Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli  
 

 (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) 

- British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure.

Early life  
 

• Benjamin was the second child and eldest son of Isaac D'Israeli and Maria Basevi
• He changed the spelling in the 1820s by dropping the apostrophe
• Before he entered parliament, Disraeli was involved with several women, most notably Henrietta, Lady Sykes
• In 1839 he settled his private life by marrying Mary Anne Lewis, the rich widow of Wyndham Lewis, Disraeli's erstwhile colleague at Maidstone.

Parliament  
 

• Disraeli's politics at the time were influenced both by his rebellious streak and by his desire to make his mark
• He was a Tory by the time he won a seat in the House of Commons in 1837 representing the constituency of Maidstone
• He was sympathetic to some of the demands of the Chartists and argued for an alliance between the landed aristocracy and the working class against the increasing power of the merchants and new industrialists in the middle class

First Derby government  
 

• Disraeli was to have been Home Secretary, with Stanley as Prime Minister
• He had been opposed to the repeal of the Corn Laws in June of 1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws had removed the tariffs on the importation of cheap cereal grains into Britain. Thus the price of wheat had fallen
• He sought to alleviate disadvantage by differentially raising income tax rates against non-farmers and lowering income taxes for the farmers
• His proposal to extend the tax to Ireland gained him further enemies
• He favoured certain concessions to the "free traders" in order to broaden the support for the Conservative Party.

Second Derby government  
 

• Lord Palmerston's government collapsed in 1858. Disraeli remained leader of the House of Commons and returned to the Exchequer
• The principal measure of the 1858 session would be a bill to re-organise governance of India, the Indian Mutiny having exposed the inadequacy of dual control
• President of the Board of Control, Lord Ellenborough was forced to resign
• Faced with a vacancy, Disraeli and Derby tried yet again to bring Gladstone into the government. Disraeli wrote a personal letter to Gladstone, but he was denied.

Imperialism  
 

• Disraeli was, according to some interpretations, a supporter of the expansion and preservation of the British Empire in the Middle East and Central Asia
• He believed in upholding Britain's greatness through a tough, "no nonsense" foreign policy that put Britain's interests above the "moral law" that advocated emancipation of small nations
• A leading proponent of the Great Game, Disraeli introduced the Royal Titles Act 1876, which created Queen Victoria Empress of India, putting her at the same level as the Russian Tsar
• He scored another diplomatic success at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, however, difficulties in South Africa, as well as Afghanistan, weakened his government and led to his party's defeat in the 1880 election.

Title and death  
 

• Disraeli was elevated to the House of Lords in 1876 when Queen Victoria made him Earl of Beaconsfield and Viscount Hughenden
• In the general election of 1880 Disraeli's Conservatives were defeated by Gladstone's Liberals, in large part owing to the uneven course of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The Irish Home Rule vote in England contributed to his party's defeat. Disraeli became ill soon after and died in April 1881.