In the 1880 general election Gladstone's Liberals won 352 seats, a gain of 110, against 237 for the Conservatives and 63 for the Irish Home Rule League. It was a comfortable margin, but defections always seemed to whittle down the lead and sometimes produced defeat. Despite his age Gladstone was an indefatigable leader and organiser, and the most brilliant speaker; however he wasted energy by serving as his own Chancellor of the Exchequer for a while. His Liberal party was increasingly factionalised between the smaller "radical" contingent and the larger "Whig" grouping. Gladstone selected a relatively weak cabinet that favoured the Whigs. Even so, some Whigs were alienated because of his imperial policy, while the radical leader, Joseph Chamberlain broke away in because they opposed his home rule plan for Ireland.