Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Royal Titles Bill, 1876: Part 2 ^*

Abstract

The satirical, antisemitic pamphlet The Blot on the Queen's Head (often characterised as an attack on Disraeli's mismanagement of the Royal Titles Bill) also contains a devastating caricature of Gladstone's opposition and Robert Lowe's reckless nastiness, while pointing to strong dissensions within the Liberal Party. Despite numerous Liberal public meetings and petitions to parliament, public opinion remained divided along party lines. The debates on the Royal Titles Bill in the Lords echoed those of the Commons, but Liberal hopes now rested on Lord Shaftesbury's naïve plea that the queen refuse the title of empress. Alarm spread among the most fearful Gladstonians when they noticed that a passage in Disraeli's 1847 novel, Tancred , suggested that the queen should abandon England and rule her vast Indian empire from Delhi. The Bill passed second reading without a division, without amendments in committee, and with 60 per cent support in the only division. The proclamation of the Act (28 April) was decried by Gladstonians because its exclusion of formal use of the supplementary title in England was made an exception to its general assumption. A futile motion of censure expressed their frustration and defined the terms of Gladstone's final battle with Disraeli over the Bulgarian atrocities and the Eastern Question.