At the head of the Liberals was William Ewart Gladstone, who in
his younger days had followed his master, Peel, out of the old
Tory lines into the camp of the free traders, and had been
Russell's chief lieutenant, and Palmerston's financial minister
for the last half-dozen years. He was a man of splendid
intellectual power, sterling morality, an adept at parliamentary
management, a shrewd financier, and held a deep conviction that
it was the part of statesmanship to embody in law what he
conceived to be the proper demands of the nation. His opponent
for a generation was Benjamin Disraeli, the young Jewish
novelist, who had first won a following in the House of Commons
by voicing the venom of the old-line protectionist Tories against
the recreant Peel. Versatile, shifty, brilliant, this adventurous
politician made himself indispensable to the Conservatives, and
overcame by political moves which were little short of genius,
the leadership of the opposition. Indeed, he may be said to have
transformed Conservatism, giving it a new rallying cry, and
inscribing great achievements upon its banner.