Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/112

 is an able and impressive one, though to appreciate its full effect at the moment we must remember accurately the state of public business at the period, and the disorganised condition of the House of Commons, which Peel declared to be, as far as he knew, without precedent, except perhaps during the short administration of Lord Shelburne from September 1782 to February 1783.

In the next three years Disraeli was engaged in building up a new conservative party out of the demoralised fragments of the old one, and right well did he perform the task. The best explanation of his policy at this time is to be found in his own speeches, and from those of 8 March 1849, 2 July 1849, 19 Feb. 1850, and 11 Feb. 1851 we may learn all that we require to know. He gradually brought back the Peelites to the conservative ranks, and so well did he set before parliament the claims of the landed interest to the reduction of those burdens which had been only imposed on it while protraction existed, and could not be justified after it was abolished, that they have never been disputed since, though the two parties have differed very widely as to the best method of satisfying them. On Lord John Russell's resignation in 1851 the queen sent for the late Lord Derby, on which occasion Disraeli offered to give up the leadership of the party in the lower house to Mr. Gladstone if he chose to rejoin his old colleague. Both Mr. Gladstone and Lord Palmerston, however, declined to do so on the ground that the conservatives had not yet washed their hands of protection, and the government went on another year. Then Lord John Russell resigned again, and Lord Derby had no alternative but to form a ministry out of the materials at his own disposal, which, however, were much better than he imagined. Lord Derby, it is said, was anxious to make Herries chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons (Greville Papers, new series, vol. iii.) But there is no trace of any such proposal in the life of Herries himself, and it is unlikely that in 1852 Disraeli, who had been working so long at the reconstruction of the party, and had almost raised it from the dead to renewed health and vigour, should have been asked to serve under Herries. Lord Derby dissolved in 1852 and gained about thirty seats, but this was not enough, and, being defeated on the budget in the following November, gave way to the famous coalition. The two principal features of Disraeli's first budget which caused its rejection by the house were the extension of the house tax to houses of 10l. a year rateable value, and the extension of the income tax to incomes of 100l. a year precarious income, and 50l. a year fixed. In his speech on this occasion he uttered his memorable dictum that 'England does not love coalitions,' and the doings of the coalition which dethroned him seemed to prove that England was in the right.

In 1849, Disraeli published an edition of the 'Curiosities of Literature,' in the preface to which he gave an interesting account of his own family; and in 1852 he found time to write the 'Life of Lord George Bentinck,' a political study of the highest interest and value. It is not only a most vivid and picturesque account or the great battle between the protectionists and free traders: it is there and there alone that we catch the true spirit of the opposition to Peel, and understand what it was that stung the protectionists to the quick, and palliated tactics which perhaps no provocation could have altogether justified. In this volume, too, is to be found the whole story of Peel and Canning, whom Peel was accused by Lord G. Bentinck of having 'chased and hunted to death;' and the whole attack and defence on the great question whether Peel had admitted in 1829 that he had changed his opinions on the catholic question as early as 1825. But possibly, to many readers, the most valuable and interesting chapter in the whole book will be that upon the Jews, in which the author sums up both with eloquence and conciseness all that he had said upon the same subject in his three great novels.

In 1853, Disraeli considered that the coalition which turned him out of office had been aimed at himself; that it was a coalition against a person and not against a principle; that in this it resembled the coalition of 1783 rather than the coalition of 1794, and he determined therefore to provide himself with an organ in the press specially devoted to writing down the Aberdeen amninistration. In the summer of 1853 appeared the 'Press' newspaper, a weekly journal containing the usual number of leading articles and reviews of books, but combined with squibs, poetry, and humorous essays, after the manner of the 'Anti-Jacobin.' The first editor is believed to have been Mr. Francis. He, however, was in a very short time succeeded by Mr. Samuel Lucas, and he in turn by David Trevena Coulton [q. v.], who conducted the paper till his death in 1857, and in whom Disraeli reposed the greatest confidence. The first leading article in the first number was written by Disraeli himself, and the present Lord Derby, then Lord Stanley, was for some time a regular contributor. For their verses, dialogues, and comic articles in general, the management relied chiefly on Shirley