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ENGLISH POLITICAL LEADERS 
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE BARNETT SMITH 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. 
 " POETS AND NOVELISTS," ETC. 
 
 ' , ', ! 
 
 LONDON 
 Wm. ISBISTER, Limited 
 
 56, LUDGATE HILL 
 1881 
 
sV 
 
 b 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. BIRTH AND EDUCATION I 
 
 II. SECRETARY FOR IRELAND. — CURRENCY REFORM . 1 5 
 
 III. HOME SECRETARY 36 
 
 IV. CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION 57 
 
 V. FALL OF THE WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY . . 80 
 
 VI. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM . . . . 9 1 
 
 VII. PEEL IN OPPOSITION 102 
 
 viii. peel's first administration . . . .114 
 
 IX. DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS . . . 1 24 
 
 x. peel's great administration .... 140 
 
 XI. REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS 165^ 
 
 XII. LAST YEARS AND DEATH 1 78 
 
 XIII. CHARACTER OF PEEL . . . . . . 1 94 
 
 300789 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 
 
 T T is only by a future generation that a great statesman 
 ■*■ can be adequately and justly judged. This is espe- 
 cially the case as regards a Minister like Sir Robert 
 Peel, who was obliged at several critical periods to 
 abandon his cherished political convictions, and to adopt 
 a policy subversive of the fundamental ideas of his party. 
 Charged by his former friends with inconsistency and 
 dissimulation, this distinguished political leader falls back 
 upon posterity for his vindication. In tracing the history 
 of his singularly interesting and remarkable career, we 
 shall endeavour to indicate, through the medium of his 
 acts and speeches, assisted by his posthumous Memoirs, 
 those grounds of justification by which alone his radical 
 changes of policy can be reconciled and elucidated. 
 There is much in the character and life of Peel to com- 
 mand the admiration and sympathy of men of all shades of 
 political opinion ; and, impressed by that feeling, it will 
 be our object to divest this biographical record of party 
 passion. We instinctively speak of this eminent states- 
 man as a great party leader, and yet the elements of his 
 greatness were not such as we usually associate with that 
 epithet. Genius was lacking in him, and his greatness 
 was built up of almost commonplace materials. This 
 fact only leads to a deeper consideration of his personal 
 
2 /.-. ; ;.* j ,, SIR F.CBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 qualities, and the means by which he rose to the exalted 
 position of Prime Minister. Peel had not those fasci- 
 nating endowments which appeal to the dramatic sense 
 in man ; the highest eloquence was denied him • there 
 was nothing romantic, either in the cast of his mind or the 
 circumstances by which he was surrounded, that could 
 stimulate the imagination. If we depict him, it must not 
 be with the brilliant colours of a Titian, but rather with the 
 homely traits of a Teniers. A wise adaptability was one 
 of the root causes of his success. He was a political philo- 
 sopher of the most practical type. He united in himself 
 , many of the best characteristics of his countrymen, and 
 A was the product of several generations of typical English- 
 men/ He was not a statesman fitted to control the 
 destinies of a nation in moments of supreme peril, and 
 could never have grappled, for example, with the power 
 and resources of a Napoleon. He rose to distinction at 
 a period when England had ceased to be distracted by 
 foreign wars — when she had arrived at a time of transition, 
 and the people clamoured loudly for domestic reforms. 
 Such a period needs rather the sagacious than the origi- 
 native statesman, and in every sense Peel was admirably 
 fitted for this new departure in public affairs. 
 
 The Peel family, which originally had a settlement in 
 Yorkshire, migrated about the year 1600 to Lancashire, 
 where one William Peele established himself near to 
 Blackburn. This ancestor of the future statesman 
 belonged to one of those families of English yeomanry, 
 the members of which have been described as happy in 
 a golden mean, too high for the office of Constable, and 
 too low for that of Sheriff. The Peels have generally 
 been described as of Saxon race, but Sir Lawrence Peel 
 says there is no evidence by which they can be traced to 
 
I.] BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 3 
 
 any one in particular of the many races, the mingled 
 blood of which has produced the English yeoman. The 
 father of the first Sir Robert Peel was born at Peel Fold, 
 a small estate still belonging to the family, and situate 
 near the town of Blackburn. In 1 744 he married a Miss 
 Haworth, of Lower Darwen. The Haworths were of 
 ancient origin, and of superior social standing to the Peels. 
 Robert Peel, the grandfather, first supported himself 
 partly by farming, and partly by hand-loom weaving. But 
 in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Mr. Haworth, and 
 a Mr. Yates, he began the business of calico-printing. 
 The firm introduced considerable improvements in the 
 machinery for spinning cotton, and set up a warehouse in 
 Manchester for the sale of their own cloth. On account 
 of his choice of a parsley leaf for a design in his calicoes, 
 Robert Peel was nicknamed " Parsley Peel." 
 
 The first Sir Robert Peel was the manufacturer's third 
 son. Desiring a wider field for the display of his energies 
 than his father's establishment provided, he left home and 
 became a junior partner in a manufactory at Bury, car- 
 ried on by his relative, Mr. Haworth, and Mr. Yates, 
 whose daughter he subsequently married. The business 
 greatly prospered, chiefly owing to the talents and energy 
 of the junior partner, and by the time he was forty 
 Robert Peel possessed a considerable fortune. In cha- 
 racter, he is represented as ambitious and loving money, 
 but principally as an instrument of power. He was of a 
 genial, generous nature, most bountiful in his gifts, and 
 thoroughly cosmopolitan withal, allowing no differences 
 of politics or religion to interfere with his charity. He 
 was an enemy of the lazy and the improvident only, and 
 his watchword was industry. He was, moreover, a man 
 of strong moral and religious convictions. His distin- 
 
4 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 guished son was his third child, the first two being girls ; 
 and when the tidings reached him that he was the father 
 of a son, he fell upon his knees and thanked God, vow- 
 ing that he " would give his child to his country," an 
 end which he ever afterwards kept in view. The ambi- 
 tion of the first Sir Robert led him into, the sphere of 
 politics. He published a pamphlet on the National 
 Debt (for financial questions he had a considerable apti- 
 tude), and became acquainted with Mr. Pitt, who was the 
 object of his warmest admiration. "No Minister," he 
 said on one occasion in the House of Commons, " ever 
 understood so well the commercial interests of the 
 country. He knew that the true sources of its greatness 
 lay in its productive industry." Mr. Peel having acquired 
 a large property at Tarn worth, was returned by that 
 borough to the House of Commons in the year 1790. 
 During the critical and momentous period which followed 
 he was most patriotic and loyal, and in 1797 his firm 
 contributed no less than ^*io,ooo to the voluntary 
 subscriptions raised for the prosecution of the war on the 
 Continent. Being now a somewhat important public per- 
 sonage, in the year 1800 Mr. Peel was created a baronet, 
 a dignity which he continued to enjoy for thirty years. It 
 was observed of him by his successor that he might be 
 truly regarded as the founder of the family ; " and he so 
 accurately appreciated the importance of commercial 
 wealth, in a national point of view, that he was often 
 heard to say that the gains to individuals were small 
 compared with the national gains arising from trade." 
 
 The repealer of the Corn Laws was born on the 5th 
 of February, 1788. The place of his birth was a small 
 cottage in the neighbourhood of Chamber Hall, his 
 father's residence near Bury, in Lancashire, the house 
 
I.] BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 5 
 
 itself being at the time under repair. By a curious coin- 
 cidence, the year of his birth was the same as that of his 
 schoolfellow, Lord Byron ; and it is further worth noting 
 that in the year 1809 both entered the Legislature 
 together, Peel in the Lower, Byron in the Upper House. 
 It may also be mentioned that in the same year in 
 which Peel entered the House of Commons there was 
 born his most famous pupil, and the third of our great/ 
 English financiers, William Ewart Gladstone. Young 
 Peel was at first educated under the eye of his father, who 
 instilled into him the principles of Pitt, and held up for 
 his imitation the character and career of the celebrated 
 Minister.) Peel was a quick and clever boy, but he is 
 described by his relative as no prodigy, although Lord 
 Dalling and Bulwer refers to anecdotes told in his family 
 of early manifestations of more than ordinary ability. 
 Precocity is no sign of future greatness, and a healthy, 
 all-round development is perhaps the best which a father 
 could desire for his child. The powers of the mind will 
 then have full opportunity of displaying themselves un- 
 checked by physical drawbacks. 
 
 In due course the boy was sent to Harrow, and 
 Byron has left this pleasant record of his schoolfellow : 
 " Peel, the orator and statesman (' that was, or is, or 
 is to be'), was my form-fellow, and we were both 
 at the top of our remove. We were on good terms, 
 but his brother was my intimate friend. There were 
 always great hopes of Peel amongst us all, masters and 
 scholars; and he has not disappointed them. As a 
 scholar he was greatly my superior ; as a declaimer 
 and actor I was reckoned at least his equal. As a 
 schoolboy out of school, I was always in scrapes, and he 
 never ; in school he always knew his lesson, and I 
 
6 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 rarely ; but when I knew it, I knew it nearly as well. 
 In general information, history, &c., I think I was his 
 superior, as well as of most boys of my standing." It is 
 stated that Robert Peel and his brother William Yates 
 Peel (the friend of Byron) were reading with a certain 
 clergyman, of whom their father one day asked whether 
 William would be a William Pitt, when his reply was, " I 
 hope so j but Robert will be Robert Peel." At Oxford, 
 whither he was sent as a gentleman commoner of Christ 
 Church, Peel proved not only that he had capacity for 
 work, but talents of a very considerable order ; and yet 
 he seems to have taken special pains to avoid parade of 
 his scholarship. He was a good boater and cricketer, 
 and he was rather anxious to be regarded as a well- 
 dressed man. Nevertheless, he attained special distinc 
 tion at the university. Entering there when he had 
 barely completed his sixteenth year, after four years of 
 study he took the B.A. degree in Michaelmas term, 1808, 
 under unprecedented circumstances. The present system 
 of Oxford examinations had only just then been inaugu- 
 rated, and Peel was the first man who ever took the 
 honours of a double first-class — that is, first in classics 
 and first in mathematics. Here was something at least 
 to gratify the heart of the proud Sir Robert. 
 
