Reprint of the rare first edition. The Vindication is the fullest statement of the great prime minister's philosophy. According to Disraeli [1804-1881], the Whigs were devoted to the centralization of power in Westminster and the self-perpetuation of their party. As the party of the propertied classes the Tories resisted the Whigs by preserving the traditional system in which the landowners governed responsibly, relieved the distress of the poor and enabled men of intellect, like himself, to serve the public by adapting Tory values to modern needs.