British History in Perspective General Editor: Jeremy Black PUBLISHED TITLES Rodney Barker Politics, Peopll!s and Government C. J. Bartlett British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century Jeremy Black &bert Walpoll! and the Nature of Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain Anne Curry The Hundred Yean- War John W. Derry British Politics in the Age of Fox, Pitt and Liverpool William Gibson Church, State and Society, 1760-1850 Brian Golding Conquest and Colonisation: the Normans in Britain, 1066-1100 S.J. Gunn Early Tudor Government, 1485-1558 Richard Harding The Evolution of the Sailing Navy, 1509-1815 Ann Hughes The Causes of the English Civil War Ronald Hutton The British Republic, 1649-1660 Kevin Jefferys The Labour Party since 1945 T. A. Jenkins Disraeli and Victorian Conservatism D. M. Loades The Mid-Tudor Crisis, 1545-1565 Diarmaid MacCulloch The Later Reformation in England, 1547-1603 W. M. Ormrod Political Life in Medieval England, 1300-1450 Keith Perry British Politics and the American Revolution A. J. Pollard The Wan-of the /Wses David Powell British Politics and the Labour Question, 1868-1990 David Powell The Edwardian Crisis Richard Rex Henry VIII and the English Reformation G. R. Searle The Liberal Party: Triumph and Disintegration, 1886-1929 Paul Seaward The Restoration, 1660-1668 Robert Stewart Party and Politics, 1830-1852 John W. Young Britain and European Unity, 1945-92 History of Ireland D. G. Boyce The Irish Question and British Politics, 1868-1996 (2nd edn) David Harkness Ireland in the Twentieth Century: Divided Island History of Scotland Keith M. Brown Kingdom or Province? Scotland and the Regal Union, 1603-1715 History of Wales A. D. Carr Medieval Wall!s J. Gwynfor Jones Early Modern Wall!s, c.1525-1640 FORTHCOMING TITLES Walter L. Arnstein Queen Victoria Ian Arthurson Henry VII Eugenio Biagini Gladstone Peter Catterall The Labour Party, 1918-1945 Gregory Claeys The French Revolution Debate in Britain Pauline Croft James I Eveline Cruickshanks The Glorious Revolution John Davis British Politics, /885-1939 David Dean Parliament and Politics in Elizabethan and JacobeanEngland, 1558-1614 Susan Doran English Foreign Policy in the Sixteenth Century David Eastwood England, I 750-1850: Government and Community in the Provinces Colin Eldridge The Victorians Overseas Richard English The IRA Angus Hawkins British Party Politics, 1852-1886 H. S. Jones Political Thought in Nineteenth-CAmtury Britain D. E. Kennedy The English Revolution, 1642-1649 Carole Levin The Reign of Elizabeth I W. David Mcintyre British Decolonisation A. P. Martinich Thomas Hobbes R. C. Nash English Foreign Trade and the World Economy, 1600-1800 Richard Ovendale Angli}-American Relations in the Twentieth Century Ian Packer Lloyd George Murray Pittock Cultural Identities in Britain and Ireland, 1685-1789 Murray Pittock Jaco/Jitism Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson Britain and the Impact of World War I Philip Rider The Industrial Revolution Brian Quintrell Government and Politics in Early Stuart England Stephen Roberts Governance in England and Wales, 1603-1688 David Scott The British Civil Wars John Spellman john Locke W. Stafford john Stuart Mill Alan Sykes The Radical Right in Britain Ann Weikel The Elizabethan Counter-Reformation Ann Williams Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England Ian Wood Churchill Michael Young Charles I History of Ireland Toby Barnard The Kingdom of Ireland, 1641-1740 Sean Duffy Ireland in the Middle Ages Alan Heesom The A nglfrlrish Union, 1800-1922 Hiram Morgan Ireland in the Early Modern Periphery, 1534-1690 History of Scotland I. G. C. Hutchison Scottish Politics in the Twentieth Century Roger Mason Kingship and Tyranny? Scotland, 1513-1603 John McCaffrey Scotland in the Nineteenth Century John Shaw The Political History of Eighteenth-Century Scotland Bruce Webster Medieval Scotland History of Wales Gareth Jones Wales, 1700-1980: Crisis of Identity Please note that a sister series, Social History in Perspective, is now available. It covers the key topics in social, cultural and religious history. Disraeli and Victorian Conservatism. T. A. jenkins First published in Great Britain 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-333-64343-3 ISBN 978-1-349-24865-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24865-0 First published in the United States of America 1996 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-16092-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jenkins, T. A. (Terence Andrew), 1958- Disraeli and Victorian conservatism IT. A. Jenkins. p. em.-(British history in perspective) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-16092-0 I. Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, 1804-1881. 2. Great Britain-Politics and govemrnent-1837-1901. 