 In 1809, having then just attained his majority, Peel 
 entered Parliament as member for Cashel, one of that 
 class of boroughs without which many distinguished 
 politicians of past generations would have been unable 
 to obtain a seat in the House of Commons. There 
 was no question as to the political complexion of the 
 young member. M. Guizot says, " II naguit Tory;" 
 yet although by birth, training, and associations he 
 was a Tory, there were even in his youthful days some 
 
I.] BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 7 
 
 questions which he could regard from a very Liberal 
 standpoint. But his natural party was the Tory party, 
 and into that party he consequently threw himself heart 
 and soul. There seems to have been no disguise as to 
 the high destiny which Sir Robert Peel coveted for his 
 son. It was assumed in the House from the outset 
 that he would shortly attain to office, and visions of 
 the Premiership were attributed to the young member. 
 In a political squib purporting to be the last will and 
 testament of an expiring patriot, there was an amusing 
 proviso to this effect : " I give and bequeath my 
 patience to Mr. Robert Peel, and he will want it all 
 before he becomes Prime Minister of England ; but in 
 the event of such a contingency, my patience is to 
 revert to the people of England, who will stand sadly in 
 need of it." At the time of Peel's return to Parliament 
 the Duke of Portland was Premier, the chief members 
 of his Cabinet being Perceval, leader of the House of 
 Commons, Castlereagh, Secretary at War, and Canning, 
 Foreign Minister. As a result of the disastrous expedi- 
 tion to Walcheren, serious differences arose in the 
 Ministry, and before Parliament assembled in 1810 it 
 had been reconstructed. Canning was very desirous of 
 shelving Castlereagh, and the latter having accused his 
 colleague of treachery, a duel ensued, in which Canning 
 was wounded. The Duke of Portland resigned, and 
 the two hostile secretaries followed his example. Mr. 
 Spencer Perceval became Prime Minister, and it was 
 in his Ministry that Lord Palmerston entered upon 
 official life. 
 
 Parliament met on the 23rd of January, 1810. Sir 
 Lawrence Peel states that during his first year in Parlia- 
 ment Mr. Peel wasjvvisely silent ; and he also speaks of 
 
8 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 his close and regular attendance, with the desire to study 
 other men, a line of conduct very different from that of 
 some young Parliamentarians. This is a somewhat inex- 
 plicable though an unquestionable oversight. Peel was 
 not returned for Cashel until after the rising of Parliament 
 in 1809, the member during that session — which Sir L. 
 Peel evidently regards as Peel's first — being, as we have 
 discovered, Mr. Quintin Dick. The theory of his reticence 
 consequently falls to the ground. It is, moreover, highly 
 improbable, knowing what we do of Peel's energetic 
 character, and his desire to distinguish himself, that 
 he could have kept silence during a whole session. 
 So far from this being the case, we find that in 
 1 8 10, which was really his first session in the House of 
 Commons, he spoke on three occasions. That some- 
 thing was expected from him is proved by the fact that 
 he was chosen to second the address. This was his 
 maiden speech, and it was delivered before a brilliant 
 assembly, amongst whom was the Princess of Wales. 
 Her Royal Highness remained in the House while the 
 division on the address was taken, but the Speaker would 
 not allow the numbers to be announced by the tellers 
 until she had withdrawn. 
 
 Mr. Peel's speech was fluent, but not otherwise 
 noticeable, except for the patriotic nature of its senti- 
 ments. It occupies, however, nearly five columns in 
 Hansard. After referring to the defence made against 
 the power of France by Austria and Spain, and lament- 
 ing the miseries especially of the latter country, he 
 referred to the services of Lord Wellington, who, in a 
 bloody and unequal contest, had once more established 
 the bravery of the British soldier. " England," the 
 speaker continued, " desired neither peace nor war, 
 
I.] BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 9 
 
 but she would suffer no indignity, and make no unbe- 
 coming concessions. With every engine of power and 
 perfidy against us, the situation of this country had proved 
 to Bonaparte that it was invulnerable in the very point to 
 which all his efforts were directed. The accounts of the 
 exports of British manufactures would be found to ex- 
 ceed by several millions those of any former period. 
 With regard to our internal condition, while France had 
 been stripped of the flower of her youth, England had 
 continued flourishing, and the only alteration had been 
 the substitution of machinery for manual labour." In 
 conclusion, he observed that " the aggression, usurpation, 
 and tyranny of Bonaparte was the only subject upon 
 which all parties united. But to resist him in his en- 
 croachments effectually, unanimity was absolutely neces- 
 sary, and the nature of the contest in which we were 
 engaged required that every heart and hand should be 
 joined to give strength to the common cause. He hoped 
 we should still be able, as we had hitherto been, to ride 
 in safety through the storm that had destroyed the rest 
 of Europe, and that we should still stretch forth a hand 
 to succour those who were yet struggling for life against 
 the angry waves. To be successful in that generous 
 course he felt that they must be unanimous ; he felt that 
 there could be but one sentiment among the men to 
 whom he addressed himself, and that that sentiment 
 must do honour to themselves and to their country." 
 An amendment to the address was proposed by Lord 
 Gower, but it was lost by a majority of ninety-six votes. 
 
 Mr. Peel spoke in the debate which arose upon the 
 petition of the Livery of London as to the committal of 
 Sir F. Burdett, &c, and praying for an immediate and 
 radical reform in the Commons' House of Parliament. 
 
io SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 He maintained that if they were to lay that paper on the 
 table, they might prepare to expect insult — it knocked at 
 the door in the humble character of a petition, but when 
 it got in it would show its real nature. " He thought it 
 was not too much to require that petitions should at least 
 have the negative merit of decency." The petition in 
 question, which was drawn up in a somewhat inde- 
 pendent tone, but which was still more obnoxious to a 
 majority of the House on account of its substance, was 
 rejected by a majority of ninety-two. The third occasion 
 upon which Mr. Peel rose during this session was in con- 
 nection with the Expedition to the Scheldt. This un- 
 fortunate enterprise, known as the Walcheren Expedition, 
 consisted of thirty-five British ships of the line and two 
 hundred smaller vessels, principally transports, and forty 
 thousand land forces, the latter under the command of 
 the Earl of Chatham, and the fleet under Sir Richard 
 Strachan. The destination of the expedition was kept 
 secret for some time ; but before the 28th of July, 1809, 
 when it set sail, the French journals had announced that 
 Walcheren was the point of attack. In August, Flushing 
 was invested ; a dreadful bombardment ensued, and the 
 place was taken on the 15th ; but it seemed that no sug- 
 gestion on the part of the naval commander, nor urging 
 on the part of the officers, could induce the Earl to take 
 vigorous action until the period of probable success was 
 gone, and necessity obliged him to return with as many 
 of the troops as disease and an unhealthy climate had 
 spared. This strange fiasco gave rise to the well-known 
 epigram — 
 
 " The Earl of Chatham, with his sword drawn, 
 Stood waiting for Sir Richard Strachan ; 
 Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em, 
 Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham." 
 
I.] BIRTH AND EDUCATION. H 
 
 Flushing was evacuated on the 23rd of December. 
 On the 26th of the following March, Lord Porchester 
 moved in the House of Commons a series of resolutions, 
 founded upon evidence taken at the bar, condemnatory 
 of the conduct of the Government in regard to the expe- 
 dition. The debate was very protracted, and Mr. 
 Canning and other prominent members delivered eloquent 
 speeches. Mr. Peel rallied to the support of the Govern- 
 ment, basing his defence of their policy on the fact that 
 they had determined upon the armament with the 
 fairest prospect of success. " What," he asked, " would 
 have been the decision of the country, if it had seen its 
 Government sunk in a cold and torpid inactivity at that 
 period when the storm was gathering in Germany, when 
 Austria was determined to make one bold effort to resist 
 the unprincipled exactions of the enemy of her inde- 
 pendence ? In such a state of things was Great Britain 
 to continue regardless because she was. not a sufferer — 
 to be indifferent because she was safe ? Having, then, 
 decided to co-operate with Austria, what did true policy 
 point at as the theatre for our exertions ? France, we 
 knew, wished to regenerate her naval greatness, and 
 nature, combined with art, had fitted out the Scheldt as 
 the most formidable position for extending her maritime 
 power. Whether they looked to security from invasion, 
 or to the protection of our commerce, Ministers must 
 have felt the necessity of making an attempt upon those 
 sources of our annoyance." He further held that if a 
 tame and spiritless calculation of the risk became the 
 criterion of national enterprise, then the country should at 
 once obliterate from the proud pages of its history the 
 memory and the mention of all its heroic deeds. Lord 
 Porchester's resolutions were rejected ; but in a House 
 
12 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 composed of upwards of five hundred members, the 
 Government only obtained a majority of forty- eight. As 
 a result of the Parliamentary inquiry, nevertheless, Lord 
 Chatham resigned his post of Master-General of the 
 Ordnance to avert further disgrace. 
 
