In Tadpole and Taper, names of two political schemers in Disraeli’s Coningsby; hence allusively, in the sense ‘professional politicians, the hacks of a political party.’ Hence Tadpole and Taperism.
[1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, II. ii. Mr. Tadpole and Mr. Taper were also there; they too had lost their seats since 1832; but being men of business, and accustomed from early life to look about them, they had already commenced the combinations which … were to bear them back to the assembly where they were so missed.]
1885. Manch. Exam., 3 June, 5/4. The tadpoles and the tapers of the party demand a cry.
1904. A. Birrell, in Contemp. Rev., April, 475. A book further removed from such Tadpole and Taperism is not in the library.
1905. W. Churchill in Daily Chron., 13 May, 5/6. The Cabinet was packed with nonentities, Tadpoles and Tapers from the Whips’ room.
1908. F. Harrison, in Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., Ser. III. III. 45. The reasons why he [Chatham] would never take office again [etc.] … all this has greatly exercised the Tadpoles and tapers of his age and of our own.
