The general election in November/December 1885 saw the Liberals lose 33 seats but in January 1886 Salisbury resigned the premiership after losing a vote in the Commons and so Gladstone formed a government on 1 February. Historians point to his age as an explanation for his inflexibility. He minimized the Radical role in his cabinet, with only Joseph Chamberlain representing that faction. The result was internal feuding that so weakened the cabinet that solid achievements were lacking. The historian Donald Southgate argues: