ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY; DELIVERED AT MANCHESTER,
APRIL 3, 1872.
[In November of 1871, Sir Charles Dilke delivered an address at
Newcastle, in which he denounced the cost of royalty. The popular
agitation that followed throughout the country was very considerable;
and, as Mr. Gladstone was then Prime-Minister, there were not a
few that supposed this attack upon the support of the crown to be
a premonition of a policy to be adopted by the government. The
position of Dilke met with no popular encouragement, but it gave an
opportunity to the Opposition which they were by no means reluctant
to avail themselves of. The agitation that followed had not a little
influence in bringing on the downfall of Gladstone’s ministry in
1874. Lord Beaconsfield was at the head of the Opposition, and the
following speech was at once the most effective assault made upon
the policy of Gladstone, and the most comprehensive statement of the
principles advocated by the Conservative party.]