ABSTRACT
On July 25, 1856, prior to a prorogation of Parliament which was to last until February 3, 1857, Disraeli made a disparaging review of the Government’s Sessional record of domestic legislation. He claimed that a so-called “liberal” Government was carrying out a Conservative policy which would have been better left in Conservative hands. Though Palmerston reminded Disraeli that some of the Government’s legislative shortcomings were due to Conservative “obstruction,” there was much truth in “Dizzy’s” taunt and there was to be more before the Palmerstonian régime was ended in 1865. A careful perusal of the 1856 Hansard will reveal some special causes of Radical weakness. The war, for example, had opened up almost an unbridgable gulf between “peace-at-any-price” Cobdenites and the pro-war Radicals, and the pro-war majority in its turn was divided between those ready to trust Palmerston and those who with Layard had attempted to use the public dissatisfaction of 1855 to turn out Palmerston too.
