WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF THE PEOPLE. Precocity of Gladstone. Life at Oxford. Enters Parliament. Negro Emancipation. Under-Secretary for the Colonies. Ultra-Conservative principles. His eloquence as member of Parliament. His marriage. Essay on Church and State. Parliamentary leader. Represents Oxford. Letter on the Government of Naples. Benjamin Disraeli. Gladstone Chancellor of the Exchequer. Opposes the Crimean War. Great abilities as finance minister. Conversion to Free Trade. "Studies on Homer". His mistake about the American War. Defeat at Oxford. Irish Questions. Rivalry between Gladstone and Disraeli. Gladstone, Prime Minister. His great popularity. Disestablishment of Irish Church. Irish Land Bill. Radical army changes. Settlement of the Alabama claims. Irish University Bill. Fall of Gladstone's Ministry. Influence of Gladstone in retirement. Disraeli as Prime Minister. Return of Gladstone to power. His second administration. Parliamentary defeat of Gladstone. The Irish Question. Death. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME X. Bismarck at Versailles _After the painting by Carl Wagner_. William IV., King of England _After the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence_. Sir Robert Peel _From the engraving by Sartain_. Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield _From a photograph_. Camillo Benso di Cavour _From a photograph_. Assassination of the Emperor Paul I. of Russia _After the painting by H. Merté_. Czar Nicholas I. _After the painting by Horace Vernet_. Capture of Napoleon III. at Boulogne _After the painting by R. Gutschmidt_. Louis Napoleon III. _From a photograph_. Bismarck _After the painting by Franz von Lenbach_. Count Von Moltke _From a photograph from life_. Proclamation of King William of Prussia as Emperor of Germany, at Versailles _After the painting by Anton von Werner_. William Ewart Gladstone _After a photograph from life_. BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY. WILLIAM IV. 1765-1837. ENGLISH REFORMS. On the death of George IV. in 1830, a new political era dawned on England. His brother, William IV., who succeeded him, was not his equal in natural ability, but was more respectable in his character and more liberal in his views. With William IV. began the undisputed ascendency of the House of Commons in national affairs. Before his day, no prime minister could govern against the will of the sovereign. After George IV., as in France under Louis Philippe, "the king reigned, but did not govern." The chief of the ascendent political party was the real ruler.