone named George Villiers, Lord Clarendon, (1800–70) as his Foreign Secretary. Clarendon, a Whig, had years of relevant experience both as a diplomat in Spain in the 1830s and as Foreign Secretary (1852–58, 1865–66). He stated that his foreign policy would not change in essence, but he was cautious in European relations. John Bloomfield, Ambassador to Austria, 1860–71, kept London apprised regarding Austria, France, and Prussia and warned about the risk of war between France and Prussia. He pointed to French threats against Belgium, which Britain was obligated by treaty to defend. Britain intervened diplomatically to ease the tense situation between Prussia and Austria.Paul Knaplund, Gladstone's foreign policy (1935) ch 1-3.Philip Magnus, Gladstone: a biography (1954) pp 194–195.
The major outstanding international issue was relations with the United States, and the emerging threat by Irish Catholic Fenian Brotherhood based in the United States to attack Canada in a failed effort to make Ireland independent. Their raids were fiascos and did not cause international trouble.Brian Jenkins, Fenians and Anglo-American Relations during Reconstruction (Cornell UP, 1969). Much more serious was Washington's demand for British payment of the losses the Americans suffered during the recent American Civil War at the hands of Confederate commerce raiders and blockade runners built in Britain. The issue was partly settled by international arbitration, whereby London paid $15.5 million only for British-built Confederate raiders.Ward and Gooch, eds., The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1783–1919 3:54–71.Adrian Cook, The Alabama Claims (1975).
In terms of the British Empire, there were small movements in Asia and Africa that for the moment demanded minimal attention from Gladstone. He opposed expansion in the South Pacific and the Malay Peninsula, although there was attention to the Fiji Islands and an increase in British influence in Malaya.W. D. McIntyre, "Disraeli's colonial policy: The creation of the Western Pacific High Commission, 1874–1877." Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand 9#35 (1960): 279–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/10314616008595177 The scramble for Africa to characterize the 1880s and not yet begun. Britain had small coastal holdings in both the East and West, and a successful war against the Ashanti led to the acquisition of lands in the Gold Coast. Diamonds were discovered in South Africa, dramatically increasing the economic importance of the region. A level of tension between the Boers and the British in South Africa was slowly increasing.Knaplund, p 40
Germany European affairs soon came to the fore. After complex diplomatic manoeuvres, Prussia under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had defeated Denmark in 1864, and then Austria in 1866. War between Prussia and France was looming, and British public opinion considered France the aggressor and generally supported Prussia. Queen Victoria had very strong German ties, and was sharply hostile to France. Gladstone told the Queen that it was important that Britain not act alone in interventions in European affairs, but only in concert with other powers. He was not knowledgeable about European affairs, and showed no interest in intervening. As the tensions escalated between Berlin and Paris, Gladstone took a strong position of warning both sides, especially France, against an invasion of Belgium. Neither side had any such plans, and both promised to honour Belgian neutrality.Knaplund. 28–39.Ward and Gooch, eds., The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1783–1919 3:21–43.