1-150-981 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage Images

"The Start", 1886. On the left at the starting line is the 'Grand Old Man' of politics, the Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone. On the right is Lord Salisbury, the Leader in the Lords of the Conservatives and the former Prime Minister. Gladstone's government had resigned after he had been defeated on the second reading of his Irish Home Rule Bill, and the country was set for a General Election. Salisbury had just made a speech in which he had proposed an alternative policy. His view that parliament should enable the British government to rule Ireland and manage Irish affairs. He proposed that this rule should pertain for twenty years, after which time Ireland would be sincerely grateful for any gift in the way of local government that Britain might care to bestow upon her. From "Punch, or the London Charivari", July 3, 1886.