Gladstonian Liberalism embraced and espoused the clear hallmarks of the Manchester School school of thought: Liberty, free-trade, Laissez-faire political economy, self help, minimal government. However, Gladstone’s presuppositions behind these concepts were markedly different to those of other contemporary Liberals. They were balanced with deeply Conservative and religious values. Gladstone, himself, admitted that the one major change in his thinking was on the concept of Liberty. And yes, there is an element of truth to this. In contrast to his anti-Liberty discourses in the context of Parliamentary Reform in the 1830s, he did clearly speak the language of Liberty later in his political career. However, the concept of Liberty, as Berlin in the 20th century argues, was not only negative in definition. Liberty was not marked solely by an “absence of constraints” but also by the fulfilment of one’s true capacities. In 1891 Gladstone iterated something along these lines: that the legislation of the 19th century helped in “setting men free, removing artificial obstacles to the full development of their powers.” Liberty was not only freedom from constraints but also freedom to achieve and pursue willed goals. My reason for emphasising this distinction is that Gladstone never became a true classical liberal. Liberty was never an end in itself nor was the individual ever cut off from the State or community. Freedom could only be exercised to its greatest degree in a community of individuals who had obligations and responsibilities to one and other as well as a correct moral code. Gladstone essentially sought to combine the virtues of “reverence” with “independence.”''' It is clear that he still held his old Conservative convictions. Indeed, he even stated that “modern Conservatives seem to have lost their old reverence for authority and antiquity.” As Bebbington points out, this mode of thinking was very different to other perhaps more truly, Liberal thinkers like Mill. Mill wanted to abandon the past and instead refashion age old institutions with the use of present reason. Gladstone did not. Even though he was outside of the Conservative party he was still very much as Conservative.