August 15, 1892: William E. Gladstone Forms His Last Government

August 15, 1892: Having led his Liberal Party to the lead, but not a majority, in the recent general election, William Ewart Gladstone brings the Members of the House of Commons who belong to the Irish Nationalist Party into his coalition, forming a majority. He goes to Queen Victoria, and tells her, "I can form a government." Not really having the power to stop him, she lets him.

The Queen was 73 years old. The Prime Minister was 82, the oldest man ever to hold that office. (For comparison's sake, Joe Biden was elected President in 2020, just short of turning 78.) It is the 4th separate time that Gladstone had held the office.

Gladstone (the E was silent) was born on December 29, 1829 in Liverpool, the son of John Gladstone, a Scot who served in Parliament in the 1810s and 1820s. William was first elected to the House of Commons in 1832, to Robert Peel's faction of the Conservative Party. In 1846, Peel's faction broke away, and formed the Liberal Party.

He served in the Cabinets of 3 Liberal Prime Ministers: George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen; Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston; and John Russell, 1st Earl Russell. Under each of them, it included tenure as Lord of the Exchequer, Britain's equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury.

His policies emphasized equality of opportunity and opposition to trade protectionism, which would eventually, as he became Prime Minister, became known as Gladstonian Liberalism, and earned him the nickname "The People's William." It also earned him initial nicknames, long before America ever had FDR or JFK: He was known by his actual initials as "WEG," and, eventually, as "the GOM," short for "the Grand Old Man."

When the Liberal Party gained a majority in the 1868 general election, Gladstone was named Prime Minister, taking office for the 1st time on December 3, succeeding the Conservative Leader, Benjamin Disraeli. The rivalry between the 2 men defined an era in British politics, and on February 17, 1874, having lost an election, Gladstone had to give way to Disraeli.

He regained the office on April 23, 1880, his election victory putting an end to Disraeli's career, and starting those of his sons Henry and Herbert Gladstone, who were also elected to Parliament. As in his first term, he pushed for easing of poverty, university reform, fairness toward Ireland, and a conciliatory foreign policy.

This time, what became known as "the Scramble for Africa" was on, and he opposed it. The victory in the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882 was the highlight of his tenure, but the fall of Khartoum in the Sudan, including the death of the popular British commander George Gordon, led to the worst press treatment of his career. Critics inverted his nickname "GOM" into "MOG," for "Murderer of Gordon." Queen Victoria herself wrote him a telegram rebuking him, but offered him an earldom if he would resign. He resigned on June 9, 1885, but refused the earldom, which won him back some admirers.

But the new Conservative government of Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, fell apart quickly over the issue of Irish Home Rule, in part due to a press release by Herbert Gladstone. (And you had a problem with Hunter Biden?) On February 1, 1886, Charles Stewart Parnell, known as "the Uncrowned King of Ireland," took his Irish Parliamentary Party out of Lord Salisbury's government, and allied with the elder Gladstone, who became Prime Minister for the 3rd time.

But rural voters in what had been Gladstone constituencies were not ready to support anything other than London domination of Ireland, and several Liberal Party members left, forming the Liberal Unionist Party. On July 21, 1886, not even 6 months after taking charge again, Gladstone was out for the 3rd time, and Salisbury was in for the 2nd.

But the Grand Old Man was not done. In 1889, he supported the London dockers' strike, regaining much of his former working-class support. An election in 1892 resulted in a minority government, and Gladstone once again cut a deal with Irish Members of Parliament to become Prime Minister for the 4th time on August 15. He got a Home Rule bill through the Commons on September 1, 1893, but the House of Lords overwhelmingly rejected it on September 8. He wanted to call a general election, on the sole subject of that bill, immediately, but was talked out of it.

Gladstone was the first Prime Minister to make it a condition of ministers to resign directorships of public companies in 1892. This was abandoned by Salisbury in 1895, but was restored by Liberal Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1905, and has been observed ever since.

Gladstone decided to resign the Premiership, ostensibly on health grounds, on March 2, 1894. At 84, he remains the oldest person ever to hold the office. He had held the post for roughly 12 of the preceding 24 years. He resigned from Parliament the next year, after 63 years.

In his last years, he warned against "militarism" and "jingoism," apparently foreseeing the crisis that would result in World War I. He did not, however, foresee the Liberal Party's collapse, and its effective replacement by the Labour Party, in the decade after that. He died on May 19, 1898, at the age of 88, and was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.

*

August 15, 1892 was a Monday. These games were played in baseball's National League:

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-2 at League Park in Cincinnati.

* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms lost to the St. Louis Browns, 3-2 at an early version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. In the 1887-88 off-season, 6 players from the team formerly known as the Brooklyn Grays got married, so people began calling the team the Bridegrooms. In 1911, they took the name Dodgers. In 1900, the Browns became the Cardinals.

* The Washington Senators beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at Exposition Park in Allegheny, across the River of the same name from Pittsburgh proper. In 1907, Allegheny was annexed into Pittsburgh.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Cleveland Spiders, 5-0 at the 1890-1909 version of League Park in Cleveland. The Beaneaters went threw a few name changes before settling on "Braves" in 1912.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Louisville Colonels, 2-1 at Eclipse Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

* And the Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago Colts, 9-2 at South Side Park in Chicago. The Orioles, the Senators, the Spiders and the Colonels were all consolidated out of business by the NL after the 1899 season. In 1903, the Chicago franchise became the Cubs.

January 22, 1879: The Battle of Isandlwana

January 22, 1879: The Battle of Isandlwana is fought, at the hill of the same name near Kwa-Nyoni, in what's now KwaZulu Natal province, South Africa. It was the greatest victory any African military force has achieved since the days of ancient Egypt, and the greatest defeat suffered by the British Army during the Victorian era.

The Anglo-Zulu War had broken out on January 11, when Cetshwayo, King of the Zulu Kingdom, nephew of the early 19th Century King Shaka, refused to disband his army so that Britain could create a confederation in South Africa the way they had done in Canada.

Isandlwana was the first major engagement of the war. A Zulu force of 20,000 attacked 1,800 British troops. Despite the British having mountain guns and a rocket battery, while the Zulus had muskets at best and spears at worst, the British lost 1,300 men (about 72 percent of their force), while the Zulus lost about 3,000 (about 15 percent).

British troops withdrew to Rorke's Drift, 10 miles to the west. The next day, 4,000 Zulus attacked Rorke's Drift, defended by only 150 British men, who managed to drive them back. This was considered a victory, and 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded.

When word of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift got back to London, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli ordered a lot more troops sent to South Africa. It worked: On July 4, the war was over, and Cetshwayo was sent into exile. He was allowed to return to his homeland, and died in 1884.

In 1887, the Zulu Kingdom was absorbed into the Colony of Natal, and became part of the Union of South Africa in 1910.

Harry Figg, a male Army nurse, was the last survivor of the Anglo-Zulu War, living until 1953, long enough to see Elizabeth II become Queen. In 1964, the film Zulu premiered, telling the story of Rorke's Drift, and making a star out of Michael Caine. In 1979, Zulu Dawn premiered, telling the story of Isandlwana.

Around that time, one of the first integrated "hooligan firms" developed, supporting English soccer team Birmingham City. Because they were integrated, and believed there were heroes on both sides, they named themselves the Zulu Army.

*

January 22, 1879 was a Wednesday. This was the off-season for baseball and American football. Basketball had not yet been invented, and hockey barely existed. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.