ABSTRACT
In April 1880 the Liberals were returned to power at the general election with a sizeable majority. Gladstone came out of his semi-retirement obeying what he regarded as a divine call and, although now past 70, became prime minister for the second time, presiding over a mixture of Liberals and Radicals. His ministry would prove to be a divided one assailed by a harsh sequence of events abroad in South Africa, Afghanistan, Egypt and the Sudan. But perhaps above all he would be beset by problems in Ireland, where disorder at times amounted almost to civil war.