 Peel was now fairly launched upon his political career ; 
 but unfortunately for him he began public life just at 
 the moment when the Ministry he supported had become 
 discredited with the country. Moreover, although the 
 Premier was satisfied with the services he had rendered 
 him during this important session, the speeches of the 
 member for Cashel had certainly not exceeded, if indeed 
 they had fulfilled, the expectations indulged in by the 
 House generally. There were also amongst his fellow- 
 members men of powerful and shining abilities. The 
 great masters of politics and eloquence, Pitt, Fox, and 
 Burke, were no longer alive j but the public — still 
 thrilling with the recollection of their mighty conflicts 
 — could yet listen to and be moved by living examples 
 of fine oratorical power ; for Grattan, Sheridan, Tierney, 
 Romilly, Windham, and, above all, Canning, still held 
 brilliant possession of the stage. Brougham had just 
 entered the House. More judicious than energetic, 
 and more lucid than impetuous, Robert Peel did not, 
 at the first onset, win his due renown and rank in the 
 opinion of the mass of spectators. 1 The oratorical tradi- 
 tions of the House were against Peel's style of speech. 
 With more fire and energy, more in fact of the genius of 
 the true orator, they would have readily condoned faults 
 of rashness. But Peel was correct and precise rather 
 than moving, smooth and self-possessed instead of being 
 impassioned, fluent rather than eloquent. 
 
 1 M. Guizot's Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel. 
 
I.] BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 13 
 
 In person Peel is represented at this time as tall and 
 well formed. His figure was slender rather than robust, 
 and had no suggestion of that corpulency which marked it 
 in later years. He was of active habits, and given to 
 athletic sports ; a good walker, and also fond of shooting. 
 His features were good ; he had a sweet smile, a well- 
 formed head, high and ample forehead, not too grand a 
 portico, and a countenance which, when animated, was 
 not wanting in expression or fire. In fine, he was of 
 prepossessing and comely presence. 
 
 It is not surprising, however, that the Prime Minister, 
 Mr. Perceval, soon discovered his worth. Distinctly 
 above mediocrity in intellectual and speaking power, 
 Mr. Peel became speedily still more conspicuous for his 
 business abilities. The Government of the day was not 
 so strong that it could afford to despise any new men of 
 talent upon its own side. The Premier held his exalted 
 position by natural succession, not by reason of personal 
 merit. On the collapse of the Duke of Portland's Ad- 
 ministration and the retirement of Canning, there was 
 no choice as to who should be First Minister. Mr. 
 Perceval came in, gathering round him the scattered 
 fragments of the late Government. But an abler man 
 than the Premier had fixed his eye upon Mr. Peel, and 
 the latter's first connnection with official life was as 
 private secretary to Lord Liverpool. During his rela- 
 tions with Lord Liverpool, Peel wrote a letter in connec- 
 tion with some public occurrence of the time, which gave 
 special satisfaction to the King, who, in praising the 
 writer of it, spoke also of his father as " a very honest 
 man," this being regarded as high praise indeed from 
 the aged monarch. Shortly afterwards Peel was appointed 
 Under-Secretary for the Colonies. 
 
14 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. i. 
 
 The period of forty years stretching from i8ioto 1850 
 > — that is, from the time when Peel first took his seat in 
 the House of Commons down to the year of his untimely 
 death — was one of complete revolution in the domestic 
 legislation of this country. During that memorable 
 period the penal laws against the Roman Catholics were 
 expunged from the statute-book; Dissenters were re- 
 lieved from their disabilities ; parliamentary reform 
 opened the doors of the Constitution to large masses of 
 our countrymen ; commerce was relieved, and the homes 
 of the people were gladdened by the abolition of the 
 obnoxious corn laws ; and the old Toryism of our fore- 
 fathers passed away for ever, to give place to the modified 
 Conservatism of a later age. u . An entirely new spirit," 
 as a writer in the Westminster Review observed, " has 
 been infused into our policy — the spirit of freedom and 
 progress. If Sir Robert Peel's first chief, Mr. Perceval, 
 could return to life, he would find himself in a world in 
 which he could recognise nothing, and in which he would 
 be shocked at everything ; and it is hard to say whether 
 England or her quondam premier would be most scan- 
 dalised at each other's mutually strange and ghastly 
 apparition." Many of the wise, mighty, and beneficial 
 changes above indicated we owe to the statesman whose 
 initiation into official life we have just traced. In the 
 sphere of politics it is especially true that nothing is so 
 sure as the unexpected ; and the closing decade of Peel's 
 career, as well as his earlier surrender in favour of Catholic 
 Emancipation, might well fill with amazement those 
 friends who had originally looked upon him as the bul- 
 wark of a relentless and an aggressive Toryism, 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECRETARY FOR IRELAND. — CURRENCY REFORM. 
 
 /^VN the nth of May, 1812, Mr. Perceval was assassi- 
 ^-^ nated by one Bellingham in the lobby of the 
 House of Commons. This startling event, amongst other 
 changes, led to Peel's advancement in official life. He 
 was appointed by Lord Liverpool (who succeeded to the 
 Premiership) to the important and onerous office of Chief 
 Secretary for Ireland. This post has been one of the 
 most difficult in every administration during the past 
 century; and in Peel's time in particular it demanded 
 a man of great circumspection, ability, and firmness to 
 fill it with due acceptability. It says not a little, there- 
 fore, for the new Prime Minister's courage and prescience 
 that he should have appointed to this high office a young 
 man still in his twenty-fourth year. Yet the appoint- 
 ment did not go unquestioned. O'Connell, who was 
 destined to have many a passage of arms with the new 
 Secretary, bitterly remarked that there had been sent out 
 to govern Ireland " a raw youth, squeezed out of the 
 workings of I know not what factory in England, who 
 began his parliamentary career by vindicating the gratui- 
 tous destruction of our brave soldiers in the murderous 
 expedition to Walcheren, and was sent over here before 
 
1 6 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 he got rid of the foppery of perfumed handkerchiefs and 
 thin shoes, upon the ground, I suppose, that he had 
 given a specimen of his talents for vindication that might 
 be useful to the present and future administration of 
 Ireland ; in short, he was a lad ready to vindicate any- 
 thing — everything ! " This attack, which was quite un- 
 justifiable — seeing that Peel had as yet afforded no 
 grounds for such animadversion — was the first outburst of 
 wrath on O'Connell's part against one who, while yet a 
 youth, was to prove that he was a capable adminis- 
 trator. 
 
 Although on the construction of the Liverpool Cabinet 
 it was understood that the Catholic question was to be 
 an open one, the Government of Ireland was still en- 
 trusted to a strong anti-Catholic, the Duke of Richmond. 
 The Administration also leaned decidedly to the same 
 views, and in these they were supported by the Prince 
 Regent, who had abandoned his former opinions on this 
 question. The Catholic claims were also opposed by the 
 great bulk of the clergy and people of England. Peel 
 himself, had circumstances been favourable, would pro- 
 bably not have been disinclined to discuss the Catholic 
 claims j but he was driven to assume a position of strict 
 hostility in consequence of the attitude of O'Connell and 
 his friends, who rejected with scorn the moderate counsels 
 of those Irish and English Catholics who were in favour 
 of giving certain guarantees for maintaining the authority 
 of the King and the State over the Catholic priesthood. 
 The crisis, which it must be admitted was a very peculiar 
 one, brought upon the Chief Secretary the nickname of 
 " Orange Peel." It was at this juncture that O'Connell 
 first raised the cry of " Repeal of the Union " in con- 
 nection with the Catholic claims; a cry which — as 
 
II.] SECRETARY FOR IRELAND. 17 
 
 Dr. Cooke Taylor has observed in his work upon the 
 " Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel," — " was promptly 
 disclaimed by the Catholic nobility and gentry." 
 
 In consequence of the deplorable condition of the 
 South of Ireland, in the session of 1814 Mr. Peel in- 
 troduced two measures for the better execution of the 
 laws and the preservation of peace — measures which 
 Grattan admitted to be conceived in a mild and judi- 
 cious spirit. On moving a slight addition to these 
 measures subsequently, the Secretary congratulated the 
 country on the improved tranquillity of Ireland, but 
 referred with indignation to the attacks which had been 
 made on his coercive measures by evil and designing 
 men. It was unfortunate for Peel, who was not a con- 
 vivial man, that he could take little part in the social 
 life of Dublin, although his absence from scenes such as 
 those for which the Duke of Richmond became notorious 
 is to be warmly commended. For friendships in the Irish 
 capital he was driven to such ultra-Protestants as Lord 
 Newbury, Jebb, and others ; and these social relations 
 had the effect of still further alienating and exasperating 
 the Catholics. 
 
