ABSTRACT
The long period of Conservative ascendancy at the end of the nineteenth century is associated peculiarly with the powerful figure of Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister for nearly fourteen years between 1885 and his retirement in 1902. The position of the Liberal Unionists after the general election of July 1886 depended on the simple fact that, partly as a result of their electoral pact with the Conservatives, they controlled seventy-eight votes in the House of Commons. Despite the remarkable change that took place in the leadership of the Conservative Party between the 1870s and the 1890s, there was little fundamental change in the character of the party or the nature of its support. The Conservative Party also gained from the inbuilt advantages that the electoral system itself gave to owners of property. Conservative reform legislation was often the outcome of subtle and detailed negotiations and conflict within the party.
