Lives of Victorian Political Figures, Part I:
Palmerston, Disraeli and Gladstone by their Contemporaries
General Editors: Nancy LoPatin-Lummis and Michael Partridge
Volume Editors: Richard Gaunt and Michael Partridge
Lives of Victorian Political Figures
978 1 85196 826 8: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
This four-volume set brings alive, through the eyes of their contemporaries, three of the greatest political figures of the Victorian era, Henry, third Viscount Palmerston, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone.
Contemporary views on these statesmen are essential for understanding nineteenth-century British history. These volumes draw together a wide variety of documents including journals and diaries, pamphlets, correspondence, magazine and other ephemeral literature. The pages reproduced show clearly what people thought about these men before historians were able to provide more objective biographies and other assessments of their careers.
There are many different opinions, some unexpected. For example, the set shows that Palmerston, was unpopular in some circles, including those at the very highest level, while not all of Disraeli’s contemporaries admired his policies over the Eastern Question in the 1870s, nor all thought highly of Gladstone’s celebrated electoral campaign in Midlothian.
All three of these men lived long enough to become national institutions. Palmerston, Disraeli and Gladstone all received more than one pamphlet in celebration of their lives. All three of them, too, received attention from contemporaries living abroad, and there are assessments from foreign commentators reproduced in these new volumes.
- The start of a major new series
- Contains a wide range of rare and ephemeral texts from contemporaries both at home and abroad
- Contrasts contemporary accounts with later historical analysis
- Detailed introduction to each figure includes discussion of more recent scholarship and ensures that any contrasts between early and later viewpoints is drawn out.
- Full editorial apparatus includes a substantial general introduction, introductions to each volume, headnotes, endnotes and a general index
- Each facsimile page is digitally cleaned and enhanced, improving the original’s quality and legibility
Sample pages
Contents
Volume 1: Lord Palmerston
William Walton, A Letter Addressed to Viscount Palmerston, MP On his Speech and Motion on Wednesday, March 10, 1830, Respecting the Relations of England with Portugal (1830); Sidney Smith, A Letter to Archdeacon Singleton (1837); William Cargill, Mehemet Ali, Lord Palmerston, Russia and France (1840) ; Henry John Temple [Viscount Palmerston], Proposed Impeachment of Lord Palmerston: Reports of Two Public Meetings held in Carlisle and Newcastle upon Tyne (1840)*; Charles MacFarlane, Sicily, her Constitutions, and Viscount Palmerston’s Sicilian Blue Book (1849); Edmund Phipps, Memoirs of the Political and Literary Life of Robert Plumer Ward (1850); William Coningham, Lord Palmerston and Prince Albert: Letters by William Coningham, Esq., Together with the ‘Suppressed Pamphlet’ Entitled ‘Palmerston: What Has he Done?’ By ‘One of the People’ (1854) ; Anon, ‘Men and movements of our times II: Aberdeen and Palmerston’, Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, 22 (1855)*; Marquis of Normanby, The Congress and the Cabinet (1859); Henry John Temple [Viscount Palmerston], Contradictions of Lord Palmerston in Reference to Poland and Circassia et caetera (1863) ; F J Snell, Palmerston’s Borough: a Budget of Electioneering Anecdotes, Jokes, Squibs and Speeches (1894); John Evelyn Denison, Notes from my Journal when Speaker of the House of Commons (1900); The volume also includes articles from selected periodicals.
