The Midlothian campaign of 1878–80 was a series of foreign policy speeches given by William Gladstone, former leader of Britain's Liberal Party. Organised by the Earl of Rosebery as a media event, it is often cited as the first modern political campaign.[1][2] It also set the stage for Gladstone's comeback as a politician. It takes its name from the Midlothian constituency in Scotland where Gladstone (who was of Scottish ancestry) successfully stood in the 1880 election.
Gladstone charged the Conservative government of his longstanding political enemy Benjamin Disraeli with financial incompetence, neglect of domestic legislation, and mismanagement of foreign affairs. He was able to enhance his reputation as a popular and down-to-earth politican ("The People's William") and cemented his pre-eminence as the most important politician within the Liberal Party.
The Midlothian campaign made it impossible to ignore Gladstone's leadership claim both within the Liberal Party and for Queen Victoria. Furthermore it created a momentum that carried the Liberals to power in the 1880 election.
Gladstone's personal situation in the Mid-1870s
After six years of gonverment, the Liberal government led by Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone came to an end when the Liberals suffered a heavy defeat in the general election of 1874. After a short transition period, Gladstone relinquished the leadership of the Liberal Party and subsequently became a mere backbencher in the British House of Commons. Subsequently he had to suffer a painful defeat when the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 was introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Archbishop of CanterburyArchibald Campbell Tait, to limit what he perceived as the growing ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism and the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. The bill was supported by Queen Victoria and Gladstone's longstanding political nemesis, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who saw the bill purely in political terms.[3] Gladstone, a high church Anglican whose sympathies were for separation of church and state, felt disgusted that the liturgy was made, as he saw it, "a parliamentary football"[4] and introduced six resolutions when the bill came to the House of Commons. But on this he found himself out of step with his own party and had to back down when Disraeli put the weight of the government behind the bill.[5] When the bill was passed, he retreated to his country mansion Hawarden Castle. In January 1875 he made good of his promise given years earlier and withdrew himself altogether from politics. Instead he spent his time at Hawarden with his studies of Homer.[6] After his self-imposed exile, leadership of the Liberal party was shared by Lord Hartington, who led the Liberals in the House of Commons and Lord Granville, who was Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords.[7]
The Bulgarian Uprising of 1876
In 1875 the Eastern question came to the fore for the first time since the Crimean War.[8] In July 1875 an insurgency against Ottoman rule broke out in Herzegovina, soon spreading over to Bosnia. Then at the end of April 1876 an insurgency had broken out in Bulgaria against Turkish rule. Military of the Ottoman Empire and irregular troops soon crushed the Bulgarian revolt, thereby committing brutal massacres. To block Russia from filling the vacuum, Britain had strong ties with the crumbling Ottoman Empire, long branded as Sick man of Europe. For London, it was essential to support Ottoman Empire against further Russian expansion.[9]
News of a series of atrocities by the Ottomans during their suppression of the Bulgarian April Uprising quickly reached the British press, despite the strong censorship of the Turkish authorities. British public reaction was generally one of dismay, fuelled by the public prints. The government of Benjamin Disraeli continued its policy of support for the Ottoman Empire, an ally in the Crimean War and a bulwark against possible Russian expansion in the area.
Gladstone took up the issue slowly, at first appearing uninterested. By 1878 he was publishing articles in favour of ending British economic support for the Ottoman government in response.
The campaign
By 1880, Gladstone's dogged focus on the issue had dragged it to the forefront of public attention, and in the general election of 1880, Gladstone toured a series of cities giving speeches of up to five hours on the subject. The nature of his orations has often been compared to that of sermons, and his fiery, emotive, but logically structured speeches are credited with swaying a large number of undecided voters to the Liberals in the 1880s, and ousting Disraeli's last Conservative government.
Equally important to the large scale of attendance at these meetings (several thousand came to each, and given the relatively narrow scale of the franchise, this meant Gladstone could address a large proportion of electors in each district) was the widespread reporting of Gladstone's speeches and the public reaction to them. Paul Brighton argues that it was a highly successful media event:
What was new about Midlothian was not that Gladstone spoke from the platform. This was already common-place for many front-rank politicians. It was the fact that the campaign was effectively designed as a media event, with specific attention to the deadlines and operational requirements of the journalists covering it and crafted for maximum impact in the morning and evening papers.[10]
Content
Gladstone's speeches covered the entire range of national policy, he gave his large audiences an advanced course in the principles of government that was both magisterial and exciting. The major speeches constitute a statement of the Liberal philosophy of government, reinforced by the fervour of his own deeply-held Anglican faith. Scotland, at this time, was a nation fixated on the promotion of this sort of religious and moral rectitude and probity. His focus was usually on foreign affairs. Gladstone presented his commitment to a world community, governed by law, protecting the weak. His vision of the ideal world order combined universalism and inclusiveness; he appealed to group feeling, the sense of concern for others, rising eventually to the larger picture of the unity of mankind.[11]
Campbell, John (2009), "Viscount Castlereagh and George Canning", Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown., London: Vintage Books, pp. 90–140, ISBN978-1-84595-091-0
Jenkins, Roy. Gladstone (1997) pp 399–415
Kelley, Robert. "Midlothian: A Study In Politics and Ideas," Victorian Studies (1960) 4#2 pp 119–140. online
Matthew, H. C. G Gladstone: 1809-1898 (1997) pp 293–313
Further reading
Blair, Kirstie. "The People’s William and the People’s Poets: William Gladstone and the Midlothian Campaign." The People’s Voice (2018) online.
Brooks, David. "Gladstone and Midlothian: The Background to the First Campaign," Scottish Historical Review (1985) 64#1 pp 42–67. online
Brown, Stewart J. “‘Echoes of Midlothian’: Scottish Liberalism and the South African War, 1899-1902.” Scottish Historical Review 71#191/192, (1992), pp. 156–83, online.
Fitzsimons, M. A. "Midlothian: the Triumph and Frustration of the British Liberal Party," Review of Politics (1960) 22#2 pp 187–201. in JSTOR
Whitehead, Cameron Ean Alfred. "The Bulgarian Horrors: culture and the international history of the Great Eastern Crisis, 1876-1878" (PhD. Dissertation, University of British Columbia, 2014) online
Yildizeli, Fahriye Begum. "W.E. Gladstone and British Policy Towards the Ottoman Empire." (PhD dissertation, University of Exeter, 2016) online.
Primary sources
Gladstone, W.E. Midlothian Speeches. 1879 (Leicester University Press, 1971).
Gladstone, William E. Midlothian Speeches 1884 with an Introduction by M. R. D. Foot, (New York: Humanities Press, 1971) online
