"A leap in the dark." How accurate is this assessment of the 1867 Reform Act in relation to the parliamentary system and the Conservative Party?

A way in which the 1867 reform act was seen as "a leap in the dark" was because of the conservative's lack of preparation and anticipation in relation to the consequences of the  bill. It is not wrong to assume that the conservatives believed that by granting the vote to more working class people, they would automatically be voted back in to govern the country by the very same people that they had given the vote to in the first instance. This however was the wrong approach and the Liberals took advantage of the mistakes the conservatives had made and they decided to appeal to the new members of the electorate by travelling around the country and making speeches to gain support from them. Because of the clever Liberal tactics, the conservatives actually lost the 1868 election even though they were the ones who had effectively given the vote to a proportion of working class men when introducing the reform act. This exhibits Disraeli's and the rest of the conservative party's ignorance to the changes the reform bill was going to bring about. The desperation of the conservatives was evident as they scrambled to gain support from the population and so obviously they took a massive risk or "a leap in the dark."

Another risk or "a leap in the dark" the conservatives faced when proposing the 1867 reform bill was the fact that they would upset a number of people including other key conservatives such as Cranbourne who greatly opposed any branch of reform. At first, Disraeli and Derby reached a compromise on the reform act that would please everyone including Cranbourne and his supporters, liberals and radicals. However, the extremely mild nature of the bill was greeted with hisses and boos in the house of commons when it was read out and subsequently it was voted out immediately. This meant that Disraeli and Derby had to risk passing a much more severe bill which would upset Cranbourne. They took the risk anyway and in due course, Cranbourne and two of his supporters resigned. Because of the pressures coming from within parliament and outside it too, Derby was probably correct in saying it was "a leap in the dark" as he obviously did not fully support all the terms of the bill but he knew that there was unrest and frustration coming from the working class because of disease epidemics and other misfortunes. Therefore, he knew that the conservative party had to act quickly to ultimately gain the trust and support of the working class and to put Disraeli's idea of Tory Democracy in practice by forging alliances with them. This definitely "a leap in the dark" but Derby was willing to take a risk for the greater good.