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4 unusual facts about Hawarden Kite


Hawarden Kite

Gladstone won the ensuing election, but when he proposed the Government of Ireland Bill later in 1886, 93 Liberal MPs voted against their, prompting a further general election.

Meanwhile, in London on 1 August 1885 the Conservative minister Lord Carnarvon, Viceroy of Ireland, had met Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish Home Rule leader, for a confidential discussion to see how far each could meet the other's policy.

The Hawarden Kite was a famous British scoop of 1885, an apparent instance of flying a kite, when Herbert Gladstone, son of the then Leader of the Opposition William Ewart Gladstone revealed to Edmund Rogers of the National Press Agency in London that his father now supported home rule for Ireland.

Gladstone also felt that the Electoral Act of 1884, which increased the franchise, would give him increased and perhaps permanent majorities in subsequent elections.



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