ABSTRACT
Throughout the Session of 1872 the difficult Alabama negotiations weighed heavily on the Cabinet and especially on Mr. Gladstone. Yet in 1872 the Gladstone Ministry could no longer be regarded as strong. The Conservative attacks on the Government’s alleged unconstitutional high-handedness as illustrated in the abolition of Army Purchase by Warrant and in the Prime Minister’s two notorious patronage blunders of 1871 certainly tended to spread among “moderates” of the professional classes the impression that the Cabinet needed keeping in its place. The Trade Union leaders pressed with increasing insistence for the repeal of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1871 which Ministers had insisted on putting on the Statute Book alongside their Bill for legalising Trade Unions. In February 1873, Parliament was debating one of Gladstone’s most elaborately contrived Bills after an introductory speech from the Prime Minister which had sounded so able and convincing when delivered that serious opposition had at first appeared unlikely even from the Tories.
