LIVES OF VICTORIAN POLITICAL FIGURES I Series Editors: Nancy Lopatin-Lummis Michael Partridge Volume Editors: Michael Partridge Richard A. Gaunt LIVES OF VICTORIAN POLITICAL FIGURES I Volume 1: Lord Palmerston Volume 2: Benjamin Disraeli (Part I) Volume 3: Benjamin Disraeli (Part II) William Ewart Gladstone (Part I) Volume 4: William Ewart Gladstone (Part II) LIVES OF VICTORIAN POLITICAL FIGURES I Volume 3 Benjamin Disraeli (Part II) Edited by Richard A. Gaunt William Ewart Gladstone (Part I) Edited by Michael Partridge First published 2006 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Taylor & Francis 2006 © Introduction and notes Michael Partridge, 2006 © Notes Richard A. Gaunt, 2006 All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publis hers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA Lives of Victorian political figures: Palmerston, Disraeli and Gladstone by their contemporaries 1. Palmerston, Henry John Temple, Viscount, 1784–1865 2. Disraeli, Ben- jamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, 1804–1881 3. Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart), 1809–1898 4. Prime Ministers – Great Britain – Biography – Sources 5. Statesmen – Great Britain – Biography – Sources 6. Great Britain – Politics and government – 19th century – Sources 7. Great Britain – History – 19th century – Sources I. LoPatin-Lummis, Nancy II. Partridge, Michael III. Gaunt, Richard 941'.08'0922 ISBN-13: 978-1-85196-826-8 (set) New material typeset by P&C CONTENTS Benjamin Disraeli (Part II) 1 V. The Last Election, 1879–80 3 [Anon.], Squire Bull, and His Bailiff, Benjamin 5 Arthur C. Yates and Arthur G. Symonds, Lord Beaconsfield Interviewed 19 [Anon.], ‘Lord Beaconsfield. I. – Why we follow him. II – Why we disbelieve in him.’ 25 John Phillips Stafford, The Battle of the Genii 59 Francis Bickerstaffe-Drew, How Ben Behaved Himself 69 Frederick Arthur Hyndman, The National or Factional Party: Which Shall Win? 77 VI. Death and Legacy, 1881– 91 Joseph Kidd, ‘The Last Illness of Lord Beaconsfield’ 93 J.M. Milner, In Memoriam. The Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli 103 Charles Dunlop, Beaconsfield Brilliants 115 James Bryce, ‘Lord Beaconsfield’ 121 James Foster Turner Wiseman, This is the Tree That Ben Raised 139 Lord Randolph Churchill, ‘Elijah’s Mantle; April 19th, 1883’ 171 William Ewart Gladstone (Part I) 183 Acknowledgements 185 Introduction 187 Bibliography 199 Chronology 205 I. Early Life, to c.1859–60 211 John McGilchrist, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone 213 James Brinsley-Richards, ‘Mr Gladstone’s Oxford Days’ 239 James Brinsley-Richards, ‘Mr Gladstone’s Early Politics’ 261 Frederick Maurice, Thoughts on the Duty of a Protestant in the Present Oxford Election 277 II. First Ministry, 1868–74 293 Edward Harper, Mr Gladstone Answered: the Inconsistencies, Absurdities, and Contradictions in Mr Gladstone’s Public Career 295 F.A., ‘William Ewart Gladstone: A Study of Character’ 311 A Templar, The Gladstone Government, Being Cabinet Pictures 329 Notes 405 Benjamin Disraeli (Part II) 1 V. The Last Election, 1879–80 3 [Anon.], Squire Bull, and His Bailiff, Benjamin. A Political Allegory (London and Manchester, Abel Heywood and Son, [n.d.]) Robert Stewart’s authoritative list of writings about Disraeli attributes this undated political allegory to 1879 (Stewart, p. 161). However, the internal evi- dence suggests a publication date some time after 1880, following the General Election of April and the publication of Disraeli’s novel Endymion in Novem- ber, as both events are referred to in the closing pages of the work. The anonymous squib, published by the well-known Manchester firm of Abel Heywood and son, offers a satirical account of Disraeli’s second ministry (1874–80) from the vantage point provided by Gladstone’s return to govern- ment as Prime Minister in 1880. The lightly fictionalized tale takes the form of an allegory in which Squire John Bull, the personification of Britain, is served by two competitors for the position of head-bailiff (Prime Minister) over the St George men. Ewart, a transparent allegory for Gladstone, and Benjamin, his Disraelian rival, compete for the support of the Parsons (‘who were afraid of being deprived of the honours and wealth which they received’), the Alehouse- Keepers (‘who feared that Ewart would be even more strict with them than he had been’) and the Landlords (who had lately ‘had to yield many of their privi- leges’). This results in Benjamin succeeding Ewart as head-bailiff, by way of winning the 1874 General Election. This