 About this time the famous episode in connection 
 with O'Connell occurred. Mr. Peel having read in the 
 House of Commons extracts from O'Connell's speeches 
 which placed the great agitator in a very unfavourable 
 light, the latter retorted as follows in a speech delivered 
 at a Catholic meeting : " All I shall say of him (Mr. 
 Peel), by way of parenthesis, is, that I am told he has, 
 in my absence, and in a place where he was privileged 
 from any account, grossly traduced me. I said at the 
 last meeting, in presence of the note-takers of the police, 
 who are paid by him, that he was too prudent to attack 
 
 c 
 
1 8 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 me in my presence. I see the same police informers 
 here now, and I authorise them carefully to report these 
 my words, that Mr. Peel would not dare, in my presence, 
 nor in any place where he w T as liable to personal account, 
 to use a single expression derogatory to my interest or 
 my honour." A duel nearly ensued, but the final con- 
 clusion, instead of being sanguinary, was somewhat ludi- 
 crous. The prevailing code of honour compelled Peel 
 to send his opponent a challenge. Seconds were named, 
 but these gentlemen' — being unable to decide as to who 
 should be the challenger — appealed to the press. The 
 accounts given of the affair were so contradictory that 
 the seconds themselves picked a quarrel on their own 
 account, which they proposed to adjust at Calais. Mean- 
 while O'Connell denounced the affair as a paltry trick, 
 whereupon Peel sent him another challenge. The 
 authorities having got wind of the affair, O'Connell was 
 arrested, brought before the Chief Justice, and bound 
 over to keep the peace. The parties next arranged to meet 
 at Ostend ; but O'Connell was again arrested, and this 
 time bound over not to leave the kingdom. The seconds 
 first appointed met at Calais ; one of them shot in the air 
 and the other did not shoot at all ; and with this the affair 
 was allowed to have ended satisfactorily. Peel, however, 
 whose blood does not seem to have cooled, desired 
 a separate duel with O'Connell's second ; but this 
 was not permitted. The epistolary missives in connec- 
 tion with this affair, which were somewhat voluminous. 
 were afterwards published with the lively motto, " For 
 the instruction of those who wish to know how to send 
 or receive a challenge, without any intention of fighting." 
 Ireland continued to be disturbed through the whole 
 of the years 1815 and 18 16, and when an inquiry into 
 
ii.] SECRETARY FOR IRELAND. 19 
 
 the condition of the country was moved for in the latter 
 year, Peel drew, as Burke said on another occasion, an 
 indictment against a whole nation. Nothing was more 
 difficult, he said, than to give the House a description 
 of the precise nature of the disturbances which agitated 
 Ireland. They had no precise or definite cause ; " they 
 seemed to be the effect of a general confederacy in 
 crime — a comprehensive conspiracy in guilt — a systematic 
 opposition to all laws and municipal institutions. The 
 records of the courts of justice would show such a settled 
 and uniform system of guilt, such monstrous and horrible 
 perjuries, as could not, he believed, be found in the 
 annals of any country on the face of the globe, whether 
 civilised or uncivilised." Before concluding, the Secre- 
 tary proposed an enlargement of the means of national 
 education, which drew from Mr. Plunket a fine and 
 eloquent retort upon the inadequacy of such remedial 
 means. He advised Ministers to retrace as exactly as 
 possible the steps they had taken in the government of 
 Ireland ; " instead of establishing themselves on the 
 narrow, odious principle of Protestant seclusion, which 
 kept alive the spirit of dissension, he earnestly recom- 
 mended them to adopt measures calculated to secure 
 the happiness and union of all classes." The deficiency 
 of the harvest of 181 6, together with other causes of dis- 
 tress, and the acts of an ascendancy which was very 
 galling to the great bulk of the population, pressed 
 hardly upon Ireland at this period. 
 
 In the following year, when overtures were again made 
 by Grattan on behalf of the moderate Catholics, Mr. 
 Secretary Peel delivered a speech against Catholic 
 Emancipation, which not only excited great interest, but 
 drew forth high praise in certain quarters. This address 
 
20 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 furnishes the key-note of all his anti-Catholic policy, and, 
 strangely enough, it anticipated the very grounds upon 
 which Mr. Gladstone justified his Irish legislation many 
 years later. Speaking of the Catholics, Peel asked, " If 
 you give them that fair proportion of political power to 
 which their numbers, wealth, talents, and education will 
 entitle them, can you believe that they will or can remain 
 contented with the limits which you assign to them ? 
 Do you think that when they constitute, as they must do 
 (not this year or next, but in the natural and therefore 
 certain order of things), by far the most powerful body 
 in Ireland — the body most controlling and directing the 
 government of it — do you think, I say, that they will 
 view with satisfaction the state of your Church or their 
 own ? " Here we have, briefly stated, the chief and most 
 cogent reason for the disestablishment of the Irish Church. 
 " May I not," demanded the orator in conclusion, 
 " arguing from the motives by which man is actuated — 
 from the feelings which nature inspires — may I not ques- 
 tion the policy of admitting those who must have views 
 hostile to the religious establishments of the State to the 
 capacity of legislating for the interests of these establish- 
 ments, and the power of directing the Government, of 
 which these establishments form so essential a part ? " 
 While this speech was viewed with great favour by 
 Wilberforce and others, Mackintosh spoke of it very 
 moderately. Its principal argument was a specious one, 
 and, admitting the rights of a minority such as the 
 Protestant minority in Ireland, an irresistible one; 
 but it was doomed to fall utterly before the advancing 
 wave of public opinion and the logic of events. It was 
 only a question of time how long England could continue 
 to resist the Catholic claims, and to rule against the 
 
ii.] SECRETARY FOR IRELAND. 21 
 
 express interest and wishes of the bulk of the Irish 
 people. — 
 
 Shortly after the delivery of the speech above quoted 
 the orator had his reward, and this was no mean one. 
 Mr. Abbot, the Speaker of the House of Commons, 
 having been created a peer, a vacancy arose in the repre- 
 sentation of the University of Oxford — that Blue Riband 
 of Parliament to an Oxford man. Lords Eldon and 
 Stowell immediately recommended Mr. Peel to the 
 electors, and he was returned for a seat which was well 
 known to have been coveted by Mr. Canning. The 
 latter statesman, however, most generously said : " The 
 representation of the University of Oxford has fallen 
 into worthier hands. I rejoice with my right hon. 
 friend near me in the high honour which he has obtained. 
 Long may he enjoy the distinction, and long may it 
 prove a source of reciprocal pride to our parent univer- 
 sity and to himself." -**" 
 
 Having now held the post of Irish Secretary for six years 
 — years of trouble and anxiety — Mr. Peel was desirous of 
 being relieved from its duties. He therefore chose the 
 time of his election for Oxford University, following close 
 upon the special service he had but recently rendered in 
 Parliament, for doing so. During his tenure of office he 
 certainly discredited O'Connell's denunciations. All the 
 duties of his position he well and punctually performed, 
 while "his life had been steady and decorous in a country 
 where steadiness and decorum were peculiarly meritorious 
 because they were not specially demanded." The con- 
 stabulary force which he established in Ireland (still 
 known by the name of Peelers) ranks as the most per- 
 manent result of his administration, and it was justly re- 
 garded as forming the experimental or preliminary step 
 
22 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 to the introduction of the system of metropolitan police, 
 which in London has superseded the inconvenient and 
 ineffective old watch system. Mr. Peel also effected some 
 improvements in the grand jury system of Ireland, and 
 endeavoured to alleviate the effects produced by an 
 almost chronic condition of fever and famine. On his 
 retirement from this very responsible office of Chief 
 Secretary he had certainly left behind him a reputation 
 for practical and administrative talents of no common 
 order. 
 
 Although for the next four years Mr. Peel remained 
 out of office, his talents were not allowed to rust, for 
 early in 1819 he was appointed chairman of a committee, 
 chosen, on the motion of Mr. Vansittart, Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, to inquire into the state of the Bank of 
 England, with reference to the expediency of the re- 
 sumption of cash payments. The result of the labours 
 of the Committee on Currency was the introduction of a 
 measure on which Peel's celebrity as a financier mainly 
 rests, viz. the return to cash payments. A brief state- 
 ment of the circumstances which led to the appointment 
 of this committee is necessary. 
 
 In the year 1797 the Bank of England declared, with 
 the consent of the Government, that its notes would not 
 be converted, on presentation, into gold. This measure 
 enabled the Bank to make large advances to the State, 
 which otherwise would have been impossible, and with- 
 out which the Government would have found it difficult 
 to carry on the deadly struggle with France. But what 
 were the commercial results of the measure ? The value 
 of a note for which the bank promised to pay gold some 
 day or other depended of course upon the credit 
 attached to the promise. No promise being exactly 
 
ii.] CURRENCY REFORM. 23 
 
 equivalent to a performance, it was utterly impossible 
 that a bank-note not immediately convertible into gold 
 could have precisely the same value as gold. Gold, 
 therefore, would have a value of its own, and a bank-note 
 a value of its own. Moreover, as the value of the bank- 
 note depended on the faith placed in it, if it had been 
 merely required for home trade, the decrease in value 
 would have been small, because the English people had 
 confidence in the Bank of England and in the Govern- 
 ment which sustained it. But in all foreign transactions 
 the case was different. If an English merchant had to 
 purchase goods on the Continent, and he sent out bank- 
 notes, the merchant at St. Petersburg would have less 
 confidence in the English bank-note than the Man- 
 chester merchant, and he would therefore say, '.' No, pay 
 me in gold ; or if you want to pay me in bank-notes, I 
 will only take them at the value I place on them." In 
 proportion, therefore, to the extent of purchases abroad 
 was the natural abasement of paper money at home, and 
 the increase in the value of gold as compared with paper. 
 Besides., paper-money resting on credit partook of the 
 nature of public funds, depending also on credit. As the 
 one fell naturally in a long and critical war, so the other 
 fell from the same cause, though not in the same degree. 
 All our dealings were thus carried on in a money which 
 had a real value and a nominal one — the real value 
 depending, in a great measure, on matters beyond 
 our control. Efforts on the part of our legislature to 
 control it were useless. We forbade the giving more 
 for a guinea than twenty-one shillings in paper money, 
 and we forbade the exchange of a twenty-shilling bank- 
 note for less than twenty-shillings. We had, in short, 
 to prevent gold and „silver getting the same price in 
 
