Plunkett’s Creameries, Labour’s Congress
The year opened in the shadow of the Second Home Rule Bill. The House of Commons had passed Gladstone’s measure in 1893, only for the House of Lords to reject it overwhelmingly that September. On 3 March 1894, William Ewart Gladstone resigned as prime minister. Lord Rosebery succeeded him, inheriting a Liberal government dependent on Irish nationalist votes but lacking a credible immediate route to Home Rule.