Why Did Disraeli Defeat Gladstone In 1866 But Introduce His Own Reform Act In 1867? Essay, Research Paper

History

During the 1860s the most serious issue that faced parliament was that of

parliamentary reform. This is somewhat surprising as a Parliamentary Reform

Act had been passed as recently as 1832. However, this act was limited in its

impact, and since then since then much had changed. The main causes of the re-emergence

of the need for further parliamentary reform were, firstly, demography (the

population had risen from 24m to 29m between 1831 and 1861, also people had

continued to move into the new industrial areas without any re-drawing of the

constituent boundaries). Secondly, there were radicals both inside and outside

parliament, led by John Bright. During 1858 and 1859 he campaigned for change

thus leading people into believing in parliamentary reform. This gave birth

to the formation of reform leagues and the campaigning of trade unions. Furthermore,

there was the death of Palmerston in 1865, who was very popular and very powerful

and had always succeeded in keeping a tight rein on the radicals in parliament.

Also, the American civil war between 1961 and 1865 focused people on the idea

of freedom and democracy.

Knowing all these factors, Gladstone began to believe in parliamentary reform,

particularly in extending the franchise, saying how the working classes had

?the moral right to come within the pale of the constitution?. In 1866, he introduced

a parliamentary reform bill to expand the electorate to incorporate an extra

400,000 voters by lowering the financial qualification level. However, at this

time the Liberals were divided into three main sectors, the radicals, the Whigs

and those in support of Gladstonian Liberalism, and opposition to the bill was

widespread within the party. The radicals were staunchly opposed to it as it

was deemed not to be radical enough, and the Whigs believed it to be too radical.

Unsurprisingly, the bill faced further opposition from the Tories. Disraeli

and the conservatives saw this as a unique opportunity in which the Tory party

could help the liberals to split themselves. Eventually Disraeli saw that the

bill was defeated by forming an alliance with right-wing liberals and introducing

an amendment which lessened the impact of the bill, and it was then withdrawn.

We know for a fact that a year later Disraeli introduced his own reform act,

so the key question is why then did he play such a major role in the rejection

of this one? There are in fact many reasons for this. Firstly, and perhaps most

significantly, Disraeli and Gladstone shared a mutual hatred for one another,

and as we know Disraeli wanted passionately to ?dish the Whigs.? Also, Disraeli

himself was in fact very anti-reform, so much so that he was known to have said

that the bill would bring into parliament ?a horde of selfish and obscure mediocrities,

incapable of anything but mischief.? It is likely that Disraeli knew he could

damage the liberal party by preventing the introduction of a parliamentary reform

bill, as this was a time when it was so greatly desired.

From the above quote, it is obvious that Disraeli was very much anti-reform.

Why is it then that in 1867 he introduced his own Reform Act, which was in fact

much more radical? The simple answer to this is that, as believed by many historians,

Disraeli was an opportunist. He too had seen the wish of the people for parliamentary

reform, and introduced the act not because he wanted to please the population,

but because he wanted power and popularity, and most of all he wanted to gain

votes in liberal strongholds in order to ?dish the Whigs.? He realised that

if he introduced measures the liberals had failed to introduce he would win

liberal votes.

However, Disraeli did realise that there were some positive effects of the

parliamentary reform. For example, he removed forty-five seats from areas with

a population under 10,000 and re-distributed them among areas with little or

no representation, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. The reason he did

this is still widely debated. Moneypenny and Buckle, for example, Disraeli?s

original biographers, believe that Disraeli wanted to widen the electorate,

simply because he believed this would be beneficial to the Conservative Party.

However, others such as R. Blake, Disraeli?s modern biographer believes that

Disraeli ?had the wide the wide franchise of 1867 forced on him as the price

of staying in power.? Judging from the fact that Disraeli described the people

whom the knew electorate incorporated as a ?a horde of selfish and obscure mediocrities,

incapable of anything but mischief?, it is likely that Blake?s opinion is more

accurate.

The above comment from Blake does not only portray Disraeli as an opportunist,

but also shows that not only did Disraeli want to gain popularity, he also realised

that parliamentary reform was an issue people felt very strongly about, for

example there had been mass demonstrations in Hyde Park, where over 100,000

people had turned out. Therefore, a further, although lesser reason for his

introduction of the Act is because he knew that he had to prevent a revival

of chartism.

In conclusion, Disraeli was not a believer in parliamentary reform, but his

opinions on this issue were minimal in comparison to his dislike for Gladstone

and the Liberals, and his love for power and popularity. He defeated Gladstone?s

bill in 1866 in an attempt to split the party, an introduced his own bill in

1867 primarily in order to gain liberal votes. It is important to realise though,

that his own act meant that there was a working class majority in all the major

cities of Great Britain, and, surprisingly for him, they used the votes he gave

them to bring Gladstone back into office in 1872.