1873 Exchequer letters patent of Glastone

Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone led a successful campaign to abolish more than a thousand – 95% – of Britain’s tariffs that remained after the abolition of the corn laws. Gladstone cut Britain’s income tax to 1.25%. Although he was less successful campaigning to stop British imperialism and give the oppressed Irish people self-government, it was remarkable that a British government leader would mount such a campaign at all. Biographer H.C.G. Matthew observed, "In offering freedom, representative government, free-trade economic progress, international co-operation through discussion and arbitration, probity in government and society generally, as the chief objectives of public life, and an ideology which combined and harmonized them, Gladstone offered much to the concept of a civilized society of nations. "

The Great Seal of the Realm or Great Seal of the United Kingdom is a seal that is used to symbolise the monarch's approval of important state documents. Wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix and impressed into a wax figure that is attached by cord or ribbon to documents that the monarch wishes to make official.

Inscriptions on the Great Seal, Victorian era:

VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR, Latin for
Victoria, by the grace of God, Queen of the Britains, Defender of the Faith.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations. The position is considered one of the four Great Offices of State and in recent times has come to be the most powerful office in British politics after the Prime Minister. This office dates back to at least the reign of Elizabeth I.

Included are numerous biographical books about Gladstone, and a modern reprint of Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer: A Study , by Sydney Buxton, 1901.

A statue of Gladstone, erected in 1872, stands in the Great Hall of St. George's Hall, Liverpool. Another, in bronze by Sir Thomas Brock, erected in 1904, stands outside in St John's Gardens.

A statue of Gladstone, erected in 1905, stands at Aldwych, London, near the Royal Courts of Justice.

There are statues of him in other towns around the country, including Glasgow's George Square.

Gladstone Park in Willesden, London is named after him in 1899. He spent a large amount of his time at the estate using it as a country retreat from Westminster.

Liverpool's Crest Hotel was renamed The Gladstone Hotel in his honour in the early 1990s, but in 2006 was renamed again as The Liner Hotel.

Gladstone, Queensland, Australia was named after him and has a statue on display in its town museum.

A school and a street in Bulgaria's capital Sofia are named in his honour, as is a street in the city of Plovdiv, and in Limassol, Cyprus.

A statue of him stands near the High School in Hawarden.

Two roads in souther Lund, Sweden are named after him.

William Ewart Gladstone
(29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94).

Gladstone is also famous for his intense rivalry with the Conservative Party Leader Benjamin Disraeli. This rivalry was one of the most renowned in human political history, comparable to Stalin vs. Trotsky, Nixon vs. the Kennedys, and Caesar vs. Pompey.

The British statesman was famously at odds with Queen Victoria for much of his career. Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as the "Grand Old Man" or "The People's William". He is still regarded as one of the greatest British prime ministers , with Winston Churchill and others citing Gladstone as their inspiration.

His Midlothian campaign of 1880, through which he was returned to the highest office, is one of the most famous such campaigns in the history of representative government, as it is often cited as the first modern political campaign. It was a series of foreign policy speeches inspired by outrage over Disraeli's continued support for Ottoman Turkey, despite her suppression of the Bulgarian Uprising of April 1876. It takes its name from the Midlothian constituency in Scotland where Gladstone successfully stood for his seat in Parliament. Gladstone toured a series of cities giving speeches of up to five hours on the subject. The nature of his orations has often been compared to that of sermons, and his fiery, emotive, but logically structured speeches are credited with swaying a large number of undecided voters to the Liberals in the 1880s, and ousting Disraeli's last Conservative government.

Equally important to the large scale of attendance at these meetings (several thousand came to each, and given the relatively narrow scale of the franchise, this meant Gladstone could address a large proportion of electors in each district) was the widespread reporting of Gladstone's speeches and the public reaction to them.