ABSTRACT
From 1841 to 1846, Robert Peel led one of the most remarkable reform governments of the century, and he brought William Gladstone into it, thus completely changing the course of his career. Gladstone’s specific task was to be Peel’s chief associate in carrying through the progressive reductions of the tariff structure that culminated in 1846 in the Repeal of the Corn Laws. It seemed at first a curious appointment. Gladstone was not only ignorant of trade matters, he was indifferent to them. With Gladstone finally at the head of the Liberal Party, the full tide of Gladstonian Liberalism could begin. Confident that the doctrines of Adam Smith would solve the problem of poverty, Gladstonians thenceforth were fundamentally interested not in the economic reforms that absorbed later generations of Liberals, but in wiping away the institutional arrangements that embodied and symbolized the superior status and power of the Anglican, English, and aristocratic ascendancy.