chimed in with the widespread view that Disraeli’s success at the polls was explained by the offence which had been caused to the parsons, the publicans and the landlords by Gladstone’s energetic programme of reform during his 1868–74 ministry. By contrast, Disraeli’s pol- icy of social reform – first announced in his Manchester Free Trade Hall and Crystal Palace speeches in 1872 and described here as ‘improving the sewage and cleaning out all the cess-pools’ – offered a period of respite from such unsettling activity. The tale proceeds to clothe subsequent events in a lightly veiled satirical garb which readers could easily penetrate. Ewart retires (as had Gladstone, in 1875) ‘to indulge in his favourite recreations of construing Greek verbs, writ- ing letters to the papers, and cutting down trees’ whilst his successor enjoyed spending the financial surplus which his predecessor had amassed and embroil- 5 6 Lives of Victorian Political Figures I: Disraeli (Part II) & Gladstone (Part I) ing himself in the problems of ‘an estate [Turkey] owned by a foreigner named Abdul’. By turns, the intervention of the Russian Tsar ‘Squire Alexander’ II (1818–81) and the Austrian Emperor ‘Squire [Franz] Joseph’ (1830–1916) leads Benjamin to the gathering of stewards convened at ‘the hall of a squire named William’ – Kaiser Wilhelm I (1797–1888) of Germany – to settle them. The British occupation of Cyprus – agreed by a secret convention with Turkey in June 1878 – is dismissed as burdening Squire Bull with ‘a pestiferous hole … which would never so much as repay … the cost of the police he would be obliged to send there’. Meanwhile, the domestic affairs of the estate fell into disrepair and the reverses suffered in ‘a small and very hilly estate’ (Afghanistan) formed an unedifying sequel to Benjamin’s period of rule. He is dismissed and Ewart, after expressing some initial reluctance, agrees to succeed him. As such, Squire Bull, and his Bailiff, Benjamin offers an amusing, lightly satirical account of recent events told from the perspective of a Liberal sup- porter, dressed up as a tale of competing landowners, squires and bailiffs. In a parting dig at Disraeli, the author notes that after being removed from his position, Benjamin had proceeded to write ‘a story … in which he satirized the follies and vices of the Landlords’: Disraeli the hypocritical charlatan was thus, once more, condemned. [Anon.], Squire Bull, and His Bailiff, Benjamin 7 5 Now there was a man named Benjamin who wanted to be the head-bailiff; he had tried for it all bis life, and had held it once for a short time, but there was then so much dodging and trickery about his conduct that Squire Bull had quickly turned him out. He hoped, howcver, to get the plaee again some day, and in the meantime he did all he could to prcvent Ewart from earrying out his plans-making jokcs about him everywhere, and telling people he was a dangerous person. At last Benjamin wrote a letter to the paper, in whieh he said that Ewart's method of working ·was one of plundering and blundering. This made people laugh, and then Benjamin sa1d if they would support him, and make him bailiff, he would interfcre with no one, bnt would make things pleasant all round. He promised to destroy nothing, to keep all the old laws, and to occupy himself with improving the sewage and cleaning out all the cess-pools on the island. He promised also to make the island as famous as it was when the St. George men had thrashed Squire Bony. At that time, he said, Squire Bull was respected throughout the country-the owners of the largest estates were afraid of him; whereas now nobody cared a jot for him, because it was said he wouldn 't let his men go out to :fight-an through Ewart, who had persuaded him to it, and who bad reduced the number of the police. A great many people believed Benjamin when he talked in this way ; they thought it would be a fine thing for the island if he became bailiff, and they therefore joined his supporters. These consisted principally of three classes-the Parsons, who were afraid of being deprived of the honours and wealth which they received from the Squire ; the Alehouse-keepers, who feared that Ewart would be even more strict with them than he had been ; and the Landlords. These last were in possession of portians of the island, and although the land, of course, really belonged to the Squire, he allowed them to call these lots their own because they had been in 8 Lives of Victorian Political Figures I: Disraeli (Part II) & Gladstone (Part I) 6 the bands of their families a long time.