The government publicly proposed a statue of Cromwell for the first time in 1895, which immediately resulted in members of the public questioning the decision due to the divided opinions about Cromwell. The proposal ended in a parliamentary debate and vote, in which the Government narrowly avoided defeat when the Unionists sided with them while the majority of the Conservatives and the Irish National Party voted against the measure because of Cromwell's history in Ireland. The decision was condemned by newspapers in Ireland. Following further opposition from the Irish National Party, the proposal was withdrawn on 17 July 1895. Herbert Gladstone, First Commissioner of Works, approved the statue with the funding coming from an anonymous private donor. In 1899 his successor Aretas Akers-Douglas confirmed the statue's proposed location as the sunken garden next to Westminster Hall. The statue, cast in bronze by Singer of Frome, was unveiled on 31 October 1899, followed by a speech on Cromwell by former Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, who was later revealed as the anonymous donor who paid for the statue, and whose wife was the sole heir to the Rothschild's family fortune.