" An available surplus of L2,260,000
enabled him to propose reductions.
The subject of reform, which had been coming up in the House of Commons
in one way or another and agitating the House and the country since
1859, when the Conservative party was beaten on the question, reappeared
in 1864. The question of lowering the borough franchise came up, and Mr.
Gladstone startled the House and the country by his declaration upon the
subject of reform, which showed the rapid development of his views upon
the subject. The Conservative party was filled with alarm, and the hopes
of the Reform party correspondingly elated. "The eyes of all Radical
Reformers turned to Mr. Gladstone as the future Minister of Reform in
Church and State. He became from the same moment an object of distrust,
and something approaching to detestation in the eyes of all steady-going
Conservatives."
Mr. Gladstone said: "I say that every man who is not presentably
incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or political
danger, is morally entitled to come within the pale of the
constitution." This declaration was the first note sounded in a conflict
which, twelve months later, was to cost Mr. Gladstone his seat for
Oxford University, and finally to culminate in the disruption of the
Liberal Government.
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