694 Ch. 1 8 • The Dominant Powers in the Age of Liberalismas King George I, while placating Greek nationalists by awarding one of th<
Ionian islands to Greece.
After glorying in Britain’s victory in the Crimean War, Palmerston ther
lurched into a short war against China in 1857, after the Chinese govern
ment seized a pirate ship that had formerly been registered under th<
British flag. Rebuffed by a majority in Commons and opposed by pacifis
political radicals outside of Parliament, Palmerston refused to resign anc
called for a general election. Basing his campaign on an appeal to patrio
tism, he won the day.
William Gladstone (1809-1898) then became the leader of the Libera
Party. Gladstone was the son of a wealthy and unscrupulous merchant whc
had made a fortune in trade with India and the West Indies. The young
Gladstone was deeply religious and wore his moral vision of the world or
his sleeve, going out into the night to try to convince prostitutes to aban
don their trade. Gladstone sought to impose his own self-discipline anc
sense of Victorian Christianity on the nation. During his early years in gov
ernment, he worked to assure laissez-faire economic policies, campaigning
for the abolition of even the very modest income tax.
As chancellor of the exchequer, Gladstone had waged war against extrav
agance and waste in government. In contrast to his Conservative rivals, he
opposed colonization as being too expensive. Queen Victoria loathed Glad
stone, blaming him for almost every domestic and international problem.
She resented his de facto campaign to reduce the already limited role of the
monarchy in the constitutional government of Britain. Having supported
the repeal of the Com Laws in 1846, he wanted to make the Liberals the
party of reform.
Robert Peel had split the Conservatives by supporting the repeal ol
the Corn Laws in 1846. After Peel’s death in 1850, Benjamin Disraeli