格莱斯顿是鸦片贸易的强烈反对者

 对奴隶制的态度

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格莱斯顿早期对奴隶制的态度是由他的父亲约翰-格莱斯顿爵士高度塑造的，他是大英帝国最大的奴隶主之一。格莱斯顿希望逐步而不是立即解放奴隶，并提议奴隶在获得自由后应做一段时间的学徒。[17] 他们还反对国际奴隶贸易（这降低了父亲已经拥有的奴隶的价值）。[18] [19] 反奴隶制运动要求立即废除奴隶制。格莱斯顿对此表示反对，并在1832年说，解放应该在道德解放之后，通过在奴隶中采用教育和灌输 "诚实和勤劳的习惯 "来实现。1831年，当牛津大学联盟审议赞成立即解放西印度群岛的奴隶的动议时，格莱斯顿提出了一项修正案，赞成在更好地保护奴隶的个人权利和公民权利以及为他们的基督教教育提供更好的条件的同时，逐步解除奴隶制。[21]他早期的议会演讲也遵循类似的路线：1833年6月，格莱斯顿在结束关于 "奴隶制问题 "的演讲时宣称，尽管他一直在谈论这个问题的 "黑暗面"，但他期待着 "安全和渐进的解放"[22] 。

1834年，当整个大英帝国废除奴隶制时，奴隶主得到了奴隶的全部价值。格莱斯顿帮助他的父亲从政府那里获得了106,769英镑的官方补偿，他在加勒比海的九个种植园中拥有2,508名奴隶。

晚年的格莱斯顿对奴隶制的态度变得更加挑剔，因为他的父亲对他的政治影响减少了。1844年，格莱斯顿与他的父亲决裂，作为贸易委员会主席，他提出对非奴隶劳动生产的外国糖减半征收关税的建议，以 "确保有效地排除奴隶种植的糖"，并鼓励巴西和西班牙结束奴隶制。[24] 约翰-格莱斯顿爵士反对降低外国糖的关税，他给《泰晤士报》写了一封信，批评这一措施。[25] 格莱斯顿在晚年回顾时，将废除奴隶制列为过去60年中群众正确而上层阶级错误的10项伟大成就之一。

反对鸦片贸易

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格莱斯顿是鸦片贸易的强烈反对者。[27][28]在提到英属印度和清朝中国之间的鸦片贸易时，格莱斯顿将其描述为 "臭名昭著和残暴"。[29]格莱斯顿成为鸦片战争的激烈批评者，英国发动鸦片战争是为了使被中国政府定为非法的英国鸦片贸易重新合法化。[他公开抨击这些战争为 "帕默斯顿的鸦片战争"，并说他在1840年5月感到 "害怕上帝对我们国家对中国的不义行为对英国的审判"。[31] 格莱斯顿在议会发表了反对第一次鸦片战争的著名演讲。[32][33] 格莱斯顿批评它是 "一场起源更不公正的战争，一场在进展中更想让这个国家永远蒙羞的战争"。[34] 他对鸦片的敌意源于鸦片对他妹妹海伦的影响。[35] 在1841年前，格莱斯顿不愿意加入皮尔政府，因为第一次鸦片战争是帕默斯顿引起的。

Attitude towards slavery

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Gladstone's early attitude towards slavery was highly shaped by his father, Sir John Gladstone, one of the largest slave owners in the British Empire. Gladstone wanted gradual rather than immediate emancipation, and proposed that slaves should serve a period of apprenticeship after being freed.[17] They also opposed the international slave trade (which lowered the value of the slaves the father already owned).[18][19] The antislavery movement demanded the immediate abolition of slavery. Gladstone opposed this and said in 1832 that emancipation should come after moral emancipation through the adoption of an education and the inculcation of "honest and industrious habits" among the slaves. Then "with the utmost speed that prudence will permit, we shall arrive at that exceedingly desired consummation, the utter extinction of slavery."[20] In 1831, when the Oxford Union considered a motion in favour of the immediate emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies, Gladstone moved an amendment in favour of gradual manumission along with better protection for the personal and civil rights of the slaves and better provision for their Christian education.[21] His early Parliamentary speeches followed a similar line: in June 1833, Gladstone concluded his speech on the ‘slavery question’ by declaring that though he had dwelt on "the dark side" of the issue, he looked forward to "a safe and gradual emancipation".[22]

In 1834, when slavery was abolished across the British Empire, the owners were paid full value for the slaves. Gladstone helped his father obtain £106,769 in official reimbursement by the government for the 2,508 slaves he owned across nine plantations in the Caribbean.[23]

In later years Gladstone's attitude towards slavery became more critical as his father's influence over his politics diminished. In 1844 Gladstone broke with his father when, as President of the Board of Trade, he advanced proposals to halve duties on foreign sugar not produced by slave labour, in order to "secure the effectual exclusion of slave-grown sugar" and to encourage Brazil and Spain to end slavery.[24] Sir John Gladstone, who opposed any reduction in duties on foreign sugar, wrote a letter to The Times criticizing the measure.[25] Looking back late in life, Gladstone named the abolition of slavery as one of ten great achievements of the previous sixty years where the masses had been right and the upper classes had been wrong.[26]

Opposition to the opium trade

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Gladstone was an intense opponent of the opium trade.[27][28] Referring to the opium trade between British India and Qing China, Gladstone described it as "infamous and atrocious".[29] Gladstone emerged as a fierce critic of the Opium Wars, which Britain waged to re-legalise the British opium trade into China, which had been made illegal by the Chinese government.[30] He publicly lambasted the wars as "Palmerston's Opium War" and said that he felt "in dread of the judgements of God upon England for our national iniquity towards China" in May 1840.[31] A famous speech was made by Gladstone in Parliament against the First Opium War.[32][33] Gladstone criticised it as "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace".[34] His hostility to opium stemmed from the effects of opium upon his sister Helen.[35] Before 1841, Gladstone was reluctant to join the Peel government because of the First Opium War, which Palmerston had brought on.[36]