Sir Robert Peel
1788 - 1850

The English statesman Sir Robert Peel served as prime minister
during 1834-1835 and 1841-1846. He played an important role in
modernizing the British government's social and economic
policies and sponsored the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.
Sir
Robert Peel was in the great tradition of 19th-century
administrative reformers. Though not a doctrinaire, he drew on
the most advanced thinking of his day in his reform of British
criminal law, the prisons, the police, and fiscal and economic
policies. By making government a positive instrument in social
reform and by his pragmatic approach to social and political
problems, Peel also made an important contribution to shaping
the philosophy of the modern Conservative party. Despite the
fact that his repeal of the Corn Laws broke his party, Peelite
traditions lingered on. Peelites such as William Gladstone also
carried these traditions into the Liberal party.
Robert Peel was born on Feb. 5, 1788, at Chamber Hall, Bury,
Lancashire, close to the cotton mills that had made his father's
immense fortune. The elder Peel had become one of the greatest
manufacturers in England. He was not, however, content with
business success. In 1790 he bought a great agricultural estate
in Staffordshire, and in the same year he entered Parliament for
the neighbouring borough of Tamworth, where he had also acquired
property and parliamentary influence. The younger Peel was
brought up as a country gentleman. In 1800 his father was made a
baronet, the title his son later inherited.
Sir Robert intended his son for the governing class, and he gave
him an aristocratic education at Harrow and at Christ Church,
Oxford. At both institutions the younger Peel distinguished
himself as a scholar. Oxford was only commencing to offer the
opportunity for a rigorous education, and Peel chose the harder
path. He was the first scholar in the history of the university
to graduate with first-class honours both in the classics and in
mathematics.
Early Political Career
In 1809, the year after his graduation from Oxford, Peel's
father bought him entry into Parliament for the borough of
Cashel in Ireland. His maiden speech in the House of Commons was
generally acclaimed. The next year, at the age of 22, Peel
joined the government as undersecretary for war and the
colonies.
Peel's chief at the War Office was Lord Liverpool, and when
Liverpool became prime minister in 1812, he offered his young
subordinate the critical post of chief secretary for Ireland.
Though the office did not carry a Cabinet seat, it was one of
the most challenging the government had to offer. After the
English union with Ireland in 1801, the chief secretary had
become not only a key figure in the administration of Ireland
but also the representative of the Irish government in the
British Parliament. The social and religious conflicts that rent
Ireland throughout the 19th century made it almost impossible to
govern. Peel achieved the impossible. As chief secretary for 6
years, until 1818, he established a reputation for a happy
mixture of firmness and compassion. Among other reforms, Peel
pioneered in the establishment of a permanent Irish police force
and laid the foundations for famine relief.
After his retirement from the chief secretaryship, Peel stayed
out of office for 4 years. He remained, however, one of the
government's most distinguished supporters on the back benches.
In 1817 Oxford had conferred on him its highest honour by
electing him to one of the university's two parliamentary seats.
In 1819 Peel chaired the committee of the House of Commons that
made the crucial recommendation that Britain return to the gold
standard, and the statute that accomplished this was commonly
known as "Peel's Act." It was also during this period that Peel
made a singularly happy marriage with society belle Julia Floyd.
Home Secretary
In 1821 Peel was recalled to high office as home secretary in
Lord Liverpool's government. He remained in that office, with
one brief interlude in 1827-1828, until 1830. In large part
because of him, this period is known as the "age of liberal
Toryism." Benthamite and evangelical reformers had long argued
against Britain's legal and penal system which attempted little
more than frightening citizens not to commit crimes. Peel went a
long way toward meeting their demands by establishing a system
aimed at preventing crimes and at reforming criminals rather
than simply punishing them. Savage death penalties for minor
crimes were largely abolished, and the criminal laws were made
simpler and more humane. Prisons were also reformed and brought
under the supervision of the central government. And, in the
Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, Peel laid the foundations of a
modern professional police force. This act established the
London police force, whose members were called, after him,
"Peelers" or "Bobbies."
