The Fourth Party Vanity Fair 1 December 1880

The Fourth Party was an informal label given to four British MPs,

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, John Gorst and

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, who gained national attention by acting together in the 1880–1885 parliament. They attacked what they saw as the weakness of both the

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government and the Conservative opposition. They were all backbench members of the

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. The Fourth Party seized upon the Bradlaugh affair, expressing time and again the outrage felt by many Conservatives for Gladstone allowing an avowed atheist to sit in Parliament. They had the support of two thirds of the Conservative MPs The Fourth Party also vigorously assaulted Gladstone regarding the Irish Land Bill of 1881. According to the report in ''

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'', they would "act as skirmishers to the main body, popping out here and there to fire a shot at the Government and being ostensibly rebuked but really supported by the Conservative leaders." The later Conservative Party faction known as the Hughligans was "a self-conscious attempt to recreate the 'Fourth Party'", according to

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.
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References

Further reading