When Benjamin Disraeli, the young novelist, was presented to Lord
Melbourne at a social gathering in the early '3O's his lordship
had graciously asked how he could serve him. To which the
flippant young man had replied that he would like to be Prime
Minister. In February, 1868, the resignation of Lord Derby raised
Mr. Disraeli to the height of his youthful ambition. He was
premier until December, 1868, when his great rival and former
party-associate, Gladstone, wrested the honor from his grasp.
During the third Derby-Disraeli ministry, the Reform Bill of 1867
was passed. Thirty-five years before the Grey-Russell Whigs had
disfranchised the rotten boroughs and admitted the middle class
people of the towns to citizenship and parliamentary
representation. As years passed the demand increased for a
further extension of the electoral franchise. The Chartists of
1848 demanded universal suffrage and were sternly repressed.
After nearly a score of years the Gladstonian Liberals were
prepared to gratify this demand in considerable measure, but
before they could fully develop their policy, they were out and
the Conservatives were in. It was at this juncture that Disraeli
took "the leap in the dark," carrying, in 1867, an act "which, in
its inevitable developments must give the franchise to every
householder in the United Kingdom; and he gained for his party
the credit, if credit it was, of having passed a more completely
democratic measure than the most radical responsible statesman
had yet dared to propose.
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