"How justified was Gladstone in his criticism of Disraeli's foreign policy as 'reckless, territorial expansionism"?
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- 1565
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- Fri Mar 19 2004

... "How justified was Gladstone in his criticism of Disraeli's foreign policy as 'reckless, territorial expansionism"? The London newspapers carried every word as Gladstone denounced Disraeli's foreign policy as pursuing 'false phantoms of glory' and dared to criticise the Queen's assumption of the Empress role. The rallying cry was freedom for all peoples; he warned his audiences not to be blind to the wrongs and injustices being committed in the name of national pride. Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield since 1876, pretended to be bored by the whole business, dismissing the Gladstonian rhetoric as 'wearisome'. We can see that the dandy Disraeli and his idolisation of his jewel and the British jewel, the empire was completely against that of Gladstone's motto of "Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform" and with an imperial foreign policy, this meant that he and Disraeli fought through words throughout the whole period. Gladstone believed that the imperialistic nature of Disraelian














