The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli

by Richard Aldous

to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen. He explained simply that, after taking a day to consider the matter, cabinet had decided the ‘safest and best course’ was to resign. He suggested that she send for Disraeli. ‘As for himself,’ Victoria recorded afterwards, ‘he wished to retire altogether for a time … [said] that he longed for rest, for the work and exertion for body and mind were beyond what human nature could bear.’ Leaving the Palace at half past three, Gladstone went straight to the Commons to make a brief announcement that he had offered his resignation to the Queen, who was sending for the leader of the opposition. By six o’clock he was back in Downing Street already looking forward to the first relaxation of his post-premiership: a visit to the studio of the artist John Everett Millais. Gladstone had been at home barely fifty minutes when a message came that Colonel Henry Ponsonby, now private secretary to the Queen, wanted to see him urgently. ‘Any news?’ Gladstone asked when the court official was shown in. ‘A great deal,’ the colonel replied. Disraeli had refused to take office. The Queen was ‘sending for you anew’. For a moment Disraeli had wavered, but after meeting Gathorne Hardy (his most trusted lieutenant) they had agreed on ‘the impracticability of office’. Certainly there were electoral advantages in declining. Disraeli had long been convinced that the Liberals would collapse and that the people would grow weary of reforming zeal. By 1873 these predict...