Midlothian campaign

The Midlothian campaign of 1878–80 was a series of foreign policy speeches given by William Gladstone, former leader of Britain's Liberal Party.

Gladstone charged the Conservative government of his longstanding political enemy Benjamin Disraeli with financial incompetence, neglect of domestic legislation, and mismanagement of foreign affairs.

After a short transition period, Gladstone relinquished the leadership of the Liberal Party and subsequently became a mere backbencher in the British House of Commons.

Subsequently, he had to suffer a painful defeat when the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 was introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait, to limit what he perceived as the growing ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism and the Oxford Movement within the Church of England.

Military of the Ottoman Empire and irregular troops soon crushed the Bulgarian revolt, thereby committing brutal massacres and killing some 12,000 people.

To block Russia from filling the vacuum, Britain had strong ties with the crumbling Ottoman Empire, long branded as Sick man of Europe.

[11] News of a series of atrocities by the Ottomans during their suppression of the Bulgarian April Uprising reached the British press, despite the strong censorship of the Turkish authorities.

In June the newspaper Daily News published an account of atrocities committed by irregular troops and claimed that some twentythousand men, women and children had been slaughtered.

[12] The government of Benjamin Disraeli ignored the outrage at first and continued its policy of support for the Ottoman Empire, an ally in the Crimean War and a bulwark against possible Russian expansion in the area.

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.

Paul Brighton argues that it was a highly successful media event: Gladstone's speeches covered the entire range of national policy, he gave his large audiences an advanced course in the principles of government that was both magisterial and exciting.

His vision of the ideal world order combined universalism and inclusiveness; he appealed to group feeling, the sense of concern for others, rising eventually to the larger picture of the unity of mankind.