Catholic Emancipation
Though Peel helped to introduce liberal elements into Toryism,
he was also long associated with the illiberal opposition to
full civil and political rights for Roman Catholics. There were
few Catholics in England; but they were in the overwhelming
majority in Ireland, and the Catholic question became closely
tied with the Irish question. Those who favored Catholic
emancipation became known as "Catholics." The people who opposed
were known as "Protestants." Peel, a fervent Anglican, became
the leading "Protestant" spokesman. He argued that emancipation
would exacerbate the already bitter feelings between Roman
Catholics and Protestants in Ireland and that it would weaken
the established Anglican Church in both countries. It was
largely for his stand on this topic that Peel refused to join
the government of the "Catholic" Tory George Canning in 1827. In
1829, however, as home secretary and leader of the House of
Commons in the government of the Duke of Wellington, Peel played
a leading role in carrying Catholic emancipation. The reason for
his reversal was simple. In 1828 the Irish had demonstrated
their ability to return Roman Catholic members to a House of
Commons in which they could not legally sit. Wellington argued
that to enforce the law would mean civil war. Peel agreed with
him. The specter of civil war overcame their scruples. They felt
that it was their duty to King and to country to avert that
disaster by carrying emancipation. By so doing they splintered
the Tory party. Peel particularly was denounced as a turncoat,
and strongly "Protestant" Oxford humiliated him by defeating him
for reelection.
Peel's First Ministry
Peel was deeply wounded. About this time he began commonly to be
described as cold and haughty. However, his reputation among his
close friends was very different. Strikingly tall and handsome,
with curly red hair, he was a plesant and jovial companion. In
his immediate circle, he was much loved. He had always been
sensitive and shy with strangers, and his experiences in 1829
only increased these tendencies; Peel retreated behind a cold
and reserved exterior.
Attacked by some of its own former supporters and under pressure
from the advocates of parliamentary reform, the government of
Wellington and Peel staggered to its dissolution late in 1830.
Its place was taken by the Whig administration of Lord Grey of
Reform Bill fame. Peel led the battle against the bill in the
Commons, but it became law in 1832. For a brief period in
1834-1835 the King quarreled with his Whig ministers and called
on Peel to head a Tory government. But the King could no longer
appoint whom he wished to office, and Peel's government was soon
defeated by a hostile majority in the Commons and by the
electorate in 1835. Peel's first government is notable mainly in
that it allowed him to redefine Tory goals, particularly in the
Tamworth Manifesto, which he issued to his constituents on the
eve of the general election. On behalf of what he now called the
Conservative party, Peel accepted the Reform Act and its
implications and pledged constructive reforms that would
strengthen the basic institutions of the country. And though he
was in opposition, Peel came to play a dominating role in the
years after 1835 as Whig support in Parliament and in the
country steadily diminished. The government of Lord Melbourne
came to exist largely on Peel's sufferance. Hence the great
reforms of the period, particularly municipal and Church
reforms, bore Peel's imprint and filled in the outlines of the
Tamworth Manifesto.
The Great Years
Peel might easily have come to power in 1839 had not his
coldness offended the young Queen Victoria. By 1841, however,
the Whig government had reached the end of the road, and the
Queen was forced to accept Peel as her prime minister. The
greatest achievement of Peel's ministry was to establish the
principle of free trade. The best economic thought of the day
favored it, and the academics were backed by the vociferous
demands of the industrial middle classes. Peel favored it
because he thought it was in the best interests of the country.
