The theme of your talk is Gladstone and Parliament, and in one sense at least, there is no greater

parliamentarian than Gladstone throughout the course of his very long career, the positions of state

that he occupied. What are you going to focus on him? I'm going to focus on Gladstone inside the Westminster

Bubble. What sort of party animal was he? He had a reputation for being not clubbable, so how was he able to

maintain party discipline in the very feebara world of 19th century, Westminster politics?

The second theme is the oratory, which is really the key to his reputation as a great parliamentarian.

And the irony there is that, of course,

he becomes best known as an orator outside of parliament.

And the interesting thing is how the outdoors oratory

then begins to inform and influence his behavior

inside parliament.

Do you think it's true that he was a man

perhaps better respected than loved?

One remembers that the famous phrase of Victoria is that he always speaks to him as if he was

addressing a public meeting. There was something a little bit Olympian, a bit aloof, a bit severe

about Gladstone. Yes, it's always said of Gladstone, he says a great deal, but nothing very

memorable, and that he can turn anything even a weak argument

into a strong case. So he's the master of that kind of detailed argument and forensic building

up of all the facts, which of course he hones into a great part of the budget speeches of the

1850s and the 1860s. He holds the record, I think, that the longest

budget speech, I think, of five hours, or if not the record, then it must be a contender

for it. Was he a great Chancellor of the Exchequer? Yes. It said of him that he made the

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