1-150-516 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'Fagin's Political School', 1867. This cartoon shows a dummy with Lord Russell's face hanging from the ceiling whilst Disraeli, watched by an admiring audience, with Lord Derby at the front, shows his students how to pick a pocket or two. Disraeli's Jewish heritage is being highlighted here, and relates to the Conservative banquet given in Disraeli's honour at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange. During his speech, Disraeli completely ignored the fact that he had pinched much of his Reform Bill from the previous Liberal administration's own attempts to introduce reform. Instead, he said that he had taken great care to 'prepare the mind of the country and to educate [his] own party' in the matter of Parliamentary Reform. From Punch, or the London Charivari, November 9, 1867.