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Disraeli's imperialism, 1866–1868: a question of timing1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Freda Harcourt
Freda Harcourt
Affiliation:
Queen Mary College, London
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Extract

Important landmarks, especially on the well-trodden ground of British history, sometimes appear to be so precisely delineated that they leave little room for re-interpretation. Yet if familiar episodes are looked at from perspectives which pose new questions and call for different evidence the result may well be unexpectedly illuminating. The making of the Second Reform Act is a good example. Though the subject of close scholarly investigation in terms of British parliamentary politics, it has not hitherto been viewed as only one of many closely linked domestic and foreign pressures which bore upon the British polity between 1866 and 1868 and which together exercised a decisive influence upon it. Reform, public order, economic recession, integration of the classes, concern about defence, and the challenge to Britain's international standing, were all components of the same crisis, and whether by chance or ingenuity it was the same power groups which had to handle them within the confines of time and circumstance.

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 87 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

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31 The Times, 6, 7 June, p. 8 and passim July–Dec. 1866.

32 Ibid. 24 Aug., 8 Nov., p. 8 and passim July–Dec. 1866.

33 Ibid. 21 July, p. 9, 13, 20 Aug. 1866, p. 8.

34 Ibid. 14 July 1866, p. 10.

35 Moneypenny, W. F. and Buckle, G. E., The life of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield (London, 1929), II, 201Google Scholar, is the only work which quotes this speech.

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45 Vincent, , Journals, 1866–1868Google Scholar. In June 1866 when Derby proposed Stanley for the foreign office, the queen had objected because of his inexperience. (See Buckle, G. E. (ed.), Letters of Queen Victoria 1862–1878, 2nd ser. (London, 1926), I, 352–3)Google Scholar. After Stanley had threatened naval action against Spain (April–May), chaired the Luxemburg conference (May) and authorized the Abyssinian Expedition (July, see below), Disraeli was able to reassure her (16 Aug., RA B23, fo. 101) that despite Stanley's ‘reserved and rather morose temper…it is far from improbable that [he] will, ultimately, be the Minister who will destroy and shatter to pieces the decaying theory and system of non-interference’.

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56 One of the influential officers attached to the Bombay presidency, he shared Frere's ideas and benefited from his patronage. Merewether influenced government policy officially (see Correspondence (P.P. 1867–68, LXXII), nos. 700, 705, 709, all received in London in 03 1867Google Scholar); and Stanley, H. M., Coomassie and Magdala: the story of two British campaigns in Africa (London, 1874), p. 287Google Scholar, states that Merewether also wrote for the London press.

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59 The Bill went into committee after its second reading on 31 May.

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61 Ambassador, 1858–65. See Landes, D. S., Bankers and pashas: international finance and economic imperialism in Egypt (London, 1958), pp. 179 ff., 224Google Scholar; Hallberg, Canal, ch. XIII; Layard papers, Add. MSS 39116, fos. 101, 118–22; 39114, fo. 255.

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66 The government refused to be drawn when, in the sense of Bulwer's letter, force was called for in the House of Lords on 21 June (Parliamentary debates, 3rd ser. CLXXXVIII, 239–42) and in the Commons debate on 26 July (CLXXXIX, 232–55). The formal cabinet decision was taken on 31 July (Iddesleigh papers, Add. MSS 50047, fo. 89). Troops sent from India for service abroad could operate for three months without reference to parliament.

67 See my ‘Sultan’.

68 Punch, 3, 10 Aug. 1867. This juxtaposition of the unseen danger within and the easily identifiable external enemy, easily overcome, lends itself to psychoanalytic interpretation. The Times called the expedition another ‘leap in the dark’, 28 Aug., 12 Sept., 12 Oct. 1867, p. 6.

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92 Ibid. 8 Sept. 1867, p. 6.

93 Ibid. 31 May 1868, p. 6.

94 Bee-hive from 5 Oct. 1867, p. 7; Lloyd's from 11 Aug. 1867, p. 7; other newspapers 1867–70. See also Bodelsen, C. A., Studies in mid-Victorian imperialism (London (repr. Copenhagen, 1924), 1960), pp. 79 ff., 103–4Google Scholar. But (p. 87, n. 1) Bodelsen is mistaken when he states that the Bee-hive was ‘suddenly’ converted to imperialism in 1869.

95 Metropolitan Conservative working men's association, first annual report, 17 June 1868, p. 2. A ‘quasi-compulsory’ subscription of £100 was levied on cabinet members in support of the associations (Vincent, , Journals, p. 323, 21 11 1867)Google Scholar.

96 Met. Cons, working men's assoc., first annual report, p. 7.

97 Cf. Cornford, J., ‘The transformation of Conservatism in the late nineteenth century’, Victorian Studies, VII (1963), 35–66Google Scholar; and see also Smith, , Reform Bill, pp. 237 ff.Google Scholar; Vincent, J., ‘The effect of the Second Reform Act in Lancashire’, Historical Journal, XI, 1 (1968), 84–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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102 He fired the first parliamentary salvo on 6 May 1867. Such an astute politician would not have chosen that day lightly. Evidently he saw the Irish church question as a means of preventing Liberal defections over Reform. But he quickly realized that his shot was ill timed, and did not return to the attack until the autumn. Parl. deb., 3rd ser. CLXXXVIII, 121–30; Morley, J., The life of William Ewart Gladstone (London, 1903), II, 240 ffGoogle Scholar.

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