ABSTRACT
Much historical literature on Gladstone has concentrated on understanding how and why he functioned as he did. Such studies have involved trying to generalise from a mountain of surviving detailed evidence, much of it generated by Gladstone himself. So close has been the canvas, so fine the brushwork, that it has often proved difficult to conceive of the broader portrait. The interpretations proffered have often revealed more about the viewers, especially those who sympathised with the great man, than they have about the complexity of Gladstone's character. Despite meticulous recent scholarship, it stillremains difficult to assess the precise contribution which the various aspects of Gladstone's complex personality made to his public life: the importance of moral certainties, rooted in religious belief; his unambiguous belief in the values of free trade and individual responsibility; his concern to preserve the established social order; even, perhaps, his undiminished political ambition.
