The result of the ensuing canvass and election was most disastrous to the Liberal party. The returns, completed in February, showed that 351 out and out Conservatives had been elected; while the Liberals, including the Home Rulers, who, in fact, declined to identify themselves with the party, numbered only 302. Mr. Gladstone, of course, resigned at once, and Mr. Disraeli, for a second time, was appointed Prime-Minister in his place.
During the next two years, Mr. Gladstone, though retaining his seat, was not often seen in the House of Commons. In January of 1875 he announced his determination to retire from the leadership of the Liberal party, and the Marquis of Hartington was accordingly chosen to act in his place. For a time he gave himself up to authorship, and published a considerable number of controversial articles on Church and State. As Disraeli’s ministry, however, became involved in the entanglement of Eastern affairs, Gladstone was more and more drawn back into something like his old parliamentary activity. In 1879 was invited to become the candidate for Mid-Lothian, and the canvass that followed was perhaps the most remarkable exhibition of energy and oratorical skill that the history of British eloquence has to show. He set out from Liverpool on November 24th, and from that date, with the exception of two days’ rest, till his return on December 9th, his journey was a long succession of enthusiastic receptions and unwearied speech-making in condemnation of the Conservative government. The addresses delivered in the course of this canvass were printed in all the leading papers of the kingdom, and were subsequently brought together in a volume. As a whole, they form what is probably the most remarkable series of political criticisms ever addressed by one man to the people of his country. The result was not only the election of Mr. Gladstone, but also, when in the following spring a general election took place, the triumphant return of the Liberal party to power. While the Conservatives had only 243 seats, the Liberals had 349, and the Home Rulers, 60 in number, were quite likely, in all general measures, to ally themselves with their old friends.
As Mr. Gladstone had for some years not been at the nominal head of the Liberal party, it was not certain what policy would be pursued. The Marquis of Hartington was the leader in the Lower House, and Earl Granville in the Upper. Either of these might have been called to the head of the ministry by constitutional usage; but the natural primacy of Mr. Gladstone was so universally acknowledged that the Queen decided to hold a consultation with the chiefs of the party. The conference resulted in recommending the Queen to entrust the forming of a cabinet to Mr. Gladstone; and accordingly the great leader entered upon the work of Prime-Minister for a second time in April, 1880. It is a proof of his extraordinary vigor that at the age of seventy-one he should choose to superadd to the duties of First Lord of the Treasury, those of Chancellor of the Exchequer, a position which he continued to hold till, in 1883, the multiplicity of his duties led him to turn it over to Mr. Childers.