116. Two governments, two rivals

The tale of the first government led by the Earl of Derby (whom we first met as Lord Stanley), in which Benjamin Disraeli served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, from its start to its fall such a short time later. And then, the start of the Aberdeen government, in which the same post was held by William Ewart Gladstone, perhaps rather more successfully. He did have one major advantage, granted by simple circumstance, but even so, there's no denying he did better.

So this is also the episode where we first meet the intense, and from then on lifelong, hostility between Gladstone and Disraeli. A hostility which led to battles between these two giants that would dominate three decades of British politics.

And, in their confrontation, it has to be said that first blood went to Gladstone.

Illustration: The Bucks election - Mr Disraeli addressing the electors in the County Hall, Aylesbury, 1852, by Frederick James Smyth
(National Portrait Gallery D45902)
Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.