He felt that free trade would bring prosperity to manufacturers
and increased employment to the working classes, and that it
would lower the cost of living. Gradually from 1842 onward trade
was freed, and by 1845 the only outstanding anomaly in the
system was the protection of agriculture afforded by the Corn
Laws. These laws were ardently supported by Tory squires, who
composed a large section of Peel's support in Parliament. Peel
was therefore not anxious to press this issue, but he was ready
to do so if the Corn Laws caused real suffering. In the autumn
of 1845 the Irish potato crop rotted in the ground. There was
not enough grain in the British Isles to fill the need. The
alternatives were quite simply repeal of the Corn Laws or
starvation. Peel would have preferred the Whigs to carry repeal,
but they would not. He therefore did it himself in 1846. Once
more he was denounced as a traitor, and the party broke apart.
Again Peel had done his duty to Queen and to country, knowing
full well that in so doing he was probably ending his brilliant
political career.
This time it was the end. For 4 years after 1846 Peel remained
active and influential as the leader of a loyal Peelite remnant
of his party. But on July 2, 1850, he died following a riding
accident, and his great career was ended.
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Robert Peel twice served as Prime Minister: from 10 December
1834 to 8 April 1835 and from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846.
Peel, the the eldest son and third of eleven children of Robert
Peel (the first Baronet) and Ellen Yates, was born on 5 February
1788 at Chamber Hall near Bury in Lancashire. Originally the
Peels were Lancashire weavers and farmers but had moved into
textile manufacture and made their fortune. Peel was educated at
home until he was ten years old, by the Rev. James Hargreaves;
when the family moved to Drayton Manor in 1798 he went to a
small school in Tamworth. Between 1800 and 1804 Peel attended
Harrow and then was admitted as a gentleman-commoner to Christ
Church Oxford where he was awarded a double First in Classics
and Mathematics and Physics in 1808. In 1814 he was awarded his
MA. He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1809 and began to work towards a
career in Law; however, his father bought him the seat of Cashel
in Co. Tipperary on the influence of the Duke of Wellington, and
Peel began a parliamentary career that lasted until his death in
1850.
Peel made his forty-minute long maiden speech on 23 January 1810
in which he seconded the reply to the King's speech at the
opening of parliament; for his efforts, he was applauded by
those who heard him speak. Since Peel was a Tory by nature and
persuasion he supported Portland's government. In June 1810 he
was appointed as Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies in
Spencer Perceval's ministry; in this post he worked with Lord
Liverpool. Other members of Perceval's Cabinet included Lord
Sidmouth, Castlereagh and the Duke of Portland. All these men
influenced Peel's political thinking.
Chief Secretary for Ireland
When Liverpool formed a new ministry after Perceval was
assassinated in May 1812, Peel was appointed to one of the most
difficult offices in government — that of Chief Secretary for
Ireland. He also became a Privy Counsellor. He took up his post
in Dublin in September 1812 and held the office until 1818,
serving under three viceroys: the Duke of Richmond, Lord
Whitworth, and Lord Talbot. Peel had three main duties as Chief
Secretary:
* to administer the patronage of Ireland on behalf of the
English government. He attempted not to distinguish between
Catholics and Protestants in appointments that were open to
both; he opposed the practice of selling public offices and of
dismissing civil servants for political action.
* to maintain order in Ireland. Peel wanted to rule by the
existing law, but disorders in June 1814 were so bad that he
revived partially the repealed Insurrection Act of 1807. He also
established the peace preservation force, members of which were
called ‘Peelers’: subsequently this force became the Royal Irish
Constabulary.
* to maintain the Protestant ascendancy. There were those in
parliament who favoured Catholic Emancipation: They included
most of the Whigs and a few Tories led by Canning and Wellesley.
Vansittart and Castlereagh, who were Cabinet members favoured
Catholic Emancipation, as did Vesey Fitzgerald, the Irish
chancellor of the Exchequer, and Charles Kendal Bushe, the
Solicitor-General. Peel opposed all Catholic claims for
emancipation and, for his trouble, was nicknamed 'Orange Peel'
by Daniel O'Connell in May 1813. Their enmity was so great that
the pair agreed to go to Ostend fight a duel in August 1815, but
it never took place since O'Connell was arrested as soon as he
arrived in London.
