When, at the age of thirty-three. Benjamin Disraeli entered the
House of Commons, he was flushed with his first literary successes
and inclined perhaps to take parliamentary popularity by storm. It
was the first year of Victoria's reign (1837) and the fashions of
the times allowed great latitude for the display of idiosyncracies
in dress. It seems that Disraeli pushed this advantage to the point
of license. We hear much of the amount of jewelry he wore and of the
gaudiness of his waistcoats. This may or may not have had a deciding
influence in determining the character of his reception by the
house, but at any rate it was a tempestuous one. He was repeatedly
interrupted, and when he attempted to proceed the uproar of cries
and laughter finally overpowered him and he abandoned for the time
being the attempt to speak--not, however, until he had served on
the house due notice of his great future, expressed in the memorable
words--thundered, we are told, at the top of his voice, and
audible still in English history--"You shall hear me!"
Not ten years later, the young man with the gaudy waistcoats had
become the leading Conservative orator of the campaign against the
Liberals on their Corn Law policy and so great was the impression
produced by his speeches that in 1852, when the Derby ministry was
formed, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The secret of his success is the thorough-going way in which he
identified himself with the English aristocracy. Where others had
apologized for aristocracy as a method of government, he justified.
Instead of excusing and avoiding, he assumed that a government of
privilege rather than that based on rights or the assumption of
their existence is the best possible government, the only natural
one, the only one capable of perpetuating itself without constant
and violent changes. Kept on the defensive by the forward movement
of the people, as well as by the tendency towards Liberalism or
Radicalism shown by the men of highest education among the
aristocratic classes themselves, the English Conservatives were
delighted to find a man of great ability and striking eloquence, who
seemed to have a religious conviction that "Toryism" was the only
means of saving society and ensuring progress. It is characteristic
of his mind and his methods, that he does not shrink from calling
himself a Tory. He is as proud of bearing that reproach as Camilla
Desmoulins was of being called a Sansculotte. When a man is thus
"for thorough," he becomes representative of all who have his
aspirations or share his tendencies without his aggressiveness. No
doubt Disraeli's speeches are the best embodiment of Tory principle,
the most attractive presentation of aristocratic purposes in
government made in the nineteenth century. No member of the English
peerage to the "manner born" has approached him in this respect.
It is not a question of whether others have equaled or exceeded him
in ability or statesmanship. On that point there may be room for
difference of opinion, but to read any one of his great speeches is
to see at once that he has the infinite advantage of the rest in
being the strenuous and faith-inspired champion of aristocracy and
government by privilege--not the mere defender and apologist for
it.
In the extent of his information, the energy and versatility of his
intellect, and the boldness of his methods, he had no equal among
the Conservative leaders of the Victorian reign. His audacity was
well illustrated when, after the great struggle over the reform
measures of 1866 which he opposed, the Conservatives succeeded to
power, and he, as their representative, advanced a measure "more
sweeping in its nature as a reform bill than that he had
successfully opposed" when it was advocated by Gladstone. In
foreign affairs, he showed the same boldness, working to check the
Liberal advance at home by directing public attention away from
domestic grievances to brilliant achievements abroad. This policy
which his opponents resented the more bitterly because they saw it
to be the only one by which they could be held in check, won him the
title of "Jingo," and made him the leading representative of British
imperialism abroad as he was of English aristocracy at home.