1-150-555 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'Justice to Ireland', 1869. The Liberal Party having won the General Election at the end of 1868, Mr Gladstone became Prime Minister. One of his first acts was to introduce a Bill to disestablish the Irish Church. This cartoon shows Gladstone sacrificing the Irish Church at the feet of a blindfolded Justice. The message was that this act was not to be taken as licence for further Fenian activity, nor for Catholicism to attempt to take control of religious issues in Ireland. From Punch, or the London Charivari, January 16, 1869.