24 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 England that they could get out of it. Our gold con- 
 sequently went to those countries where it could obtain 
 its real value, and England was drained. In course of 
 time fifteen shillings in silver became equal to twenty 
 shillings in paper. As has been pointed out, there is no 
 possibility of keeping paper money on an equality with 
 metallic money except by making the one immediately 
 exchangeable for the other. This was the question which 
 came before the Committee on Currency; and a difficult 
 one it was, considering that for many years past every 
 transaction in England had been carried on by paper. 
 Seeing that paper money afforded great facilities in the 
 carrying on of trade, it was feared that the sudden with- 
 drawal of these facilities would be felt through every class 
 of the population, and that the resumption of cash pay- 
 ments would involve great individual and public loss. 
 And for this reason Mr. Horner was unsuccessful when 
 he brought the question before the House of Commons in 
 1811. But in 1819 the matter was ripe for settlement, 
 and Mr. Peel, who had previously held to the old 
 opinions, now threw himself into the work. His father 
 altogether differed from him as to the tendency of the 
 measure ; but it was asserted at the time that it rendered 
 Sir Robert a more wealthy man, by something like half 
 a million sterling, than he had previously been. 
 
 A curious scene took place in the House of Commons 
 on the 24th of May. Sir Robert Peel rose and presented 
 a petition in favour of a paper currency, and in doing so 
 lamented his son's change of opinion. Mr. Peel himself 
 then followed, introducing the measure for the resumption 
 of cash payments, to which his father was opposed, but 
 which had been adopted by the Committee. The ensu- 
 ing passage from Peel's speech on this occasion did him 
 
it.] CURRENCY REFORM. 25 
 
 honour, from its frank avowal of a change of opinion ; 
 and as the measure then introduced is chiefly associated 
 with his name, it is of importance to reproduce it : " He 
 was ready to avow, without shame or remorse, that he 
 went into the Committee with a very different opinion 
 from that which he at present entertained j for his 
 views of the subject were most materially different when 
 he voted against the resolutions brought forward in 181 1 
 by Mr. Horner, as chairman of the Bullion Committee. 
 Having gone into the inquiry determined to dismiss all 
 former impressions that he might have received, and to 
 obliterate from his memory the vote which he had given 
 some years since when the same question was discussed, 
 he had resolved to apply to it his undivided and un- 
 prejudiced attention, and adopt every inference that 
 authentic information or mature reflection should offer 
 to his mind, and he had no hesitation in stating that, 
 although he should probably even now vote, if it were 
 again brought before the House, in opposition to the 
 practical measure then recommended, he now, with very 
 little modification, concurred in the principles laid down 
 in the fourteen first resolutions submitted to the House 
 by that very able and much-lamented individual. He 
 conceived them to represent the true nature and laws of 
 our monetary system. It was without shame or repent- 
 ance he thus bore testimony to the superior sagacity of 
 one with whose views he agreed on this point, although 
 he differed so much from him on other great political 
 questions; but that distinguished statesman's opinions 
 on this subject were such as must render his character 
 still more respectable, and his loss more sensibly felt by 
 the community at large." 
 
 The speaker then went into an elaborate examina- 
 
26 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 tion 'of the whole question, tracing carefully the various 
 stages of its history, and concluded by submitting 
 his resolutions to the House. A Bill was subsequently 
 founded on them which quickly passed through both 
 Houses and became law. It was not to be expected 
 that such a measure could pass without having a dis- 
 astrous if momentary effect upon the commercial world ; 
 but none the less did Peel feel that the time had 
 come for restoring the currency to its former condition. 
 A state of things which had subsisted since the time of 
 Pitt could not be remedied without a severe wrench; but 
 the country ultimately came to perceive, notwithstanding 
 the predictions of crotchety financiers, that Peel's policy 
 was wise and just. Certain landed proprietors, who had 
 borrowed extensively during the period of depreciated 
 currency, and whose estates were now heavily charged, 
 suffered considerably ; but these were only a very small 
 minority compared with the numbers of those who ex- 
 perienced relief from the new fiscal changes. Cobbett 
 was amongst those who predicted ruin to the country as 
 the result of a return to cash payments; but his prophecy 
 went unfulfilled, and Peel also lived down the charge 
 that he had sacrificed the landed interest of the country 
 to a whim on the subject of paper money. 
 
 Yet it is instructive as well as amusing to note that 
 the charges against Peel died very hard. Fourteen years 
 after the Currency Bill passed, Cobbett, who was member 
 for Oldham, brought forward in the House of Commons 
 a number of resolutions, setting forth the evils which he 
 alleged had arisen from the resumption of cash payments, 
 and proposing an address to the Crown for the removal 
 from the Privy Council of Sir Robert Peel, as the author 
 of that measure. In his lugubrious vaticinations, 
 
ii.] CURRENCY REFORM. 27 
 
 Cobbett asserted that everything worthy of the name of 
 property had been placed in jeopardy by that series of 
 measures which began in 1819. "If, indeed, the suffer- 
 ings which the nation has had to endure during these 
 thirteen years had purchased for it security against 
 further pecuniary convulsions, even then it would have 
 been purchasing security at a dear rate. But this is not 
 the case ; it has only purchased for us greater insecurity 
 than ever. It has been thirteen years of suffering, to 
 purchase insecurity and peril, which are never to end 
 until some convulsion come to put an end to our fears by 
 realising that which we fear." The motion was seconded 
 by Mr. John Fielden, a gentleman whose narrow views 
 and tenacity of purpose earned for him the sobriquet of 
 the " self-acting mule." 
 
 Peel defended his measures with great vigour and 
 effect, and then turned upon Cobbett. "The hon. 
 member has not the same motives for attacking me 
 which he has had for attacking others. I have never 
 lent the hon. member my confidence ; from me he has 
 never received any obligation. His object is, doubt- 
 less, to strike terror by the threat of his denuncia- 
 tions — to discourage opposition, from the fear of being 
 signalised as a victim. But I tell the gentlemen of 
 England that their best security is in boldly facing and 
 defying such insidious efforts. God forbid that the 
 hon. member's speculations on the subject of public 
 confusion should be realised ; I labour under no appre- 
 hensions that they will. I feel confident, whatever 
 may be the political differences that divide public men, 
 that all who are interested in the upholding of law and 
 property will unite in their defence and put down such 
 attempts. Not only would it be the greatest calamity, 
 
28 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 but a calamity embittered by the greatest disgrace, to 
 live under such an ignoble tyranny as this." Cobbett 
 was only supported by five members out of a full House, 
 and although the resolutions were entered as a matter of 
 course in the minutes of the proceedings, on the motion 
 of Lord Althorp they were directed to be expunged from 
 the journals. The House felt that an unpardonable 
 indignity was offered to one of its distinguished mem- 
 bers. Our currency system rests undisturbed upon the 
 principle restored by Peel, and the measure by which he 
 achieved this reform was the first great stride towards 
 that high reputation as a finance minister which he sub- 
 sequently acquired and still continues to enjoy. 
 
 The policy of the Government in 1817 greatly dis- 
 credited it with the country. This policy consisted 
 chiefly in interference with the liberty of the subject, by 
 the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the prevention 
 of public meetings, and the granting of warrants against 
 persons accused of publishing libels and seditious papers. 
 It suffered also a diminution of parliamentary strength by 
 the election of 181 8. In the following May Ministers 
 were only able to secure a majority of two on the last 
 motion made by Mr. Grattan upon the Catholic ques- 
 tion ; and they sustained actual defeats over Sir James 
 Mackintosh's proposal for a Select Committee on Capital 
 Punishments, and Lord Archibald Hamilton's motion 
 for a reform of the Scotch burghs. But still more serious 
 troubles followed. 
 