In 1817, a debate on Catholic Emancipation took place in the
House of Commons in which Peel spoke against it, making a name
for himself in the country. As a result of this, he was elected
in June as MP for Oxford University on the resignation of
Charles Abbot. By 1818, Peel was exhausted from his work in
Ireland which demanded not only that he conducted affairs in
Dublin but also attended the House of Commons to answer
parliamentary questions on Ireland. This involved a lengthy
journey by sea and road at frequent intervals. He decided to
resign in August and for four years held no office. He married
Julia Floyd in 1820 and the couple had five sons and two
daughters. Lady Peel was always supportive of her husband but
was neither interested in politics nor was she a society
hostess.
Peel and the Gold Standard
In 1819 Peel became chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of
Enquiry into the return to the gold standard: the so-called
currency, or bullion committee that included men such as Canning
and Huskisson. Peel was convinced that the system of paper
currency that had been introduced by Pitt in 1797 had resulted
in a depreciated currency. In May he introduced legislation for
a return to the gold standard on 1 May 1823.
Peel as Home Secretary
In 1822 Peel accepted the position of Home Secretary in
Liverpool's cabinet reshuffle; he began to look into the state
of criminal law almost immediately. The technique that Peel used
throughout his time in office was that of summoning experts in
the area on which he was working, so that he always appeared
before the House of Commons with an extensive knowledge of his
subject. He was able to pass eight pieces of legislation between
1822 and 1827 that changed and/or consolidated the criminal law.
He repealed, either wholly or partially, more than 250 statutes
that he deemed to be outdated. Canning thought that Peel was
'the most efficient home secretary that this country ever saw'.
In March 1822 Peel proposed that a House of Commons Select
Committee under his chairmanship should be set up to investigate
the policing of London. However, in June the committee reported
that an effective system of policing could not be reconciled
with a free society: Peel was not convinced of this and
continued to work towards the establishment of a civilian police
force: his ideas finally came to fruition when the Metropolitan
Police Force came into existence in 1829.
In March 1825, Sir Francis Burdett's Bill for Catholic
Emancipation was introduced into the House of Commons. Despite
Peel's opposition it went though the processes of law and Peel
offered to resign, seeing his position as untenable. However,
the Bill failed in the Lords so Peel continued in post. This
action did mark him out as a supporter of Anglicanism, however,
and made his dealings with Catholics more difficult in the
future.
From about 1822 until 1826 the domestic economy had seen an
upturn but in 1826 a further trade depression and industrial
slump resulted in widespread distress and discontent. As working
hours were reduced and wages were cut by the manufacturers in
efforts to save themselves from bankruptcy, unemployment
increased causing a series of riots and a crime wave that swept
the country. Because there was no civilian police force to deal
with the situation, Peel used the army to quash the unrest.
In March 1827 Lord Liverpool resigned following a stroke that
left him incapacitated, and the post of PM was offered to
Canning. Peel refused to serve under Canning because of their
diametrically opposing views on Catholic Emancipation. Seven
other members of Liverpool's Cabinet — the Duke of Wellington,
Westmorland, Bexley, Melville, Eldon and Bathurst — also
resigned their posts, leaving Canning with a curtailed choice of
ministers. Consequently he turned to the Whigs for some of his
Cabinet. Peel remained out of office until the Duke of
Wellington became PM in January 1828, when he took up the post
of Home Secretary once more and also became Leader of the House
of Commons.
In February 1828 Peel proposed the establishment of a Committee
of Enquiry into the state of the police and the increase in
crime in London' the committee recommended the setting up of a
police force for London — except the City of London — under the
control of the Home Secretary. The following year the
Metropolitan Police Act was passed, and by September the
'Bobbies' or 'Peelers' were on the streets. They were not always
successful, certainly they were not popular, but the force
proved to be the foundation of the modern police force in
Britain.
