Editing Liberal Party (UK) (section)

=== After Gladstone ===
{{Main|Liberal government, 1892–1895}}
Gladstone finally retired in 1894. Gladstone's support for Home Rule deeply divided the party, and it lost its upper and upper-middle-class base, while keeping support among Protestant nonconformists and the Celtic fringe. Historian [[R. C. K. Ensor]] reports that after 1886, the main Liberal Party was deserted by practically the entire whig peerage and the great majority of the upper-class and upper-middle-class members. High prestige London clubs that had a Liberal base were deeply split. Ensor notes that, "London society, following the known views of the Queen, practically ostracized home rulers."<ref>R. C. K. Ensor, ''England 1870–1914'' (1936), p. 207.</ref>

The new Liberal leader was the ineffectual [[Lord Rosebery]]. He led the party to a heavy defeat in the [[1895 United Kingdom general election|1895 general election]].<ref>Paul A. Readman, "The 1895 general election and political change in late Victorian Britain." ''Historical Journal'' 42.02 (1999): 467–493.</ref>