ABSTRACT
More than most of his contemporaries, Benjamin Disraeli’s rise to power was assisted by circumstances over which he had no immediate control. For much of his early career in parliament, which began in 1837, there was little to mark him out for high office. His individuality, which bordered on eccentricity, alienated all but a small group of personal followers. His first opportunity, however, came in 1846 with the resignation of Peel and the split within the Conservative party over the repeal of the Corn Laws. In Peel’s absence Disraeli emerged, by 1849, as a most capable leader of the Conservatives in the House of Commons. But for nearly two decades he was unable to accomplish much in government, his only experience of which was a brief term as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Derby in 1852. His second chance came when, in 1865, the death of Palmerston loosened the Whig grip on British politics, while the problems experienced by Gladstone after 1872 gave him the opportunity in 1874 to lead the Conservatives to their first outright election victory since 1841, thereby completing his own ascent of the ‘greasy pole’.
