Why were the Conservatives weak 1846 - 1865?

Secondly, there was a lack of popular policies because it was seen that the Conservatives were tied to the same old policies. Protectionism was holding back the Conservative party, and an anything done for protection policy will prove to be a failure. The success of free trade showed the policy of the Protectionists as weak. Protectionism was seen for upper class voters but it wasn‘t getting many voters. Peel thought of free trade as good, but Disraeli and his party, abandoned Protectionism and were reluctant to use ‘free trade’ but did. The Conservatives didn’t have much of an identity without ‘protectionism’, which was their main aim.

The Conservatives lost the Peelites because the Peelites had more tolerance, a progressive party and their aim was to follow Peel’s ideas - need for free trade. On the other hand, there was the Conservatives, who were in favour of agricultural protection and didn’t want changes.

The instability of the political system was an important issue, as it was caused because of Peel’s idea to abandon tariffs for agricultural producers (Repeal of the Corn Laws) and to adopt to free trade. Before 1846, the Conservatives had approximately 350 seats, Whigs had 280 roughly and the Radicals and others within this group had about 50 seats between them. After 1846, the Conservative party split into, Protectionists and Peelites. The Peelites had the experienced, talented people, who had the brains and were the most powerful. They held the balance, as whoever they support would win. The Peelites were most likely to favour the Whigs, as their ideas were a bit the same.