ABSTRACT
On the Parliamentary stage, meanwhile, the year 1868 had proved to the full how much “pressure from without,” whether in the shape of League demonstrations or Fenian explosions tend to strengthen Radicalism in the House of Commons. Meanwhile, Radical views on Parliamentary Reform were prospering better in Parliament during 1868 than had been the case in 1867. There can be no doubt but that Derby’s retirement and Disraeli’s appearance as Prime Minister temporarily weakened a Tory Government that had little authority in any case. A sufficiency of “advanced Liberals” was returned from the General Election of November 1868 to cause the immediate resignation of Disraeli’s Cabinet and loud Tory lamentation thereafter over the alleged Radical nature of the Government which Gladstone constructed in December. It is much more indicative of the true position of Parliamentary politics to note that Lowe was Gladstone’s Chancellor of the Exchequer while Bright was merely his President of the Board of Trade.
