SOURCE: "'This power so vast … & so generally misunderstood': Disraeli and the Press in the 1840s," Victorian Periodicals Review, Vol. XXV, No. 2, Summer, 1992, pp. 79-85.

In the essay that follows, Millar and Wiebe discuss ways in which Disraeli used his writing for newspapers as a means to transmit his political views, and conclude that his "management of the press" contributed significantly to his political success.

In October of 1849, Disraeli wrote to G. Lathom Browne, the editor of his local newspaper, The Bucks Herald: "No newspaper is important as far as its advocacy. The importance of newspapers is to circulate your opinions, and a good report of a speech is better than 10,000 articles."¹ It is not, as we shall see, that in his dealings with the press Disraeli scorned either advocacy or articles. He practised the one and wrote many of the other. In the 1840s, however, his prime interest...