Disraeli

It’s now clear that I’m guilty of one example of sloppy word use in "The Conservative Soul," and I’ll correct it in future editions. Here’s the paragraph:

One famous example of just such a pursuit of intimations was Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli’s decision to back universal suffrage in the nineteenth century. "Toryism" if turned into an ideology would have rejected this as a negation of its own identity and meaning. Tories were defined by their adherence to the prerogatives of the monarchy, nobility and rural, landed gentry. The idea of bringing vast masses of untutored and possibly radical working class voters into the political system seemed like socialist revolution.

Disraeli differed. He saw that England was changing, that the industrial revolution was urbanizing Britain at a rapid pace, that the masses were acquiring economic power and leverage, that they were susceptible to being coopted by dangerous and radical forces. He intuited that the job of a conservative was to deal with changing social reality. So he proposed coopting the working classes for Toryism, giving them the vote, appealing to their patriotism and faith, and remaking conservatism in his time.

All of this is true except for the word "universal." Obviously, Disraeli didn’t include women, and not all men, in suffrage in the 1867 Reform Act. Wikipedia provides the most concise summary:

The Reform Act 1867 (also known as the Second Reform Act, and formally titled the Representation of the People Act 1867), 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102, was a piece of British legislation that greatly increased the number of men who could vote in elections in the UK. In its final form, the Reform Act 1867 enfranchised all male householders and abolished compounding (the practice of paying rates to a landlord as part of rent). Due to this act working-class men gained suffrage for the first time in Britain.

So you can see my gist was correct, and my point stands, but my wording was sloppy.