 ^On the 1 6th of August, 1819, was held the great Man- 
 chester reform gathering (called the Peterloo meeting), 
 when from seventy to one hundred thousand persons were 
 present. Henry Hunt, the well-known radical orator, 
 took the chair, but had only uttered a few words when 
 
II.] THE " MANCHESTER MASSACRE." 29 
 
 the meeting was suddenly assailed by a body of cavalry, 
 assisted by a Cheshire regiment of yeomanry, the outlets 
 being occupied by other military detachments. The un- 
 armed multitude were driven upon each other ; many 
 were trampled on by the horses or cut down by their riders. 
 The deaths numbered eleven — men, women, and children 
 — and the wounded about six hundred. Hunt was con- 
 veyed to prison, and locked up in a solitary cell. The 
 country soon rang with the news of what was known as 
 the "Manchester massacre." The Home Secretary, Lord 
 Sidmouth, addressed the thanks of the Prince Regent to 
 the Manchester magistrates and the military authorities 
 " for their prompt, decisive, and efficient measures for the 
 preservation of the public tranquillity on the 16th of 
 August." But public meetings were speedily held all 
 over the country, at which the proceedings were severely 
 condemned, and stigmatised as despotic and murderous. 
 In the midst of great popular excitement, Parliament 
 was called together on the 23rd of October, when the 
 Government introduced a series of repressive measures 
 described as the Six Acts. Peel, who of course had a 
 close family connection with Manchester, undertook the 
 defence of the magistrates during the debates. Premising 
 that, notwithstanding his ties of birth and early acquaint- 
 ance with Manchester, he should take an impartial and 
 disinterested view of the transactions, he said he had come 
 to the conclusion that the magistrates had been unjustly 
 assailed. He then went over the history of events prior 
 to the meeting, and maintained that from the information 
 which the magistrates had received and the knowledge 
 which they possessed of the state of feeling in Man- 
 chester and the neighbourhood, they were quite justified 
 in the conduct they had pursued. As to the part which 
 
30 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 Ministers had taken in thanking the magistrates, he con- 
 ceived that they would have been guilty of a gross 
 dereliction of duty if they had acted otherwise. "If," 
 he said, " in the honest discharge of their duty, magis- 
 trates are to be thus treated, if the first act of Ministers 
 should be to find a true bill against them, why, the 
 result would turn out that instead of an unpaid and 
 active body of magistrates, the local administration of 
 justice would be confined to men who are now so much 
 talked of, I mean stipendiary magistrates. I will appeal 
 to the civil commotions in France — and I will ask what, 
 on these occasions, has been the effect of ill-timed 
 vigour, and what has been the effect of ill-timed conces- 
 sion ? The fatal effects of the latter have been written 
 in blood ; and fatal, indeed, must the consequences be 
 to this country, if Government is to be deterred by 
 popular clamour from the performance of its duty, and 
 induced to withhold an 'expression of its approbation 
 from a course of measures which the circumstances of 
 the time so fully warranted.** I have said this much from 
 the strong feeling of obligation which, I thinlt, is due to 
 the magistrates of Manchester, to whom is to be ascribed 
 the rescue of that part of the country from .the most 
 imminent danger." 
 
 Peel probably exaggerated the risks to public order if 
 the meeting had been allowed to proceed; for similar 
 meetings had already been held, and others were held 
 subsequently, at which no breach of the peace occurred. 
 And the magistrates certainly cannot be absolved from 
 blame for entrusting the execution of their warrant to 
 the yeomanry — consisting largely of young men who 
 acted with precipitation and utter lack of judgment. 
 These troops became quite uncontrollable by their superior 
 
II.] THE « MANCHESTER MASSACRE." 31 
 
 officers when they had once been excited by the fancied^ 
 derision of the populace. Certain other passages of 
 Peel's speech — in which he drew a very unfavourable 
 picture of the working classes in the manufacturing dis- 
 tricts, and made some references to the manufacturers 
 themselves — were not very happy, and gave great offence 
 in the quarters indicated. " The middle classes in Man- 
 chester," Dr. Taylor observes, " who had stood aloof 
 from radical violence, were at least equally averse to 
 magisterial violence j and there grew up among them a 
 strong desire for a share in parliamentary representation 
 and for local self-government under a charter of incor- 
 poration. Peel's speech, by wounding their pride and 
 representing them as essentially inferior to the agricultural 
 body, greatly strengthened these feelings. The question 
 of reform passed from the hands of the Radicals into 
 those of the higher grade of the commercial community ; 
 and the Ministers, having overcome physical force, found 
 themselves unexpectedly in the presence of a growing 
 moral power, which gradually acquired such strength as 
 to be irresistible." But this is anticipating. On the 
 question of the Manchester proceedings Ministers were 
 of course successful, the result being the passing of the 
 Six Acts for the suppression of seditious meetings and 
 publications. But the popularity of the Government was 
 rapidly waning, and it received an additional blow from 
 their refusal to prosecute a Government spy named Ed- 
 wards, concerned in the abortive Cato Street conspiracy. 
 In the session of 18 21 Mr. Peel spoke on two occa- 
 sions of very great and general interest. The first was 
 in relation to the proceedings taken against Queen 
 Caroline, whose case had stirred the feelings of the whole 
 community. The Marquis of Tavistock having brought 
 
32 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 forward a motion condemning the conduct of Ministers 
 in regard to this miserable business, Mr. Peel stood 
 forth as their defender, though with some important 
 reservations. In the course of his observations he said, 
 " I lament that her Majesty's name has been excluded 
 from the liturgy. I have with regret heard it stated 
 that a palace is not to be provided for the Queen. I 
 have read, with regret, the answer to her Majesty's 
 demand of a ship of war. These are circumstances 
 which make a [decided impression, not on enlightened 
 minds, but on the great body of the people. From the 
 refusal of the circumstances of accommodation to which 
 I have alluded, an impression has prevailed that the 
 Queen is the object of persecution. It is an unjust and 
 erroneous impression; but the circumstances I have 
 mentioned have materially contributed to produce it." 
 Ministers won in the House, but their course was 
 severely condemned in the country. 
 /it is, however, to the second speech of Peel this 
 session that we are desirous of calling particular atten- 
 tion ; for it demonstrates that at this period his opinions 
 were beginning to waver upon the greatest question 
 which then agitated the public mind. On the 28th of 
 February Mr. Plunket once more brought before the 
 House the subject of the Catholic claims, in a speech of 
 surpassing power and eloquence. That address ranks 
 amongst the finest specimens of parliamentary oratory of 
 the present century. Especially thrilling was the passage 
 in which the speaker passed in review the distinguished 
 men who had advocated this measure of relief for the 
 Catholics — a list beginning with Fox and Burke, and 
 ending with Grattan. " Walking before the sacred images 
 of those illustrious dead," said the speaker, " as in a 
 
ii.] THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS. 33 
 
 public and solemn procession, shall we not dismiss all 
 unworthy prejudices ? I will not talk of triumph ; I will 
 not mix in this act of public justice anything that can 
 awaken personal animosity." Then followed a strong 
 personal adjuration to Peel, succeeded by this striking 
 passage : " The Catholic does not indulge the chimerical 
 notion of heaving the British constitution from its basis 
 that his priest may wear lawn sleeves and a mitre. If, 
 however, he is excluded from the privileges of the State 
 merely on account of his religion ; if he is made an 
 invidious exception in a country which permits the 
 talents and virtues of all other men to advance them to 
 the highest honours ; and if this exception extend to his 
 posterity, nati natorum, et qui nascentur ah Mis — they 
 will indeed have a sufficient motive to aim at the de- 
 struction of that State which heaps upon them only so 
 heavy a load of injustice." 
 
 We are told that the appeal and the eulogy upon 
 himself touched Peel deeply, and that for some moments 
 he seemed unnerved. He commenced his remarkable 
 reply by paying a high tribute both to Grattan and 
 Plunket : the former had met with a congenial supporter 
 in the person of the latter, "one fit to be the suc- 
 cessor of the eloquent and intrepid statesman who 
 had preceded him; and one than whom no man 
 was more worthy to wield the arms of Achilles." Mr. 
 Peel admitted that he did not view the existing state 
 of things with complacency, and it was not the love of 
 victory, but the sincere desire to state his honest convic- 
 tion, which made him come forward. He had opposed 
 Catholic Emancipation because, amongst other things, it 
 must lead to the repeal of the Test and Corporation 
 Acts. If a Roman Catholic were admitted to a seat in 
 
 D 
 
34 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 Parliament and other offices, so also must the Quaker ; 
 and the principle involved would lead to such innovations 
 upon the British constitution that he, for one, must be 
 permitted to oppose it. He further asked the House to 
 recollect that it was legislating for posterity, and he could 
 not shut his eyes to the danger in which such a proposi- 
 tion as the present might possibly involve the country. 
 The closing passages of Peel's speech, which we give 
 entire, had certainly not that ring about them to which 
 the House was accustomed in listening to the uncom- 
 promising opponents of Catholic Emancipation. " If I 
 thought the claims contended for were formed to pro- 
 mote the good of the State, the whole voice of England 
 out of doors should not dissuade me from admitting the 
 necessity of their adoption. It is, however, because I 
 think the motion not calculated to promote any good 
 purpose that I am prepared to oppose it to the utmost 
 of my means. My opinions and my duty here coincide, 
 and upon them I mean consistently to act. Upon this 
 occasion I have declined resorting to any influence to 
 counteract the fair consideration of the question. I have 
 been, it is true, consulted about the means of opposing 
 it ; and I now solemnly declare that my advice was 
 against, rather than for, petitioning to impede the pro- 
 gress of this Bill. I have told the parties by whom I 
 have been consulted that I care not for their petitions ; 
 I value them not ; for, in my view, the House of Com- 
 mons is fully competent to decide upon the whole merits 
 •of the case without any external assistance. I think we 
 require no illumination from without to enable us to 
 form a sound decision upon whatever question is sub- 
 mitted to our consideration. This being my opinion, I 
 have given no encouragement to counter-petitioning upon 
 
ii.] THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS. 35 
 
 this great question. I can most conscientiously assure 
 the House that no result of this debate can give me un- 
 qualified satisfaction. I am of course bound to wish 
 that the opinions which I honestly feel may prevail ; but 
 their prevalence must still be mingled with regret at the 
 disappointment which I know that the success of such 
 opinions must entail on a large portion of my fellow- 
 subjects. If, however, on the contrary, the motion suc- 
 ceeds, no man who hears me will more cordially rejoice 
 if my predictions prove unfounded, my arguments 
 groundless, and if the result should exemplify the 
 sanguine expectations of the right hon. mover, and 
 give increased confidence to all classes of his Majesty's 
 subjects in that interesting country, in which such union 
 and harmony are desirable." — 
 
 Plunket and his friends might well take heart of grace 
 from these utterances. A considerable step towards 
 conversion had already been made when Peel was 
 obliged to confess that no result of the debate could give 
 him unqualified satisfaction. Such language is not that 
 of a stern opponent, but rather of one who is beginning 
 to feel the cogency of arguments which he has hitherto 
 resolutely swept aside. Though he still clung to his old 
 convictions, and was prepared to postpone the period of 
 surrender to the Catholic claims as long as possible, 
 Peel's words would seem to indicate an incipient convic- 
 tion that such surrender must sooner or later become 
 inevitable. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HOME SECRETARY. 
 
