Welsh Journals

GLADSTONE AND WALES GLADSTONE'S attitude towards Welsh questions during the later part of his career has long called for reconsideration. Writers, of differing points of view, tend to agree that Gladstone had little specific sympathy with the Nonconformist radicalism that emerged in Wales, following the election of 1868. There is agreement here, if in little else, between the Church defenders, such as Griffith-Boscawen,1 and the zealots of Cymru Fydd ('Young Wales').2 The corollary to this must be that the devotional Welsh enthusiasm for Gladstone until his retirement, and the consequent rejection of Chamberlain's advances in 1886, are somehow difficult to explain, being attributable, perhaps, to the emotionalism of what Gladstone himself termed *a singularly susceptible population'.3 The more pragmatic view of contemporary historians that Gladstone's later obsession with Ireland allowed sections of his party to 'levy a judicious blackmail'4 over Welsh as over many other issues does not alter the basic premise that a fundamental tension existed between the ageing High Churchman and the rebellious young spokesmen of Nonconformist .Wales. There is much evidence to be advanced in support of this thesis. Before the Liberal schism over Home Rule, Gladstone was too preoccupied with a host of important questions at home and abroad to devote much of his time to the marginal grievances of Wales. After 1886, he pursued t he Irish cause with a relentless single-minded zeal. UfiTfianyi occggtoiSTiii thfeiafer period, he showed annoyance at the deviations of the Welsh radicals on his flanks, notably during the obstruction of the Clergy Discipline Bill of 1892, by Lloyd George, Samuel Evans, and Wynford Philipps, which angered Morley and the Liberal leaders, and led Stuart Rendel to despair.5 During the long campaign for disestablishment of the Church, Gladstone showed a persistent reluctance to commit himself to public action, and his equivocations drew constant criticism from Nonconformist circles. 1 A. S. T. Griffith-Boscawen. Fourteen Years in Parliament (1907). p. 47. 2 An outlook reflected in R. T. Jenkins, 'The Development of Nationalism in Wales', in The Sociological Review. April 1935, pp. 171 ff. 8 Gladstone to the bishop of St. David's. 12 January 1870. B.M. Additional MS. 44424. f. 88. 4 A. F. Thompson. 'Gladstone: British Prime Ministers XVI'. in History Today. November 1952, p. 759. Cf. Rendel to A. C. Humphreys-Owen, 24 May to 1 June 1892. N.L.W.. Glansevern MSS. 591-8.