His first Home Rule Bill in March 1886 was a momentous turning point in British politics. The Liberal party split in a manner similar to the Conservatives in 1846 on the Corn Laws. A general election in June, fought on the question of whether Home Rule was Rome Rule, initiated twenty years of Conservative political dominance. Those who left the Liberals on the question of Home Rule included grand Whigs such as Hartington and new-money millionaires such as George Goschen and Joseph Chamberlain. Thus Gladstone not only emulated his hero Peel in splitting his own party and destroying it as a
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