The storm that had been building for years over Ireland broke just as soon as Gladstone, with Irish support, finally brought down the Salisbury minority administration. His problem was that quite a few of his own Liberal MPs were unenthusiastic about Irish Home Rule, a policy to which he was now firmly committed, especially as he was dependent on the votes of Irish MPs.

Both the Whig tendency within Liberalism, whose leader was Hartington, and quite a few of the Radicals, following Chamberlain, were beginning to separate from Gladstone’s brand of Liberalism. When, therefore, he went into the campaign for his Home Rule Bill, he faced attacks from two wings of his own party, as well as from the Tories, now openly against restoring the Irish parliament since they were no longer hunting for Irish votes.

He might have handled some of the opposition more tactfully, especially Chamberlain’s. But it may have been a hopeless task anyway, given the depth of feeling against Home Rule among so many in both parties. Either way, the vote on the measure went just the way one might imagine, as Liberal rebels voting with the Conservatives made sure it was defeated.

The first squall of the storm had struck. It had left Gladstone’s attempt at Home Rule in pieces on the floor. And his government was in just as bad a way.

Illustration Joe Chamberlain by Harry Furniss. National Portrait Gallery 3349

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.