The earliest-known use of the phrase is in Benjamin Disraeli's novel The Young Duke ( 1831 ).

Although he was a major figure in the protectionist wing of the Conservative Party after 1844, Disraeli's relations with the other leading figures in the party, particularly Lord Derby, the overall leader, were often strained.

From 1852 onwards, Disraeli's career would also be marked by his often intense rivalry with William Ewart Gladstone, who eventually rose to become leader of the Liberal Party.

Disraeli's parents were Jews whom he claimed were of Portuguese ancestry, possibly referring to an earlier origin of his family heritage in Iberia prior to the expulsion of Jews in 1492.

That same year Disraeli's financial activities brought him into contact with the publisher John Murray who was also involved in the South American mines.

Also, according to Disraeli's biographer, Lord Blake, the paper was " atrociously edited ", and would have failed regardless.

Disraeli's debts incurred from this debacle would haunt him for the rest of his life.

In 1839 he settled his private life by marrying Mary Anne Lewis, the rich widow of Wyndham Lewis, Disraeli's erstwhile colleague at Maidstone.

Disraeli's biographers agree that Vivian Grey was a thinly veiled re-telling of the affair of The Representative, and it proved very popular on its release, although it also caused much offence within the Tory literary world when Disraeli's authorship was discovered.

Disraeli's relationships with other male writers of his period were strained or non-existent.

Disraeli's preference for female company prevented the development of contact with those who were otherwise not alienated by his opinions, comportment or background.

Disraeli's writing is considered generally interesting, and his books teem with striking thoughts, shrewd maxims, and brilliant phrases which stick in the memory ; on the other hand, he is often considered artificial, extravagant, and turgid.

The choice of a Tory publication was regarded as odd by Disraeli's friends and relatives, who thought him more of a Radical.

Disraeli's politics at the time were influenced both by his rebellious streak and by his desire to make his mark.

The split in the Tory / Conservative party over the repeal of the Corn Laws had profound implications for Disraeli's political career: almost every Conservative politician with official experience followed Peel, leaving the rump bereft of leadership.

In 1847 a small political crisis occurred which removed Bentinck from the leadership and highlighted Disraeli's differences with his own party.

Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford and a friend of Disraeli's, spoke strongly against the measure and implied that Russell was paying off the Jews for " helping " elect him.

Bentinck was succeeded by Lord Granby ; Disraeli's own speech, thought by many of his own party to be blasphemous, ruled him out for the time being.

Because of the split in the Conservative Party and because of Disraeli's unpopularity, arising from the budget fight of 1852, which is outlined above, no Conservative reconciliation remained possible so long as Disraeli remained leader in the House of Commons.

With Gladstone's refusal Derby and Disraeli looked elsewhere and settled on Disraeli's old friend Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who became Secretary of State for the Colonies ; Derby's son Lord Stanley, succeeded Ellenborough at the Board of Control.

Stanley, with Disraeli's assistance, proposed and guided through the house the India Act, under which the subcontinent would be governed for sixty years.

Disraeli's efforts over the past two years had dispelled, for the time being, any doubts about him succeeding Derby as leader of the Conservative Party and therefore Prime Minister.

Disraeli's term as Prime Minister would therefore be fairly short, unless the Conservatives won the general election.

Disraeli and Chelmsford had never got along particularly well, and Cairns, in Disraeli's view, was a far stronger minister.

Disraeli's first premiership was dominated by the heated debate over the established Church of Ireland.

Also, the annals of modern parliamentary history could find no parallel for Disraeli's betrayal ; historians would have to look " to the days when Sunderland directed the Council, and accepted the favours of James when he was negotiating the invasion of William ".

He also issued Disraeli's first novel, Vivian Grey, and a large number of other works by Theodore Hook, G. P. R. James, Marryat and Bulwer Lytton.

While Disraeli's government survived until the December general election, the initiative had passed to the Liberals, who were returned to power with a majority of 170.

He strongly disagreed with Disraeli's pro-Ottoman foreign policy and in 1880 he conducted the first outdoor mass-election campaign in Britain, known as the Midlothian campaign.

Disraeli's conservatism proposed a paternalistic society with the social classes intact but with the the working class receiving support from the establishment.

The British Prime Minister Disraeli's Tory administration in London did not want a war with the Zulus.

After the Conservatives lost the 1880 election and Disraeli's death the year after, Salisbury emerged as Conservative leader in the House of Lords, with Sir Stafford Northcote leading the party in the Commons.

The Conservative boroughs with populations less than 25, 000 ( a majority of the boroughs in Parliament ) would be very much worse off under Disraeli's scheme than the Liberal Reform Bill of the previous year: " But if I assented to this scheme, now that I know what its effect will be, I could not look in the face those whom last year I urged to resist Mr Gladstone.

The next day another Cabinet meeting took place, with Cranborne saying little and the Cabinet adopting Disraeli's proposal to bring in a Bill in a week's time.

Disraeli's major rival, William Ewart Gladstone, also pursued Rosebery, with considerable success.

The action of the story follows Sybil Gerard, a political courtesan and daughter of an executed Luddite leader ( she is borrowed from Disraeli's novel Sybil ); Edward " Leviathan " Mallory, a paleontologist and explorer ; and Laurence Oliphant, a historical figure with a real career, as portrayed in the book, as a travel writer whose work was a cover for espionage activities " undertaken in the service of Her Majesty ".

Disraeli's Tory administration in London did not want a war with the Zulus.

When Coningsby died in 1936, his widow left Hughenden, and the following year Disraeli's niece sold the house to W H Abbey, who vested it, with the remaining contents and, in the Disraelian Society.

It contains a collection of memorabilia including family portraits, Disraeli's own furnishings, a library including a collection of Disraeli's novels and one written and signed by Queen Victoria along with many of the books he inherited from his father Isaac D ' Israeli.

Later that year, he resigned ( along with Lord Cranborne and Jonathan Peel ) in protest against Benjamin Disraeli's Reform Bill to enfranchise the working classes.

Disraeli's proposal to extend the tax to Ireland gained him further enemies, and he was also hampered by an unexpected increase in defence expenditure, which was forced on him by Derby and Sir John Pakington ( Secretary of State for War and the Colonies ) ( leading to his celebrated remark to John Bright about the " damned defences ").

Blake further argued that Disraeli's imperialism " decisively orientated the Conservative party for many years to come, and the tradition which he started was probably a bigger electoral asset in winning working-class support during the last quarter of the century than anything else ".

Lord Cairns, Disraeli's Lord Chancellor, sought to remove the House of Lords jurisdiction for Scottish and Irish appeals as well, which would have completely removed its judicial jurisdiction.

The ideology featured heavily during Disraeli's terms in government, during which considerable social reforms were passed.

Britain won virtually all the major battles of this war, and in the final settlement, the Treaty of Gandamak, saw a government installed which was both by personality and law receptive to British demands ; however, the human and material costs and relative brutality of the brief guerilla war ( the war resulted in great loss of life on all sides, including civilians ) became major issues in the defeat of Disraeli's Conservative government by Gladstone's Liberals in 1880.

Disraeli's appreciation found an opportunity for displaying itself some years later, when in 1868 he invited him to be Lord Chancellor in the brief Conservative administration which followed Lord Derby's resignation of the party leadership.

After the parliamentary session which produced the Second Reform Bill, Disraeli's eventual assumption of the leadership of the Conservative Party was all but assured.