Description:

Disraeli Benjamin

Disraeli Urges MP to Work with Fellow Conservative in Irish Constituency

 

“The interests of the party, superior to all considerations, absolutely require this union.”

 

In this frantic and interesting letter, Prime Minister Lord Beaconsfield beseeches Lord Claud Hamilton to put aside past differences and “join heartily” with fellow Conservative John W. Ellison-Macartney in the Spring 1880 election in County Tyrone, Ireland. The Tyrone constituency returned two members to Parliament, and Ellison-Macartney had unseated Hamilton in the 1874 general election from the seat he had held from 1835 to 1837 and from 1839 to 1874.

 

BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Autograph Letter Signed (“Beaconsfield”), to Lord Claud Hamilton, March 30, 1880. On black bordered “Downing Street. / Whitehall.” stationery. 4 pp., 4.5" x 7". Expected folds; very good.

 

Complete Transcript

Private

                                                                        March 30 ’80

Dear Lord Claud,

            I must on my own part, & on that of my colleagues, entreat you to join heartily with Mr Macartney in the contest you are both embarked in. The interests of the party, superior to all considerations, absolutely require this union.

            My long experience of public life, the consistency of your career, & the great issue at stake, assure me, that you will adopt every means to insure the success of the Tory party, which is proud to number among its most influential adherents the family of wh: you are a distinguished member.

            Believe me, my dear Lord,

                                                                        faithfully yrs

                                                                        Beaconsfield

Right Honorable The Lord Claud Hamilton

 

Historical Background

From 1878 to 1880, William Ewart Gladstone, the leader of Britain’s Liberal Party, gave a series of speeches in which he condemned the foreign policy of the government of Benjamin Disraeli, now Lord Beaconsfield, as utterly immoral. Disraeli continued to support the Ottoman Empire, a British ally since the Crimean War, against Russian expansion in the area. Gladstone’s campaign unified the Liberal Party and led it to electoral victory in the spring of 1880.

 

The 1880 United Kingdom general election was held from March 31 to April 27. Prime Minister Disreali was now the Earl of Beaconsfield in the House of Lords, and custom did not allow peers to campaign. His Conservative Party was unable to counter Gladstone’s rhetorical attacks on Disraeli’s foreign policy, and economic hardships hit the industrial working class particularly hard in the 1870s. The Liberal Party gained one its largest-ever electoral victories. Beaconsfield’s Conservative Party lost 113 seats in Parliament, while the Liberal Party gained 110, and the Irish Home Rule party gained 3 seats.

 

 

In the Tyrone constituency, incumbent Conservative John William Ellison-Macartney (1818-1904) gained reelection with 35.4 percent of the vote. Liberal candidate Edward Falconer Litton (1827-1890) polled second with 32.5 percent of the vote, winning the other seat. Conservative Claud Hamilton finished third with 32.1 percent of the vote, only 41 votes behind Litton.

 

Disraeli/Beaconsfield resigned on April 21, 1880, and Gladstone again succeeded him as Prime Minister, as he had in 1868. Disraeli died one year later.

 

 

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was born in London into a Sephardic Jewish Italian mercantile family. His father had his four children baptized into the Church of England in 1817, which opened the possibility of a political career. Disraeli was brought up as an Anglican, “the blank page between the Old Testament and the New,” as he described himself. He first stood for election in 1832 as a Radical, but lost. In 1835, after running as a Tory and again losing, he began writing for the Tory Party. In 1837, he won a seat in the House of Commons, his campaign funded in part by his writing of novels. He married widow Mary Anne Lewis (1792-1872) in 1839, who was wealthy and a dozen years his senior. Disraeli hoped to forge a paternalistic alliance between Tories and Radicals, and while he developed a personal relationship with radical John Bright, he was unsuccessful in establishing an alliance. During the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, Disraeli led the protectionists who battled repeal. In the late 1840s, Disraeli purchased Hughenden Manor, in Buckinghamshire. Disraeli served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons under the Earl of Derby as Prime Minister in 1852, from 1858 to 1859, and again from 1866 to 1868. Disraeli served as Prime Minister in 1868 and again from 1874 to 1880, succeeded each time by Liberal Party leader William Gladstone. Disraeli maintained a close relationship with Queen Victoria, and in 1876, she appointed him as Earl of Beaconsfield. He published his last completed novel shortly before he died at the age of 76.

 

Lord Claud Hamilton (1813-1884) was the second son of James Hamilton, Viscount Hamilton, and was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He sat as a Member of Parliament for County Tyrone in Northern Ireland from 1835 to 1837 and again from 1839 to 1874. He married Lady Elizabeth Proby in 1844, and they had four children. When Conservatives came to power in 1852 under the Earl of Derby, Hamilton became a member of the Privy Council as Treasurer of the Household, a position that he held until the government fell ten months later. He held the same office under Derby from 1858 to 1859, and when Derby became Prime Minister for a third time in 1866, Hamilton became Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, a position he held until 1868. In the 1874 general elections, Hamilton finished third to John Ellison-Macartney and Henry Lowry-Corry for two seats. After his loss in 1880, Hamilton did not again seek a seat in Parliament.

 

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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