The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli

by Richard Aldous

There were also intriguing hints about a new kind of social Conservatism aimed at poorer voters that would attract a great deal of attention in later years. ‘The first consideration of a minister should be the health of the people,’ declared Disraeli in an appealing combination of patriotism and social progressivism. ‘A land may be covered with historic trophies, with museums of science and galleries of art, with universities and with libraries: the people may be civilised and ingenious; the country may be even famous in the annals and action of the world, but, gentleman, if the population every ten years decreases, and the stature of the race every ten years diminishes, the history of that country will soon be the history of the past.’ To address this, he promised to legislate on ‘pure air, pure water, the inspection of unhealthy habitations, [and] the adulteration of food’.