Much of the remainder of Wellington's ministry was absorbed in
dealing with concessions to the religious minorities in the
nation by repealing the Test and Corporation Acts (1828) and
passing the Catholic Emancipation Act (1829). In February 1829,
Peel resigned his seat for Oxford and called an election there.
He was defeated, but another seat was found for him after the
'resignation' of another MP. A couplet that became the
catch-phrase of the anti-Peelites was published in the
Birmingham Argos:
Oh Member for Oxford, you shuffle and wheel
You have changed your name from R Peel to Repeal
In May 1830 Peel inherited the baronetcy on the death of his
father and had become MP for the family borough of Tamworth; by
November he was out of office when the Whigs took power
following the anti-reform stance of Wellington. By this time the
Tories had split into the Ultras and the moderates: this latter
group had taken to calling themselves 'conservatives' because
although they would contemplate reform they wanted to conserve
all that they believed was best in society. Peel headed this
group although he refused to lead it; there is little doubt that
the single most important person in the House of Commons from
about 1820 until 1850 was Sir Robert Peel. He did not hold
office between 1830 and 1841, apart from the 'Hundred Days" that
began in December 1834 following the dismissal of Melbourne's
ministry by the king who then invited Wellington to form a
ministry. The Duke declined but suggested Peel as PM. Peel was
on holiday in Italy but eventually was tracked down on 25
November; he returned and took up the post of both PM and
Chancellor of the Exchequer on 9 December 1834.
Having accepted a post that paid a salary he was obliged to
stand for re-election and took the opportunity to send out the
Tamworth Manifesto to his voters as a means of reaching the
electorate at large in preparation for the general election that
was held in January 1835. Although Peel did gain some seats for
his party, he was still in a minority and lost a series of votes
partly because of the Lichfield House Compact, and agreement
between the Whigs and Irish MPs. On 8 April 1835 he resigned.
Some of his measures later were carried into law by the Whigs:
these included the Dissenters' Marriage Bill, the English Tithe
Bill, and the Irish Tithe Bill.
However, despite the setbacks, Peel attracted men of talent into
the Conservative party. Sir James Graham and Edward Stanley
joined him from the Whigs; Gladstone and Disraeli were
Conservatives together although they were rivals and opponents
later in their lives when Gladstone became a Liberal. By 1837
there were over 300 men in Peel's opposition party. Many of the
pieces of Whig legislation in the period 1833-41 had Peel's
backing and it is difficult to see how they could have been
passed without his support. They included the
* 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act
* 1835 Municipal Corporations Act
* 1839 Jamaica Act
Queen Victoria comes to the throne
On the accession of Queen Victoria there had to be a general
election, which was won by Lord Melbourne; however, his support
in parliament declined and on 7 May he resigned following a very
close vote on the suspension of the constitution in Jamaica.
Victoria asked Peel to form a ministry but precipitated the
Bedchamber Crisis when she refused to give up her Whig ladies in
waiting. Peel refused to take office under those circumstances,
and Melbourne resumed office but continued to lose support until
he resigned in June 1841 leaving Peel to take the post of PM and
Chancellor of the Exchequer following a Conservative victory at
the general election. The ministry included seven men who either
had been or would become PMs in their own right: Peel,
Wellington, Ripon, Stanley, Aberdeen, Gladstone and Disraeli.
Peel's second ministry saw a range of economic reforms including
* the implementation of income tax as a five-year temporary
measure
* a series of Railway Acts
* a rationalisation and reduction or abolition in duties on
goods
* the 1844 Bank Charter Act
* 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws following the start of the Irish
potato famine
Following the repeal of the Corn Laws, Peel resigned and did not
hold office again. He fell from his horse on Constitution Hill
on 29 June 1850; the horse stumbled on top of him and Peel died
from his injuries on 2 July 1850. He was buried in St. Peter's
church at Drayton Bassett.
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