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Print: The Lobby of the House of Commons, 1886

Lib. [Liborio Prosperi], The Lobby of the House of Commons, 1886 (LMILC.2012.50, purchased 2012).
Lithograph print for Vanity Fair, 1886.

This cartoon is of politicians and staff in the House of Commons lobby in early 1886, following the historic UK general election of late 1885. It was the first election in which most adult males had a right to vote. Furthermore, the majority of constituencies now returned a single Member of Parliament (MP), as opposed to the previous form of two-seat constituencies.

The result was a victory for the Liberal Party under Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-98), but they failed to get more than half of the seats which led to a so-called ‘hung parliament’. The balance of power was held by the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), led by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–91), a Protestant born into an Anglo-Irish landed family from Co. Wicklow. Due to the IPP’s new-found power at Westminster, there was increased pressure to grant ‘Home Rule’ or self-government to Ireland.

In April 1886, Gladstone introduced a Home Rule Bill as part of his long-standing ambition to ‘pacify Ireland’. However, there was considerable opposition from Conservatives, Unionists, and even Liberals in Gladstone’s own party. The bill failed to pass through parliament, and Gladstone lost the general election of mid-1886.

From left to right, the individuals in the cartoon are: Eleazor Denning (Metropolitan Police Inspector), Archibald Milman (Clerk Assistant), John Bright (MP Birmingham Central), Sir William Harcourt (MP Derby), Ralph Gosset (Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms), Henry Labouchère (MP Northampton), Charles Bradlaugh (MP Northampton), Joseph Chamberlain (MP Birmingham West), Charles Stewart Parnell (MP Cork City), William Ewart Gladstone (Prime Minister and MP Midlothian), Lord Randolph Churchill (MP Paddington South), Lord Hartington (MP Rossendale), Henry Chaplin (MP Sleaford), George Leveson-Gower (MP North West Staffordshire), Hon. Charles Spencer (MP Mid Northamptonshire), Lord Arthur Hill (MP West Down), and Henry Hansard (Printer to the House of Commons).

Lord Arthur Hill (1846-1931) had a local connection to the Lisburn and Castlereagh area, being the youngest child of Arthur Hill (1812-68), 4th Marquess of Downshire of Hillsborough Castle.

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