ABSTRACT
The Home Rule Bill of 1893, known officially as the Government of Ireland Bill, was destined to run a remarkable course. In 1893, accordingly, Gladstone and Morley gave up the hope of using the Home Rule Bill to free British political development from the never-ending problems caused by the presence of the Irish members. Moreover, to have deferred the Second Reading proceedings on the Home Rule Bill to April gave Ministers further time to ponder over a major difficulty from a new direction but one threatening a possible repetition of the catastrophe of 1886. The best answer to such alarms was, of course, that the existing United Kingdom system allowed Irish members much larger facilities than did Home Rule for attempting to throw British politics out of gear. Though Ministers had thus taken the Home Rule Bill of 1893 beyond the point which had proved fatal to the Bill of 1886, the prospect before them was still bleak enough.
