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Gladstone as “Troublemaker”: Liberal Foreign Policy and the German Annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, 1870–1871

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2014

Deryck Schreuder
Deryck Schreuder*
Affiliation:
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
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Extract

“I think it my duty … to cherish respect and sympathy for every foreign state, without exception and distinction.

“But, when there is apparent reason to believe they are prosecuting schemes adverse to liberty beyond their own borders, then, as I have tried in former times, so I will now raise up moral forces as far as in me lies, to defeat their aims….”

Gladstone to Lord Reay, 9 April 1880.

“He was by nature an interferer, by training a man of Power,” A. J. P. Taylor remarked of Gladstone in his noted Oxford Ford Lectures on “Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1791-1939,” later published as The Troublemakers. He continued: “Press Bright's policy to its conclusion and you arrive at isolation, inaction except in the case of actual invasion. Press Gladstone's doctrine to its conclusion; and you have universal interference, as the Radicals discovered too late.” This view of Gladstone's contribution to the foreign policy of Victorian England is highly attractive. It stresses the ethical basis for much of his “conscience politics;” and it points to the laudable actions of liberals in championing the cause of “national self-determination” — “peoples struggling to be free” — in nineteenth-century Europe. So far so good. But is it right to make a direct connection between liberal sympathies for nationality and the actual use of British power or prestige abroad? Indeed, is it true that Gladstone's “moral fervour tempted him to universal interference?” And if it is valid, did Gladstone always get his own way in the Cabinet?

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , Spring 1978 , pp. 106 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1978

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References

1. British Library, Gladstone to Reay, 9 April 1880, Gladstone Papers, Add. MS 44,463.

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30. Cabinet at 3 p.m.; 14 ministers present, and 2 absent (Childers and Bright); 11 sided with Granville's ‘wait-and-see’ posture (Granville, Kimberley, Argyll, Hartington, Cardwell, Lowe, Fortescue, plus 3 minor ministers) as against 4 for the Gladstone ‘remonstrance’ (W.E.G., Goschen, Forster, Halifax). The absence of Bright and Childers was not crucial so far as numbers went, for they would probably have cancelled each other out — Bright “for,” Childers “against.” BL, Gladstone Cabinet papers, 30 Sept. 1870, Add. MS 44,635, f. 123; and Kimberley's Journal, 18-19.

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39. This passage is marked in the margin — probably by W.E.G.

40. Granville to Gladstone, 7 Oct. 1870, in Ramm, ibid.

41. Gladstone to Granville, 8 Oct. 1870, ibid., 140.

42. Granville to Gladstone, 10 Oct. 1870, ibid., 143.

43. Gladstone to Granville, 11 Oct. 1870, ibid., 144.

44. PRO, Granville to Brunnow, “Private,” 12 Oct. 1870, GD 29/115; Baron Filipp Brunnow (1797-1875) was Russian ambassador to England, 1858-74.

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59. Ibid.

60. There is a fascinating marginalia on this document. In reply to Gladstone's rhetorical question — “Is it likely that England would have been silent [in 1860] had France annexed much larger countries [than Nice and Savoy] inhabited by palpably unwilling populations?” — Morley has written (presumably while writing the “Life”), “Silent — no. But almost certainly she shd. not have gone to war.” Ibid.

61. Ibid.

62. Ibid.

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70. The London newspapers record that large-scale working-class-supported meetings were held in St. James' Great Hall on 24 Sept., and at Hyde Park the next day, when a mass rally took place. Representatives from the trade societies of London sent a delegation to Downing Street — and were received by Gladstone — on 27 Sept. See Raymond, , British Policy and Public Opinion during the Franco-Prussian War, pp. 168–72Google Scholar; the Daily News and Morning Post, 28 Sept.; and the Fortnightly Review, XIV, 479–88Google Scholar, article by John Morley.

71. Friederich Max Müller (1823-1900), distinguished philologist and Oriental authority, celebrated Oxford professor, and noted German resident in England. His career is documented in his wife's Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Friederich Max Müller, 2 vols. (London, 1902), and esp. I, 376–414Google Scholar on activities in 1870-71-in support of German war efforts and war aims. A recent sympathetic “life” is Chaudhuri, C. N., Scholar Extraordinary; the life of Friederich Max-Müller (London, 1974), pp. 244–51Google Scholar.

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87. Ibid., and Gladstone to Guizot, 30 Jan. 1871 (copy), Add. MS 44,429, f. 123.

88. BL, Gladstone cabinet notes, Add. MS 44,639, f. 16. The indemnity was reduced to 5 milliard francs, and there was to be an army of occupation until it was paid. Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918 (Oxford, 1954), p. 217Google Scholar.

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126. Bodleian, Gladstone to Clarendon, 5 Feb. 1869, Clarendon Papers, c. 497, ff. 84-85.

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131. Sontag, R. J., Germany and England; Background of Conflict, 1848-96 (New York, 1938), p. 184Google Scholar, uses both terms — “Peacemaker” and “Troublemaker.”

Earlier versions of this paper enjoyed the criticisms of Dr. Agatha Ramm, Professor M. R. D. Foot and Dr. Derek Beales, as well as discussion at the C.H.A. Meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, and Dr. H. C. G. Matthew's special seminar on Gladstonian Liberalism at Oxford University. The final draft was written at the Research School of Social Sciences, A.N.U., Canberra, where I owe much to Professors Oliver MacDonagh and F. B. Smith.