Disraeli’s Achievement

Abstract

Disraeli died almost exactly a year after leaving office. He remained the leader of his party until the end, having pledged his continued service to the Conservative cause at a gathering of some 500 peers and MPs held at Bridgewater House on 19 May 1880. Disraeli warned the meeting that Gladstone’s ministry posed a serious threat to the power of the aristocracy, because of its dependence on the support of ‘revolutionaries’ (i. e. Radicals), on the backbenches, whose first target was sure to be the system of land tenure. He therefore advised the Conservative Party to support the government whenever possible, in order to encourage it to resist such dangerous pressures. Trying to take an optimistic view of the future, he reminded his audience of how quickly Earl Grey’s Whig administration had lost its popularity after carrying the Great Reform Act, implying that a similar process of disintegration was likely to afflict the Gladstonian Liberals.¹ Shortly after the meeting, in a letter to Lord Lytton, Disraeli maintained that it was his wish to retire from public life, but only when a suitable successor had emerged. In the meantime, he was resolved to ‘act as if I were still young & vigorous, & take all steps in my power to sustain the spirit & restore the discipline of the Tory party. They have existed for more than a century & a half as an organised political connection &…they must not be snuffed out.’²