 ' TT became evident towards the close of 182 1 that if the 
 •*■ Liverpool Ministry desired to prolong its existence, 
 it could only do so by a strong infusion of new blood. 
 The Premier consequently made overtures to the Gren-. 
 villites, the result being very considerable changes in the 
 personnel of the Government. These changes, involving 
 as they did the admission of several liberal-minded men 
 into the Cabinet, were very distasteful to the ultra-Tory 
 Chancellor, Lord Eldon. The Marquis of Wellesley, a 
 staunch supporter of the Catholic claims, was appointed 
 Lord Lieutenant. Mr. Winn took the place of the 
 Marquis of Buckingham at the Board of Control, and 
 Mr. Peel became Home Secretary in the room of Lord 
 Sidmouth. This nobleman's tenure of office in the 
 Home Department had been signalised only by medi- 
 ocrity and an abstention from all reforming measures. 
 His lordship's opportunities from the first moment of his 
 entry upon official life had been very great, but his per- 
 formances had been poor indeed. We have seen the 
 nature of his policy in the " Manchester Massacre." 
 His career was consistent in one point only, viz. in its 
 uniform opposition to all popular concessions. Lord 
 
chap, in.] HOME SECRETARY. 37 
 
 Sidmouth, however, was a great favourite with George III., 
 and in this lies the secret of that political influence 
 which he possessed — an influence which had been suffi- 
 cient to ensure him a post in every administration 
 for many years back. He was an exceedingly dull man, 
 and never performed during his official career but one 
 stroke of high policy (for such he regarded it), to wit, 
 the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens, which Peace 
 he forthwith proceeded to undo by his subsequent acts. 
 In the post which he now yielded to a better man he had 
 done as much harm as his limited faculties permitted him 
 to accomplish. 
 
 It was only natural that Peel should take very different 
 views from Lord Sidmouth respecting the duties of a 
 Home Secretary. A much less enlightened man than 
 himself, who had ventured to look fairly in the face the 
 operation of our civil and criminal laws at that time, 
 must have been driven to the conclusion that these laws 
 were a scandal and a disgrace to English civilisation. 
 Peel, at any rate, was not long in coming to this con- 
 clusion, though it is with feelings of amazement that we 
 reflect on the fact that Lord Eldon and Lord Ellen- 
 borough did not think it safe to abolish the punishment 
 of death in a case of stealing six shillings from a 
 shop ! We learn with a thrill of horror of fourteen 
 persons being hanged in London in one week, in the 
 year 1820, many of them for crimes of a trivial character. 
 Well might Bentham, Romilly, Mackintosh, and their 
 fellow-workers resolve to leave no stone unturned until 
 these stringent and sanguinary laws should no longer 
 hold their place in the Statute Book. 
 
 By way of proving the Herculean nature of the task 
 which lay before the reformers of our Criminal Code, we 
 
38 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 will cite certain facts illustrating the condition of things 
 subsisting before and at the time of Peel's acceptance 
 of the office of Home Secretary. In the fifty years 
 ending with 1820 there had been hung in London alone 
 one thousand three hundred and seventy-one persons. 
 The pillory was a favourite mode of punishment; and 
 Prior, in his " Life of Burke," records a case in which a 
 man who was of very small stature and short-necked was 
 nevertheless forced into the pillory, where he hung by 
 his head rather than walked as the instrument revolved. 
 The mob attacked him with great fury, and when the 
 officers opened the pillory the poor wretch fell down 
 dead on the stand. As regards the condition of our 
 prisons, it was such as to fill a humane man with disgust 
 and indignation. Fortunately there sprang up a noble 
 philanthropist who determined to open the eyes of 
 England upon this question. John Howard well deserved 
 the eulogium of Jeremy Bentham, that "in the scale of 
 moral desert, the labours of the legislator and the "writer 
 are as far below his as earth is below heaven. He died 
 a martyr after living an apostle." Burke's tribute to 
 this large-souled man was equally fine and thorough. 
 "His plan is original," the illustrious orator observed, 
 " and it is as full of genius as it is of humanity. It was 
 a voyage of discovery; a circumnavigation of charity. 
 Already the benefit of his labour is felt more or less in 
 every country. I hope he will anticipate its final reward 
 by seeing all its effects fully realised in his own." 
 
 In Parliament Sir Samuel Romilly was one of the 
 great pioneers in the reformation of the Criminal Code, 
 and he was ably seconded by Sir James Mackintosh. 
 When the former entered upon his parliamentary career 
 there were no fewer than three hundred crimes punish- 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 39 
 
 able with death in England, a number which was 
 greatly reduced by his persistent and self-denying efforts. 
 Mackintosh's eloquence was concentrated on the same 
 cause, and in the year 1822 he was successful in carry- 
 ing a motion in the House of Commons to the effect 
 "that this House will at an early period of the next 
 session of Parliament take into their most serious con- 
 sideration the means of increasing the efficacy of the 
 criminal laws by abating their undue rigour." In the 
 following year, accordingly, Sir James Mackintosh again 
 brought forward his motion, but it was set aside, and 
 the previous question carried, in consequence of an 
 announcement by Peel that the Government intended to 
 take up the whole subject. Before the session closed 
 the Home Secretary gave an earnest that he intended 
 fulfilling his pledges to the letter, by introducing four 
 bills, all with the specific object of mitigating the severity 
 of the Criminal Code ; and these measures passed into 
 law. 
 
 The central authority of Government having been now 
 galvanised into action, the beneficent work proceeded 
 apace. In 1825 Peel introduced and carried an im- 
 portant act for consolidating and amending the laws 
 relating to juries. The reform of the Courts of Common 
 Law and Chancery was, in fact, pressed forward in the 
 two sessions of 1824 — 25; but it was not until 1828 that 
 Brougham procured the appointment of a commission to 
 inquire into the state of the law. In that year also was 
 carried an important measure for consolidating and 
 amending the statutes in England relating to offences 
 against the person. Another question which occupied 
 Peel's attention two years later was that of capital punish- 
 ment in cases of forgery, the law being extremely severe 
 
40 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 on this crime. The result of Peel's efforts was to limit 
 the punishment considerably. Mackintosh and his friends 
 did not consider that the Minister's proposals, which were 
 endorsed by the House of Lords, went far enough. 
 
 Besides these reforms in the criminal law, there still 
 remains to be mentioned one subject in relation to which 
 Peel rendered conspicuous service. Speaking of the police 
 force of London in 1828, a writer in the Quarterly Review 
 remarked that "the whole of the existing watch system of 
 London should be mercilessly struck to the ground." Mr. 
 Peel, convinced also of the utter inefficiency of the force, 
 obtained a select committee to inquire into the subject. 
 The investigations demonstrated the inadequacy of the 
 existing system, and led to the establishment of the 
 Metropolitan Police Force, a body whose duties ex- 
 tended to a radius of twelve miles from Charing Cross. 
 A competent authority has observed that the committee 
 of 1828 left its plain mark in the annals of police legis- 
 lation, inasmuch as it paved the way to Peel's Act of the 
 following year. By this Act "a large approach was made 
 towards that cardinal point in police reform — the separa- 
 tion of the incongruous functions of thief-taker and judge 
 — and an effective constabulary force was established 
 under the control of two commissioners. This Act, it is 
 true, left many petty, detached, and independent bodies 
 of peace officers in certain districts of the metropolis, 
 irrespectively of the City of London, to which it did not 
 at afll apply. And to this extent it contained the seeds 
 of future embarrassment in the proper working of the 
 new constabulary. But if the state of parties in 1829 
 be borne in mind, if it be remembered how greatly Sir 
 Robert Peel's political position was hampered by the 
 results of his manly conflicts for the Catholic Relief Bill, 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 41 
 
 and how imperfectly public opinion was enlightened on 
 the true importance of the police measure, even after all 
 that had been said and done in relation to it, the surprise 
 will rather be that he effected so much than that he did 
 no "more." But, in truth, the whole of Peel's policy at 
 the Home Office was in striking contrast to the policy of 
 laissez faire pursued by his predecessor. If he still 
 lagged behind upon some great and pressing questions 
 during the chief part of his tenure of that office, in 
 matters of social and legal reform he set an example to his 
 successors the results of which it would be impossible fully 
 to calculate. The fact that the time was ripe for these 
 reforms does not detract from the merit of the statesman 
 who gave them the concrete form of legislation. 
 
