ABSTRACT
Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the Reform Bill of 1832, the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, the Reform Bill of 1867 all illustrated in their history a law that seemed to govern and to distinguish British politics. Wellington and Peel established a tradition that survived for half a century, the tradition that governed and limited the range and methods of party conflict. Herbert Gladstone had it in mind as soon as he saw that the Irish demand, of which he had said in 1884 that it would become a serious problem within ten years, was going, owing to the action of the Salisbury Government and the indication of Parnellite triumph in Ireland, to become a serious problem within ten months. The Government’s decision to revert to coercion and to drop all constructive plans put an end of course to the period of suspense.
