Disraeli by David Cesarani

Author:David Cesarani
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2016-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

VII

The years of opposition between 1852 and 1858 had been long and grueling. Disraeli worked ceaselessly to persuade his party to drop protection and to persuade the electorate that the Tories had changed. He also had to nurture his relationship with Lord Derby, whose notion of leadership sometimes reduced him in despair. At times it seemed as if all the magnates did was hunt, shoot, and race horses.149

At the end of January 1855 the government of Lord Aberdeen was defeated on a key vote, and once more Disraeli’s anticipation quickened. But, once more, Lord Derby failed to knit together an administration that could command the confidence of the Commons. Disraeli had now been thwarted twice at the very cusp of power. In the winter of 1856–57, while he was vacationing in Paris with Mary Anne, there was more grumbling about his leadership. It was spiced with prejudice. Alexander Beresford Hope, one of his most persistent antagonists, always referred to him as “the Jew.”150

In March 1857 Palmerston won an increased majority in the general election. His dominance appeared absolute, and Disraeli seemed condemned to spend his life in fruitless opposition. To compound his misery, Lord Litchfield decided to call in the loan he and his brother had extended for the purchase of Hughendon. His debts now amounted to a near-astronomical £25,750, and his income could not cover the cost of both running the estate and servicing the interest—let alone repaying such a huge capital sum.151

Partial salvation came in the form of another government crisis. On 19 February 1858 Palmerston’s government unexpectedly lost a vote in the Commons. Queen Victoria called on Lord Derby to form an administration and, rather to everyone’s surprise, he did. Paradoxically, his task was simplified because renewed attempts to persuade Lord Grey and Gladstone to join him were rejected. Once again Disraeli’s presence repelled them. Lord Edward Stanley, by now a rising talent on the liberal wing of the Conservative Party, also declined to take office, partly because he foresaw that it would be a weak, doomed administration but also because “the character of Disraeli, who must lead the Commons, does not command general confidence, either in parliament or among the public.” The government would never attract men of stature from the Peelites because of the “connection with Disraeli. Able as he is, this man will never command public confidence.”152

Nevertheless, a week later Disraeli was back in the chancellor’s official residence, 11 Downing Street, in an office that carried a handsome annuity and a pension. Notwithstanding this good fortune he faced a myriad of problems both at the Treasury and as leader of the House. The first hurdle was the budget, which the new chancellor managed with aplomb. Efforts to strengthen the minority government by inducing Gladstone to join foundered on his now implacable antipathy to Disraeli. The government struggled on into the summer, when, amidst the welter of routine business, the Jewish question blew up again.153

Russell’s Oaths Bill had passed through the Commons without a division,

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