The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli

by Richard Aldous

Gladstone, too, had obligingly played his part in Disraeli’s rehabilitation. Tucked away in the letter to Miles was the boast that ‘the finance of Mr Gladstone has blown up’. For in the months since delivering his budget, the chancellor had suffered a crushing reverse. Although an overwhelming majority had passed the budget as a whole, these changes still had to be debated in separate individual bills. On Paper Duties, this opened up dissent within the government and gave Disraeli an opportunity to exploit. It was an open secret that Palmerston opposed the measure. Disraeli in office had planned a similar measure, but now he rallied his own forces with a spirited defence of a reactionary position that would humiliate the loathsome chancellor without bringing down the government. When the measure came before the Commons in early May, Disraeli launched a blistering assault. The Radical Trelawny described him ‘attacking Gladstone with more vehemence and with ad hominem arguments – alleging rashness, inconsistency, intolerance and self contradictions’. When the vote was taken, the chancellor found that his majority of 116 had shrivelled to just nine. The question then became what the Lords would do with it. They certainly had the right to reject the bill, but for more than two hundred years the upper house had stayed its hand on financial matters. Radicals noisily proclaimed that a constitutional crisis would inevitably ensue if the bill were rejected. Palmerston, however, sec...