Our Will & Pleasure

Letter signed. Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804–1881), to ‘Sir’, 17 April [1839].

Benjamin Disraeli, statesman and literary figure, was elected to Parliament in 1837. His maiden speech was greeted in the House of Commons with laughter. ‘I shall sit down now’, said Disraeli, who stopped abruptly, ‘but the time will come when you will hear me’. His words proved prophetic. In 1852 Disraeli became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and again in 1859 and 1866. In 1874 he became Prime Minister, and in 1877 took his seat in the House of Lords as the Earl of Beaconsfield. Although his father had him baptised into the Anglican Church, Disraeli was nonetheless Britain's first and thus far only Prime Minister born into a Jewish family.

In the letter exhibited here, Disraeli regrets missing the recipient in London. ‘I wished to have had the pleasure of some communication with you, before I left town – but I have been unable to reach you’. The recipient might have been awaiting some information, for Disraeli wrote that he ‘had nothing to communicate which could be of a satisfactory nature to you at present. I shall return to London from Brighton at the end of the month, & will take an early opportunity of calling upon you at the Courier’s Office’.

Letter signed. Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804–1881), to ‘Sir’, 17 April [1839].
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Carte de visite of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, by W. & D. Downey, London, undated.

Carte de visite of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, by W. & D. Downey, London, undated.
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