For the discussion and research of Liberal, Liberal Democrat and SDP history
On this day 9-9-1876
On This Day
September 9, 1876
William Gladstone addresses a rally at Blackheath on the Balkan Question
Following the publication of his famous pamphlet, The Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East three days earlier in which he had called for the Turks to be driven from the Balkans “bag and baggage”, Mr Gladstone speaks at a rally in Blackheath now employing less emotional language but using his physical presence and oratorical techniques to stir the crowd, talking in Morley’s words ‘in slow sentences to imaginary Ottomans whom he seemed to hold before his visual eye’. This, as Roy Jenkins noted, was at a time when oratory was more popular than football.