ABSTRACT
In April 1880, the Liberals came to power with an overwhelming majority after a prolonged moralistic and demagogic electoral campaign spearheaded by Gladstone. This success was seen not just as an electoral triumph of Gladstone, but as an electoral triumph of Gladstonian liberalism based on the economics of free trade, politics of liberalism and morality of Christian virtues. Generations of British historians have accepted that Gladstone sought to apply the standards of morality, which would be normal in private life, to international affairs and that this hampered the pursuit of national interests. 1 In Midlothian in 1879, Gladstone had specified his version of the ‘right principles of foreign policy’. He defined these as (1) good government at home, (2) cultivating the Concert of Europe, (3) avoidance of entangling engagements, (4) the preservation to the nations of the world the blessings of peace, (5) acknowledging equal rights for all nations, and (6) promoting the love of fredom. 2 An analysis of British foreign policy during his tenure as prime minister, however, shows that these principles were observed more in their breach and that there was a very wide gap between the idealism of Gladstone’s words and the realism of his actions.
