[The speech which most endeared Disraeli to the Tories was
delivered in the House of Commons January 22,1846. Peel had just
declared his conversion to free trade and his intention to repeal
the Corn Law duties, when Disraeli rose and in behalf of the
unconverted Tory protectionists poured his fire into the face of
the Prime Minister.]
Sir, I rise with some feeling of embarrassment to address the
House at this stage of the debate, as it is only since I have
entered the House that I have had the advantage of reading her
Majesty's speech; and I had understood that the great question
which now agitates the country was not to be discussed on the
present occasion.....I should have abstained from intruding
myself on the House at the present moment, had it not been for
the peculiar tone of the right honorable gentleman (Sir Robert
Peel). I think that tone ought not to pass unnoticed. At the same
time I do not wish to conceal my opinions on the general subject.
I am not one of the converts. I am, perhaps, a member of a fallen
party. To the opinions which I have expressed in this House in
favor of protection I adhere. They sent me to this House, and if
I had relinquished them, I should have relinquished my seat also.
I must say that the tone of the right honorable gentleman is
hardly fair towards the House, while he stops discussion upon a
subject on which he himself has entered and given vent to his
feelings with a fervency unusual to him. Sir, I admire a minister
who says he holds power to give effect to his own convictions.
These are sentiments that we must all applaud. Unfortunate will
be the position of this country when a minister pursues a line of
policy adverse to the convictions which he himself entertains.
But when we come to a question of such high delicacy as the
present, we may be permitted to ask ourselves what are the
circumstances which require one so able, and one so eminent, to
enter upon the vindication of himself, and to rise in this House,
amid the cheers of his former opponents, to place himself in a
position of an apologetical character to those who were once of
his own party? I have no doubt that the right honorable gentleman
has arrived at a conscientious conclusion on this great subject.
The right honorable gentleman says that it is not so much by
force of argument as by the cogency of observation that he has
arrived at this conclusion. But, sir, surely the observation
which the right honorable gentleman has made might have been made
when he filled a post scarcely less considerable than that which
he now occupies, and enjoyed power scarcely less ample than that
which he now wields in this House. I want to know how it is that
the right honorable gentleman, who certainly enjoys the full
maturity of manhood, should not have arrived at this opinion,
which I deplore, although conscientious, at the moment when his
present government was formed! What, sir, are we to think of the
eminent statesman who, having served under four sovereigns;
unable to complain of want of experience or royal confidence;
who, having been called on to steer the ship on so many
occasions, and under such perilous circumstances, has only during
the last three years found it necessary entirely to change his
convictions on that important topic which must have presented
itself for more than a quarter of a century to his consideration?
Sir, I must say that such a minister may be conscientious, but
that he is unfortunate. I will say, also, that he ought to be the
last man in the world to turn round and upbraid his party in a
tone of menace. Sir, there is a difficulty in finding a parallel
to the position of the right honorable gentleman in any part of
history. The only parallel which I can find is an incident in the
late war in the Levant.....I remember when that great struggle
was taking place, when the existence of the Turkish empire was at
stake, the late Sultan, a man of great energy and fertile in
resources, was determined to fit out an immense fleet to maintain
his empire. Accordingly a vast armament was collected. It
consisted of some of the finest ships that were ever built. The
crews were picked men, the officers were the ablest that could be
found, and both officers and men were rewarded before they
fought. There never was an armament which left the Dardanelles
similarly appointed since the days of Solyman the Great. The
Sultan personally witnessed the departure of the fleet; all the
muftis prayed for the success of the expedition, as all the
muftis here prayed for the success of the last general election.
Away went the fleet, but what was the Sultan's consternation when
the Lord High Admiral steered at once into the enemy's port! Now,
sir, the Lord High Admiral on that occasion was very much
misrepresented. He, too, was called a traitor, and he, too,
vindicated himself. "True it is," said he, "I did place myself at
the head of this valiant armada; true it is that my sovereign
embraced me; true it is that all the muftis in the empire offered
up prayers for my success; but I have an objection to war. I see
no use in prolonging the struggle, and the only reason I had for
accepting the command was that I might terminate the contest by
betraying my master." ....
Well, now, the right honorable gentleman has turned round on us,
and in a peroration, the elaborate character of which remarkably
contrasted with the garrulous confidence of all the doings of his
cabinet, the right honorable gentleman told us that he had been
assured that a certain power had made him minister, and that a
certain power would prevent him from being a minister; but that
he protested against such an authority, and that he never would
hold office by so servile a tenure. Sir, no one can fill a
position such as that of the right honorable gentleman and give
utterance to sentiments so magnanimous as his without reference
to antecedents. And that leads us to the consideration of that
government by parties, which must never be lost sight of in
estimating the position of the right honorable gentleman. It is
all very well for the right honorable gentleman to say, "I am the
First Minister"--and by the by, I think the right honorable
gentleman might as well adopt the phraseology of Walpole, and
call himself the sole minister, for his speech was rich in
egoistic rhetoric--it is all very well for him to speak of
himself as the sole minister, for as all his cabinet voted
against him, he is quite right not to notice them. I repeat, it
is all very well for the right honorable gentleman to come
forward to this table and say, "I am thinking of posterity,
although certainly I am doing on this side of the table the
contrary to that which I counseled when I stood upon the other;
but my sentiments are magnanimous, my aim is heroic, and
appealing to posterity, I care neither for your cheers nor your
taunts."
But, sir, we must ask ourselves, as members of the House of
Commons, as the subjects of a popular government--we must ask
ourselves, what were the means, what the machinery, by which the
right honorable gentleman acquired his position, how he obtained
power to turn round upon his supporters, and to treat them with
contempt and disdain? Sir, the right honorable gentleman has
supported a different policy for a number of years. Well do we
remember on this side of the House--perhaps not without a blush--
well do we remember the efforts which we made to raise him to the
bench on which he now sits. Who does not remember the "sacred
cause of protection," the cause for which sovereigns were
thwarted, Parliaments dissolved, and a nation taken in?
Delightful, indeed, to have the right honorable gentleman
entering into all his confidential details, when, to use his
courtly language, he "called" upon his sovereign. Sir, he called
on his sovereign; but would his sovereign have called on the
right honorable baronet, if, in 1841, he had not placed himself,
as he said, at the head of the gentlemen of England--that well-
known position, to be preferred even to the confidence of
sovereigns and courts? It is all very well for the right
honorable baronet to take this high-flying course, but I think
myself, I say it with great respect for gentlemen on this side of
the House, and gentlemen on the other; I say it without any wish
to achieve a party triumph, for I believe I belong to a party
which can triumph no more, for we have nothing left on our side
except the constituencies which we have betrayed; but I do say my
conception of a great statesman is of one who represents a great
idea--an idea which may lead him to power; an idea with which he
may identify himself; an idea which he may develop; an idea which
he may and can impress on the mind and conscience of a nation.
That, sir, is my notion of what makes a man a great statesman. I
do not care whether he be a manufacturer or a manufacturer's son.
That is a grand, that is indeed an heroic, position. But I care
not what may be the position of a man who never originates an
idea--a watcher of the atmosphere, a man who, as he says, takes
his observations, and when he finds the wind in a certain
quarter, trims to suit it. Such a person may be a powerful
minister, but he is no more a great statesman than the man who
gets up behind a carriage is a great whip. Both are disciples of
progress; both perhaps may get a good place. But how far the
original momentum is indebted to their powers, and how far their
guiding prudence regulates the lash or the rein, it is not
necessary for me to notice.