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April 20, 2007
Disraeli: leader, magician
British PM, despite political leanings, advocated for the poor.
EUGENE KAELLIS
Victorian England was the vital centre of the western world. It
was unmatched in science, technology and industry, challenged only,
toward the end of the 19th century, by a newly unified Germany.
At the beginning of this ascendancy, the ordinary people of Britain
had been slowly forced into economic and political degradation.
Driven by desperation, they migrated to cities, where they would
provide cheap labor for the rising manufacturing centres. Underpaid
and overworked, when they could find employment, they were atrociously
housed and malnourished. Their work generated the vast initial accumulation
of capital that enabled Britain to graduate into a more mature capitalism
in which ordinary people received a greater share of the national
wealth.
By the end of the century, British industrial supremacy, cheap colonial
raw materials and markets for manufactured goods among the vast
populations of Britain's colonies made England supreme. Its ruling
class had changed from a land-based titled nobility to the new entrepreneurial
class of manufacturers and financiers who were appropriating economic
and political power, although many land-owning peers had also invested
in industry. By mid-century, the condition of the lower classes
had improved considerably, but politics, with a severely limited
electorate, was still the purview of the rich and upper middle class,
titled or commoners.
Socially, Britain, especially in the 19th century, has been described
as the recluse of "characters" whose position, wealth
and privilege permitted them the exercise of a wide range of idiosyncrasies.
Few, achieving national prominence and power, were more eccentric
than Benjamin Disraeli, the wit, dandy, literary celebrity, strategist
and "red Tory" of imperial Britain. Indeed, few writers
of fiction would have dared invent such a unlikely character.
Disraeli was born in 1804 in what is now part of London. His grandfather
had been an Italian-Jewish immigrant. A successful investor, he
left a considerable estate. His father, after a quarrel with his
Sephardi synagogue, had his children baptized into the Anglican
Church. Undoubtedly, there were other considerations. Britain, in
1290, had been the first country to expel all its Jews. They were
rather grudgingly allowed back by Cromwell under the Commonwealth
(1649-'60) but had to suffer restrictions in their public life.
Disraeli was at bar mitzvah age when he was converted. Nonetheless,
in spite of his nominal Anglicanism, he never spurned his ancestry.
To cite just one example, when John Henry Newman, a prominent Anglican
cleric, converted to Catholicism, causing quite a stir in Britain,
Disraeli daringly and publicly quipped, "Too bad he stopped
at Rome on his way to Jerusalem."
Disraeli became famous for his quick and agile wit. Once, in the
House of Commons, when the Liberal leader, William Gladstone, who
in his private journals was not above anti-Semitic characterizations
of Disraeli, was outraged to the point of addressing Disraeli personally.
"You will either die on the gallows or from some loathsome
disease," he declared. With no hesitation, "Dizzy,"
as he was known, retorted, "That depends on whether I embrace
your principles or your mistress." It was not quite fair to
the puritanism of the Liberal party leader, but nonetheless elicited
gales of laughter in the House.
After a brief career as a solicitor, Disraeli became a successful
novelist. Along with many others in 19th-century England, he speculated
widely and lost considerable money. He was very much aware of his
Jewish ancestry when he toured North Africa and the Middle East,
attracted by his heritage and the exoticism of the indigenous populations.
Disraeli wore a belt full of daggers and pistols, a red cap, red
slippers and a broad blue-striped jacket and trousers. For the rest
of his days, he displayed the type of dandyism that appealed to
Britain's Tories, who had the freedom and wealth to indulge their
fantasies.
In 1832, he ran for parliament as a Radical. Twice defeated, he
decided to become a Conservative, but he was always what in Canada,
we would call a "red Tory," displaying great sympathy
for the working class and the poor. In 1845, he wrote Two Nations,
a moving and carefully documented sympathetic view of the liberal
and democratic Chartist movement and of the appalling condition
of the working class and the poor.
When he became leader of the Conservative party, there was a significant
residue of anti-Semitism directed against Disraeli. Unconverted
Jews still faced a legislative denial of their right to sit in Parliament.
Lionel Rothschild was three times elected to the House, but not
seated until 1857, by which time the obligatory Christian oath was
removed. In the debate on repeal of this restrictive legislation,
Disraeli's line was that it constituted a denial of the roots of
Christianity. His strategy did not go over very well among observant
Jews, many of whom felt that they were being depicted as half-Christians.
Disraeli was prime minister in 1868 and from 1874-1880. His major
opponent was Gladstone, whom Queen Victoria detested as much for
his personality as for his politics. She considered him dull and
pedantic. On the other hand, she liked Disraeli, who had deliberately
and skilfully impressed her as a charmer, winning even more affection
after he had Parliament declare her Empress of India.
Disraeli was active in the promotion of British imperial interests.
If it weren't for his vision and audacity, Britain would not have
acquired the Suez Canal - even now, under Egyptian ownership, a
vital link for Britain's Asian trade.
His manner in the House, beyond his often outrageous apparel, was
one of disdain for his opponents. He sat on the front bench, his
legs stretched straight out and crossed, his hands covering his
face, as if he were dozing. But in a moment, he could be on his
feet delivering rapier-like thrusts to his opponents. So adroit
were his debating skills and his political acumen that he was called
"the magician."
Disraeli's Jewishness became the subject of scandal sheets at a
time when the press in Britain was considerably more irresponsible
than it is today, even "joking" about Disraeli's circumcision
after his marriage to a prominent gentile, alleging that a converted
Moldavian rabbi had, in 1805, written that the blood attendant on
the operation was mixed with wine and a drop of blood from a murdered
Christian. Disraeli declined to sue the publication; a trial, he
felt, would have given them publicity and besmirched his name.
Age and poor health caused Disraeli to retire from the House of
Commons in 1876 after a parliamentary career of more than 40 years.
To reward his service, the Queen made him the Earl of Beaconsfield.
Disraeli lived until 1881, dying at the age of 77.
One British assessment of his career was that: "He was thoroughly
and unchangeably a Jew [who had unquestionable] devotion to England
and solicitude for her honor and prosperity."
Eugene Kaellis is a retired academic living in New Westminster.
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