ABSTRACT
The political and personal duel between Gladstone and Disraeli was ended by the latter’s death in 1881 (see Chapter 37). Gladstone, however, stayed – and stayed. The effects of his political longevity would not have been so serious had he not promised to retire so often, especially in the early 1880s.1 Though most colleagues wanted him to remain in office, at least until 1886, portents of impending departure had a destabilising effect on the Liberal party. He would remain its leader for another fourteen years, finally resigning at the age of 83. He formed three more governments, none of them successful, and his Irish policies (see Chapter 40) all but destroyed his party. It is said that colleagues shed copious tears as Gladstone, with characteristic impassivity, chaired his last Cabinet meeting on 1 March 1894.2 Many must have been of the crocodile variety as senior Liberal politicians reflected on the disastrous events of the previous ten years. Many, perhaps most, political leaders outstay their welcome. Few manage it on such a grand, destabilising scale as William Gladstone.
