Outline of Events

The years following 1846 were challenging for both William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, and both experienced setbacks as well as achievements. On balance it was Gladstone who had the best of it. Although an admirer of Robert Peel, Gladstone dwelt in the shadow of the great man, and Peel's death in 1850 freed him to shape his own career. The problem was that, although propelled from the Tories over the issue of Protection, Gladstone retained many Conservative sympathies and still hankered after the liberal Conservatism of Peel's 1841 administration. He was not a Whig, was opposed to further parliamentary reform and had an active distaste for Lord Palmerston's populist and aggressive foreign policy. Rapprochement with a Conservative party on the basis of a shared commitment to free trade seemed the most likely outcome and on several occasions appeared in the offing. But each time something held Gladstone back. Why is not clear. Was it an eradicable aversion to Disraeli? A realization that the Tory backbenchers shared an equal aversion to him? A recognition that the Conservatives would be unlikely to command a majority? Or an instinctive awareness that he was evolving toward Liberalism? Gladstone's response to the uncertainty of his position was to capitalize on his one clear strength: his reputation as a great financier in the tradition of Peel. He had laid the basis for this reputation with his 1853 budget, and following the fall of the Peelite-Liberal coalition in 1855 he bided his time, awaiting the right moment to pledge his support to a government. This moment came in 1859 when Gladstone joined Palmerston's Liberal administration as chancellor of the exchequer. The decision was a happy one: chancellor during the boom years of the early 1860s, Gladstone had the fiscal scope to pursue his agenda of free trade and low taxation, and although his years at the Treasury were not an unblemished success, he established a reputation for financial acumen that has never been rivalled. With this achievement under his belt he was well placed to advance his career once Palmerston died in 1865.

For Disraeli, the middle years of his career were far less prosperous.