3. Conservativism--Great Britain-History-19th century. 4. Conservative Party (Great Britain}--History. I. Title. II. Series. DA564.B3J415 1996 941.081'092--{!c20 96-7529 CIP © T. A. Jenkins 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 CONTENTS Acknowledgements vu Note on Party Terminology vm I Imagination and Politics Introduction 1 A young adventurer 2 Disraeli's early politics 6 Member of Parliament, 1837-41 14 Young England 19 The destruction of Sir Robert Peel 25 Disraeli and the Conservative Party 29 2 The Mid-Victorian Conservative Party Introduction 32 Disraeli and the Conservative leadership, 1846-52 33 Opposition, 1853-8 45 In search of 'Conservative Progress' 52 Opposition, 1859-65 56 Disraeli and the House of Commons 61 3 Constructing the 'Tory Democracy' Introduction 65 Church and Queen 68 The Empire 72 Parliamentary reform 75 The Irish Church and the 1868 General Election 80 The doldrums 83 v Contents 1872: The national party 87 Towards victory, 1873-4 94 4 Prime Minister, 1874-80 Introduction 101 Disraeli's government 102 Social reform 110 Imperialism 117 Jingoism 120 Towards defeat, 1878-80 127 5 Disraeli ~Achievement The final year 133 The late-Victorian Conservative Party 135 The question of consistency 139 Disraelian myths 141 References 147 Bibliographical Note 161 Index 165 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the House of Lords Record Office, and to the Gloucester and Somerset County Record Offices, for access to archive material in their care. I would also like to express my appreciation of the labours by the staff of the Disraeli project, in Canada, who have thus far produced five volumes of Disraeli's complete correspondence. It is to be hoped that this project will continue to receive the support it deserves. Vll NOTE ON PARTYTERMINOLOGY By the mid-1830s, the party label 'Conservative' was beginning to displace the older title of 'Tory', although contemporaries often used these party names interchangeably - as, indeed, we still do today. However, the term 'Tory' was adopted by some, at various times, to denote a political tradition founded on the defence of established institutions, like the Crown, which allegedly commanded widespread popular support. This represented a contrast to the 'Conservative' strategy, associated above all with Sir Robert Peel, which had similar o~jectives but sought to achieve them through an alliance between the aristocracy and the middle classes. In 1846 the Conservative party was disastrously split over the question of the repeal of the Corn Laws. Those who opposed repeal, the bulk of the party, were sometimes labelled 'Protectionists', but they soon reverted to calling themselves Conservatives, and this is how I have chosen to describe them. The followers of Peel, who supported the repeal of the Corn Laws, are referred to as 'Peelites'. There was no less terminological confusion on the other side of politics. At the beginning of the Victorian age, the 'party' of the left was in reality a fragile alliance of Whigs, radicals and semi-independent Irish MPs. I have used the generic term 'Liberal' to describe this alliance when referring to events after 1846. However, the older sectional labels continued to survive. For instance, contemporaries frequently described the aristocratic leaders of the Liberal party as 'Whigs', and this could also be a convenient blanket term for all moderate Liberals. Vlll 1 IMAGINATION AND POLITICS Introduction In the summer of 1837 a dissolution of Parliament took place - the last time that this was to be a legal requirement owing to the death of the monarch, King William IV having passed away in june. The first general election of the reign of Queen Victoria saw Benjamin Disraeli returned for the borough of Maidstone, thus securing his entry to the House of Commons at the fifth attempt, at the age of almost thirty-three. Disraeli presented himself in his election address, as 'an uncompromising Adherent to that ancient Constitution, which was once the boast of our Fathers, and is still the Blessing of their Children'. He expressed his determination to uphold the prerogative rights of the Crown, and the 'equal Privileges' of the two Houses of Parliament, which he regarded as the best means of securing for 'the great body of the Nation that unrivalled and hereditary Freedom which has been the noble consequence of our finely balanced scheme of legislative power.' In particular, Disraeli declared that he was anxious to protect the rights of the established Church of the nation, 'that illustrious Institution to which we are not less indebted for our civil than for our spiritual liberties.' Finally, he emphasised his deep concern for the landed interest, promising to 'watch with vigilant solicitude over the Fortunes of the British Farmer, because I sincerely believe that his 1