Volumes 2 and 3: Benjamin Disraeli
Joseph Stammers, The Case of the Queen vs Disraeli (1838); ‘A Barrister’, A Letter to Benjamin Disraeli Esq MP upon the Subject of his recent Attack upon the Minister (1846)*; John Dix (afterwards Ross), Pen and Ink Sketches of Poets, Preachers and Politicians (1847); Thomas MacKnight, The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli (1854); Magnus C Rendall, Gladstone and Disraeli and the Whig and Tory Parties (1867); Charles Dilke, Mr Dilke on Mr Disraeli’s Manifesto (1868)*; ‘An Irish Catholic’, The ‘No Popery’ Premier and the Irish People (1868); Benjamin Disraeli, His Little Dinner (1876); Alfred Austin, England’s Policy and Peril (1877); John De Morgan, Letter to the Rt Hon Earl of Beaconsfield (1878); H H Jenkins, Breakers Ahead! (1878); Archibald MacCullagh, Political Stone Broth (1878); Anon, Dizzi-Ben-Dizzi; or, The Orphan of Bagdad (1878); Anon, Squire Bull, and his Bailiff, Benjamin (1879); Arthur C Yates and Arthur G Symonds (eds), Lord Beaconsfield Interviewed (1879); John Phillips Stafford, The Battle of the Genii (1880); Francis Bickerstaffe Drew, How Ben Behaved Himself (1880); J M Milner, In Memoriam Benjamin Disraeli (1881)*; Charles Dunlop, Beaconsfield Brilliants (1881); James Foster Turner Wiseman, This is the Tree that Ben Raised (1883)*; Joseph Kidd, ‘The Last Illness of Lord Beaconsfield’, Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, 26 (1889)*; Sir William Augustus Fraser, Disraeli and his Day (1891); William Archer Shee, My Contemporaries, 1830–70 (1893); Sir William Henry Gregory, An Autobiography (1894); Frederick Arthur Hyndman, The National or Factional Party: Which Shall Win?
Volumes 3 and 4: William Ewart Gladstone
F D Maurice, Thoughts on the Duty of a Protestant in the present Oxford Election (1847); Edward Harper, Mr Gladstone Answered: the Inconsistencies, Absurdities, and Contradictions in Mr Gladstone’s Public Career: being a Letter to him, in Reply to his ‘Chapter of Autobiography’ (1868)*; John McGilchrist, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (1868); F A, ‘William Ewart Gladstone: A Study of his Character’, London Society, 15:86 (1869)*; A Templar, The Gladstone Government (1869); An Englishman, The Question of the Day: Turk or Christian?; an Answer to Mr Gladstone’s Pamphlet: with a True Narrative of the Bulgarian Horrors (c.1876)*; George Rose Badenoch, A Word of Warning against Mr Gladstone: addressed to the People of Scotland, and in particular to the Electors of Mid-Lothian (1879)*; Anon, Why did Gladstone fall from Power/How may He regain it: an Appeal to the Right Hon. W E Gladstone (c.1880)*; James Phelan, Mr Gladstone, the Liberal Statesman. An Address delivered in St Ignatius College Hall, 1881 (1881)*; Frederick Harrison, The Crisis in Egypt: a Letter to Mr Gladstone (1882); James Brinsley-Richards, ‘Mr Gladstone’s Oxford Days’; Temple Bar, 118 (1883)*; Joseph Forster, The Right Hon. W E Gladstone, MP, a few Lessons from a Noble Life: an Address (1883)*; An Eyewitness, The Anti-Climax in Mid-Lothian: a Review of Mr Gladstone’s Campaign in 1884 (1884)*; T P O’Connor, Gladstone’s House of Commons (1885); Thomas E Webb, The Irish Question: a Reply to Mr Gladstone (1886); Anon, The Gladstone Gas Company Prospectus: a Relic of the Midlothian Campaign, 1886 (1886)*; Henry W Lucy, A Diary of the Home Rule Parliament, 1892–1895 (1892); P V M Filleul, Mr Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill: ‘The Great Betrayal’. A Forecast of Evil to the British Empire (1893)*; W T Stead, ‘Mr Gladstone at Eighty-Seven’, Temple Magazine 5:1 (1897)*; Justin McCarthy, ‘William Ewart Gladstone’, The Forum (1898)*; Henry W Lucy, A Diary of the Unionist Parliament, 1895–1900 (1901); William H Rideing, ‘Gladstone’s Closing Years’, The Critic (1903)*; Goldwin Smith, My Memory of Gladstone (1904); S J Reid (ed.), Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid, 1842–1885 (1905); George W E Russell, Prime Ministers and Some Others (1918)
Reviews
'An ambitious scholarly project...[series editor] Michael Partridge has produced a superb general introduction.'
– James J Sack, The Journal of British Studies
'a welcome addition to the reading lists of modern political history courses...the volumes are certainly expensive, but should prove a useful addition to library bookshelves.'
– David Brown, History