High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The July 1852 United Kingdom general election was a watershed election in the formation of the modern political parties of Britain. Following 1852, the Tory/Conservative party became, more completely, the party of the rural aristocracy, while the Whig/Liberal party became the party of the rising urban bourgeosie in Britain. The results of the election were extremely close in terms of both the popular vote and number of seats won by the main two parties. As in the previous election of 1847, Lord John Russell's Whigs won the popular vote, but the Conservative party won a very slight majority of the seats. However, a split between Protectionist Tories, led by the Earl of Derby and the Peelites made the formation of a majority government very difficult. Lord Derby's minority Protectionist government ruled from 23 February 1852 until 17 December 1852. Derby appointed Benjamin Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer in this minority government....