Disraeli and Gladstone: Opposing Forces

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• 1. Mutual dislike
• 2. The duel begins
• 3. Face to face
• 4. The tide turns
• 5. Clashes of policy and personality
• 6. Find out more
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The duel begins

Peel won the election of 1841. Gladstone, as a rising young Tory, was given office. Disraeli, who had expected a government post, was not, and he never forgave Peel for this.

Hitherto Disraeli and Gladstone had had little occasion to notice each other. But in 1846 there occurred one of those rare convulsions in parliamentary life that shape politics for a generation. This was Peel's decision, as a result of the Irish famine of the late 1840s, to complete his policy of free trade by repealing the Corn Laws. These protected British agriculture from cheap foreign imports of grain - which could have alleviated some of the hardship in Ireland. They also, however, as many Conservatives believed, protected the livelihood of the party's sturdiest supporters, the agricultural interest, the farmers and landowners.

Disraeli saw this as an opportunity. Acting ostensibly as adjutant to Lord George Bentinck, the leader of those with landed interests, he made a series of brilliant attacks on Peel, who replied to them feebly and, as Gladstone said later, with a sort of 'righteous dullness'. Unluckily Gladstone, who, though still a minister, had lost his seat, was not in the House to support his hero.

The upshot of the party's split was that, though the Corn Laws were repealed, Peel was forced to resign. The party was divided into Peelites, largely leaderless, and Protectionists, led by the 14th Earl of' Derby - with Disraeli as his second-in-command. For the next 28 years, the Torys were to be the minority party, with occasional intervals in office.

'Disraeli's task was to rebuild the party that he had himself done so much to destroy.'

The first of these was in 1852, giving Gladstone the opportunity to get his own back on Disraeli. The latter was briefly the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and finance, whether his own or the nation's, was not his forte. His budget was thought by many to be a disaster. Gladstone, who was now a member of the opposing Aberdeen coalition (consisting of Whigs, Peelites, radicals and independents, headed by Lord Aberdeen), tore it to pieces, and the Derby / Disraeli government fell. The duel had begun in earnest. Disraeli's task was to rebuild the party that he had himself done so much to destroy.

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Published: 2001-06-01