133. Progressive Conservatives

Disraeli’s second government was an administration of progressive conservatism, a strange moment in a general history of the Conservative Party as essentially, well, conservative. Partly that was politically expedient, looking for support among the working class, but partly it was sincere, based on a deep revulsion at the conditions in which most of it lived.

Much of the reforming legislation was piloted by Richard Cross, Disraeli’s imaginative, and bold, choice as Home Secretary. It included the conclusion of the long campaign led by many but above all by Lord Shaftesbury, to limit the hours worked by women and children. It also abolished the use of ‘climbing boys’, the use of kids as chimney sweeps. It, astonishingly for a Conservative government, extended union rights, including decriminalising the right to picket. And it even included the introduction of the Plimsoll line on ships, to prevent overloading and the many sailors’ deaths to which it led.

On all these reforms, resistance was loud and strong from business interests. And, the final surprise of this time, they were being faced down by a Conservative government.

Illustration: Samuel Plimsoll, Lithograph by by Richard Childs, 1874
National Portrait Gallery D42829
Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.