Conclusion

Summary

In Part II of this book, we have seen how the Liberal party spectacularly lost its sense of direction between 1870 and 1875, and how, in 1874, it suffered an election defeat which was almost unprecedented in scale. Throughout, mention has been made of the non-religious considerations which accelerated that process – which were, primarily, the government's low-key supervision of foreign affairs, and its licensing, taxation and local-government policies. But it was in discussing religious questions that division within the party was most embarrassingly explicit; and it was mainly because of radical agitation about these same questions that many Liberal voters increasingly doubted the future soundness of the party.

The opportunities for internal party conflict about religion had been obvious from early in the period under discussion. The reunification of 1868 was achieved by securing agreement on the principle of Irish Church disestablishment, and by shared dislike of the Conservatives' Irish university policy. The Irish Church issue was so powerful a cohesive force that, by the time of the 1868 election, little else had been agreed to be party policy (despite the large amount of legislation concerning nonreligious subjects which was to be passed by the 1868–74 government). In particular, there had been no attempt to reach consensus within the party about the educational policy to be followed in England, Scotland and Ireland; and it was discord in discussion of these issues which disrupted Liberal unity so markedly from 1870 onwards.