1-150-189 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'Dizzy and his Constituent.', 1858. Disraeli is about to style a man's hair with butter. The man in the chair, unaware of what is going to happen, is possibly Edward Cardwell, whom Disraeli attacked in a speech he gave at a dinner, held for him at the end of May 1858, by the Conservatives of Buckinghamshire, as he was their representative. This cartoon shows 'Barber' Disraeli, the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, attending to the stout gentleman, the representative of Mr Disraeli's Buckinghamshire constituents. This relates to a speech that Disraeli had given to his constituents at the end of May 1858. Punch reported this speech in some detail, especially as it represented the 'darling Benjamin of the old times, before he got diplomatic and circumbendibumptious'. The keynote of the speech was apparently when Disraeli asserted that, when the Conservatives came into office, they found Britain on the verge of war with France, and all but ready to throw away India. Fortunately, the Conservatives had saved the nation from both these disasters. Hence the 'buttering up' of his constituent. From Punch, or the London Charivari, June 5, 1858.