Fresh fuel for their anger was Mundella's introduction of a Railway Regulation Bill which sought to impose better braking and other safety devices. Opposition to the Railway and Canal Traffic Bill rode on the back of the then widespread and equally vehement opposition in the House to Irish Home Rule. In a division on the Irish matter, Gladstone's government fell, and with it Mundella's attempted radical reform of the railways (though the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, remarkably similar to Mundella's in effect, and with his encouragement from the Opposition benches, became law under the Conservatives in 1888.)