Lord Salisbury resigned office in the first months of 1886; Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister in his stead. Had parties in the House of Commons remained unchanged, the prospect for the old statesman would have been auspicious; the Liberals and Nationalists combined would have been supreme; Home Rule would have been the fruit of the new alliance. But the most distinguished men of the Liberal party, resenting a coalition far worse than that of Fox and North, and convinced that Home Rule would be ruinous to the State, fell off from their leader in large numbers; the powerful Press of Great Britain, with few exceptions, emphatically condemned the Minister's conduct. Mr. Gladstone, however, did not pause in his violent course; he introduced his first Home Rule Bill in April, 1886. I can only glance at the main features of this famous measure, and devote to it a passing comment.[23] A Parliament was to be established in the Irish capital; this, subject to the limitations set forth in the Bill, was practically to exercise supreme power in Ireland. This Parliament was to be composed of two Orders, the first containing one hundred and three members, and formed of a few Irish peers and of men of some substance; the second comprising two hundred and four or two hundred and six members elected on the existing democratic franchise. The two Orders were ordinarily to sit together; but should differences in legislative measures arise, the first Order was, for a short time, to have a suspensive veto on the decisions of the second Order, which, however, possessing an immense majority, would almost necessarily in the long run completely prevail. The Irish Parliament was precluded from legislating on many subjects, for the most part Imperial, but partly domestic; it was notably to have no control over the Customs and Excise of Ireland, which were to be kept in the hands of the Imperial Parliament; and though it was permitted to impose any other taxes, the whole revenue of Ireland was to pass through the hands of a British official, who was to pay into the Imperial Treasury a sum of about four millions sterling, as a contribution from Ireland, for Imperial purposes, before the Irish Treasury could receive a farthing. Bills voted by the Irish Parliament might be annulled by the veto of the Lord-Lieutenant and perhaps of the British Ministry; and the Judicial Committee of the English Privy Council, reinforced by a small body of Irish judges, was to have the power to pronounce Acts of the Irish Parliament void, if inconsistent with its constitutional rights. Subject, however, to these restrictions and checks, the Irish Parliament was to be a sovereign power in Ireland; it could practically appoint or displace the Irish Executive Government; it could enact, change, or repeal any laws it should think fit; it could pass any resolutions it pleased; if an assembly partly subordinate, it would be largely supreme. Ireland was to have no representatives in the Imperial Parliament, though this could dispose of the Irish Customs and Excise; no Irish protest could be made at Westminster against unjust fiscal exaction, by no means impossible. For the rest, the Union was nominally not disturbed, and the Imperial Parliament was nominally left intact; but it was declared that the Irish Parliament was to possess the rights secured to it, unless these were annulled by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, to which the Irish had given its consent, or by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, in which representatives from Ireland should have a voice.