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spotism' more than the disintegration of the Empire.
Geographical unevenness of petitioning was apparent in Ireland. Though petitions in Ulster were fewer than those of Leinster with Dublin far exceeding Belfast in 1886, Ulster petitions were 3.6 times more than Leinster petitions in 1893. Moreover, petitioning in present-day 6 counties of Ulster overwhelmed that of other three counties. Further, four counties with Protestant majority led the whole Ulster petitioning.
Some petitions showed their political, religious and social character very clearly. First, political petitioning was organized by various kinds of Conservative associations, especially the Orange Order and the Primrose League. But the role played by the Orange Order in executing petitioning was not great and that of the Primrose League was largely confined within England. Second, religious petitioning in Ireland was organized especially by the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterians and the Methodists. In England nonconformist groups such as Wesleyan Methodists, Congregationalists and Baptists conceived Home Rule as 'Rome Rule'. But the majority of English nonconformists were strong supporters of Gladstone. In Ireland nonconformists united to oppose Home Rule, in England not. Lastly, social petitioning was few and showed no symptoms of class interest. The only change took place in 1893 when women's petitioning increased dramatically.
Based on the analysis of sample petitions, I found that the most frequently mentioned and therefore important reason for anti-Home Rule petitioning was the apprehension about disintegration of the British Empire and encroachment of Protestant minority interest in Ireland that would be realized with the establishment of Home Rule. This fear of Home Rule future had some grounds, of course. But in Gladstone's struggle for Irish Home Rule there were true and profound meanings the petitioners could not see. First, Gladstone thought that the Irish Home Rule question should be a matter of Parliamentary politics: he introduced the question into the British constitution and succeeded in harnessing the Irish Nationalist party to the British Liberal party. Unlike the Home Rule crisis of 1912-14, the existence of Ulster was not critical either in 1886 or in 1893. Second, at the crisis of national identity in the late nineteenth century Gladstone tried to redefine the concept of 'United Kingdom' by allowing Ireland self-governing constitutional entity, thereby making the Kingdom as a 'multi-national state'.
Gladstone crowned these judgments with his 'serious' moral considerations of the Irish Question. Although Gladstone thought that the popular judgment in politics was superior mainly due to its moral causes to that of the higher orders, his moral conviction and, to quote Irish anti-Home Rule historian William Lecky, his 'fatal courage' were too strong to succumb to the overwhelming public opinion as demonstrated through petitions against his Irish Home Rule Bills.

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