Changes

====The Irish Question====

====The Irish Question====

Gladstone united his party, which had several factions based on personalities. He got the Liberals to agree on the [[Irish question]], which dominated British politics from the 1870s to 1914.  One achievement was to disestablish the Church of Ireland—a branch of the Church of England that Irish Catholics did not want to support. In 1870, Gladstone tried to resolve the agrarian problem, long a major cause of Irish unrest, in which Protestants and absentee English owners controlled most of the good farmlands in Ireland. He extended to predominantly Catholic southern Ireland the "Ulster Tenant Right", which had protected Protestants in Northern Ireland. The new act provided that tenants who were arbitrarily evicted by landowners had to be compensated by them, and paid for improvements they had made to the farm. The act did not reduce the high rents nor give tenants any security. These problems were resolved when Gladstone passed a second Irish land act in 1881, which provided for The Three F's, (fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure), and established a land court to which landlords and tenants might appeal voluntarily. The land court reduced average rents by 25%, and helped resolve the agrarian problem. But the Irish kept demanding more power (although not yet agitating for independence). Following the reforms, there was an alarming increase of violent outrages and lawlessness in rural Ireland directed against Protestant landlords. In 1886 Gladstone, after a brief Conservative interlude, became prime minister for the third time. He now realized that '''Home Rule'' was the only answer to the Irish question, but this solution split the Liberal party. A faction of radical imperialists led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]] broke off from the party and became known as the "Liberal Unionists". The Liberal Unionists voted with Conservatives to defeat Gladstone's Home Rule bill. The Liberals again came into office in 1892, after a campaign during which both parties stressed the Irish issue. In 1893 the House of Commons passed Gladstone's second Home Rule bill, but it was thrown out by the House of Lords. The Liberals stayed in office for more than a year after Gladstone's resignation in March 1894; but Home Rule went off the Liberal Party agenda until 1910.

Gladstone united his party, which had several factions based on personalities. He got the Liberals to agree on the [[Irish question]], which dominated British politics from the 1870s to 1914.  One achievement was to disestablish the Church of Ireland—a branch of the Church of England that Irish Catholics did not want to support. In 1870, Gladstone tried to resolve the agrarian problem, long a major cause of Irish unrest, in which Protestants and absentee English owners controlled most of the good farmlands in Ireland. He extended to predominantly Catholic southern Ireland the "Ulster Tenant Right", which had protected Protestants in Northern Ireland. The new act provided that tenants who were arbitrarily evicted by landowners had to be compensated by them, and paid for improvements they had made to the farm. The act did not reduce the high rents nor give tenants any security. These problems were resolved when Gladstone passed a second Irish land act in 1881, which provided for The Three F's, (fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure), and established a land court to which landlords and tenants might appeal voluntarily. The land court reduced average rents by 25%, and helped resolve the agrarian problem. But the Irish kept demanding more power (although not yet agitating for independence). Following the reforms, there was an alarming increase of violent outrages and [[lawlessness]] in rural Ireland directed against Protestant landlords. In 1886 Gladstone, after a brief Conservative interlude, became prime minister for the third time. He now realized that '''Home Rule'' was the only answer to the Irish question, but this solution split the Liberal party. A faction of radical imperialists led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]] broke off from the party and became known as the "Liberal Unionists". The Liberal Unionists voted with Conservatives to defeat Gladstone's Home Rule bill. The Liberals again came into office in 1892, after a campaign during which both parties stressed the Irish issue. In 1893 the House of Commons passed Gladstone's second Home Rule bill, but it was thrown out by the House of Lords. The Liberals stayed in office for more than a year after Gladstone's resignation in March 1894; but Home Rule went off the Liberal Party agenda until 1910.

====Reform legislation====

====Reform legislation====