 In a speech made soon after Mr. Canning's accession 
 to office in 1827, Peel alluded to his own services at the 
 Home Office in language which savoured somewhat of 
 egotism, but which found its justification in the unjust 
 attacks made upon him at that time. " I have the satis- 
 faction of reflecting," he said, " that every institution, 
 civil and military, connected with my office during the 
 last four years has been subjected to close inspection 
 and strict review ; and that I have been able to make 
 such temperate and gradual reforms as I thought were 
 consistent with the general and permanent good. I have 
 also the gratification of knowing that every law found on 
 the Statute Books when I entered office, which imposed 
 any temporary or extraordinary restraint on the liberty 
 of the subject, has been either repealed or suffered to 
 expire. I may be a Tory ; I may be illiberal ; but the 
 fact is undeniable, that when I first entered upon the 
 duties of the Home Department there were laws in 
 existence which imposed upon the subjects of this realm 
 
42 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 unusual and extraordinary restrictions. The fact is 
 undeniable that those laws have been effaced. Tory as 
 I am, I have the further satisfaction of knowing that 
 there is not a single law connected with my name which 
 has not had for its object some mitigation of the severity 
 of the criminal law, some prevention of abuse in the 
 exercise of it, or some security for its impartial adminis- 
 tration. I may also recollect with pleasure, that during 
 the several trials to which the manufacturing interests 
 have been exposed during the winter of the last two 
 years, I have preserved internal tranquillity without 
 applying to the House for measures of extraordinary 
 severity." The boast was legitimate, if we regard the 
 measure and scope of the acts which bear the apologist's 
 name. * 
 
 Other questions which arose during Peel's tenure of 
 office— besides those connected with criminal legisla- 
 tion — demand some attention. His great measure for the 
 resumption of cash payments still rankled in the minds 
 of many of its opponents, and during the debates on the 
 Marquis of Londonderry's motion in 1822 for a Com- 
 mittee on Agricultural Distress, Peel vindicated his 
 policy on the currency. He observed that, while he 
 still renounced the merit of the measure, he took his 
 share of the responsibility. After all the clamour which 
 had been raised, he was as much disposed to maintain 
 its justice and policy as when it was first introduced. 
 The measure was in itself wise and conducive to the 
 general interests of the empire ; the agricultural interests 
 had not been depressed by its operation, and whatever 
 depression they had since experienced was jn no pecu- 
 liar degree to be ascribed to it. Recalling to the mind 
 of the House the year 1819, he showed that our manu- 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. ' 43 
 
 facturing and commercial transaction's were not sound, 
 because the manufacturers depended on a state of the 
 currency which had no security. The poor-rates had 
 been greatly reduced since the passing of the Bill, and 
 he demanded- what greater good could be effected than 
 such a reduction, which must be ascribed to the addi- 
 tional means of living conferred by the rise in the value 
 of wages produced by the restoration of the metallic 
 standard. " I believe," he said in conclusion, "the 
 clamour against the return to a metallic currency to be 
 only temporary ; and that at the end of three or four 
 years we shall look back with heartfelt pleasure and 
 gratulation to our return to cash payments. By firmness, 
 constancy, and perseverance in the present system, I 
 feel convinced that, at no remote period, we shall derive 
 all those advantages from it which the warmest friends of 
 
 the measure contemplated at its enactment." , 
 
 In the same session Peel delivered a speech on the all- 
 absorbing Catholic question, which, while undoubtedly 
 powerful from his point of view, was no sufficient answer 
 to the arguments of Canning and Plunket. This ques- 
 tion was moving on, and moving rapidly, to a solution. 
 Mr. Canning brought forward a motion for the reinstate- 
 ment of the Catholic peers in their political privileges. 
 The right to sit and vote without being required to 
 take the oath of supremacy had been enjoyed by the 
 Catholic peers from the time of Elizabeth until the 
 year 1678, when, in the midst of a great anti-papist 
 agitation, a measure was passed excluding all Catholic 
 peers from their seats in Parliament. Canning's de- 
 scription of the anomalies under which the Catholics 
 laboured was very powerful. He also drew a vivid 
 picture of the recent coronation, when the barons who 
 
44 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 did homage were headed by a Catholic peer, Lord 
 Clifford, and the higher grades in the peerage were 
 headed by a Catholic, the premier Duke, his Grace of 
 Norfolk. Canning asked whether it occurred to the 
 representatives of Europe, when contemplating this 
 animating spectacle, " that, after being thus exhibited to 
 the eyes of the peers and people of England, and to the 
 representatives of the princes and nations of the world, 
 the Duke of Norfolk, highest in rank among the peers, 
 the Lord Clifford, and others like him, representing a 
 long line of illustrious ancestry, as if called forth and 
 furnished for the occasion, like the lustres and banners 
 that flamed and glittered in the scene, were to be, like 
 them, thrown by as useless and trumpery formalities? 
 — that they might bend the knee and kiss the hand, that 
 they might bear the train or rear the canopy, might 
 discharge the offices assigned by Roman pride to their 
 barbarian ancestry — 
 
 • Purpurea tollant aulaea Britanni ; ' 
 
 but that with the pageantry of the hour their importance 
 faded away; that as their distinction vanished their 
 humiliation returned ; and that he who headed the pro- 
 cession of the peers to-day could not sit among them as 
 their equal to-morrow ? " 
 
 The eloquent orator made many other equally incisive 
 points, which rendered it very difficult for Mr. Secretary 
 Peel to follow him. The latter admitted indeed, in com- 
 mencing his address, that he appeared at a disadvantage, 
 when the feelings of members were warmed and their 
 passions inflamed by the splendid imagery and the impos- 
 ing eloquence of his right hon. friend. Cold reasoning 
 and sober views of the question were all that he was 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 45 
 
 competent to present. On one pait of the question, 
 nevertheless — the historical — Peel was forcible in his 
 reply. The exclusion of the Catholic peers he maintained 
 could not be traced up to the Popish plot or any parti- 
 cular act, but was to be accounted for on a general 
 reference to the history of the times. It was an Act 
 founded on the policy of the legislature of 1678, 
 and confirmed at the period of the Revolution; con- 
 firmed at the period when the Bill of Rights was 
 passed and when a Popish King was excluded from 
 the throne. The exclusion of Catholics was due to 
 no mere jealousy of a Popish successor. Peel then 
 narrated the terms of the proposed treaty between 
 Charles II. and Louis XIV., and asked : " When it is 
 said that, at the time of the Revolution, there was no 
 cause for jealousy of the Catholic peers, should it not 
 have been borne in mind that this disgraceful treaty was 
 concluded by the advice of Lord Arlington, Lord Clifford, 
 and Lord Arundel of Wardour, three Roman Catholic 
 peers ? Is it surprising, then, that, independent of the 
 Popish plot, there should have existed a peculiar jealousy 
 of the Catholic peers ? " This argument, though effective 
 in its way, had no practical bearing upon the Catholic 
 question as it stood in 1822. The speaker next detailed 
 the reasons which, he considered, justified the exclusion 
 of the Catholic peers ; but he was answered by Plunket, 
 who, in returning to the legislation of Charles II., said 
 that the innocent had been proscribed and punished 
 because an Exclusion Bill could not be carried ; the guilt- 
 less were attainted because the proper object of attack 
 could not be reached. Mr. Canning's motion was 
 carried by a majority of five, and in consequence of a 
 half intimation from Mr. Peel that the whole question 
 
46 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 should be considered in the following session, the narrow 
 majority of five was increased to twelve on the second 
 reading ; but the measure was thrown out by the Lords. 
 
 In the session of 1822, as in many sessions since, 
 Irish legislation occupied a conspicuous place. A 
 Government measure was introduced for establishing a 
 permanent constabulary force in Ireland ; and Mr. Peel, 
 who had done much to alleviate the terrible distress 
 then prevalent in Munster and Connaught, explained the 
 scheme. It provided for a stipendiary magistracy (which 
 led the way to a revision of the lists of justices in the 
 southern counties of Ireland) and an organized police 
 force with military uniform and discipline. In its opera- 
 tion the measure was productive of immense benefit to 
 the suffering country. 
 
 Towards the close of 1822 important changes took 
 place in the Ministry. Canning became Foreign Secre- 
 tary, Mr. Robinson was appointed to the Chancellorship 
 of the Exchequer, Mr. Huskisson to the Board of Trade, 
 and Mr. Arbuthnot to the Land Revenue Department. 
 Canning's influence, which was growing, was regarded as 
 dangerous to Peel, and the latter was now surrounded by 
 colleagues with whom he was not in sympathy. When 
 the question of the Holy Alliance was raised in 1823, 
 it fell to Peel's lot to reply in the place of Canning (not 
 yet re-elected) to a fervent speech by Brougham ; but his 
 language on that occasion was regarded as too moderate 
 and not sufficiently emphatic. Peel's Irish policy was 
 criticised during a debate which arose over a riot in 
 the Dublin theatre ; and on this occasion he spoke with 
 vigour and earnestness, and challenged the country to 
 produce any instance in which, while he held office, an 
 impartial administration of the laws had been denied. 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 47 
 
 During the same debate an extraordinary scene occurred. 
 Brougham, after acknowledging that the attitude of Peel 
 upon the Catholic claims had always been the same — 
 single-hearted, plain, manly, and upright — went on to 
 charge Canning with the most incredible specimen of 
 monstrous truckling for the purpose of obtaining office 
 that the whole history of political tergiversation could 
 furnish. Canning immediately sprang up, and in the 
 most emphatic manner exclaimed, "I rise to say that 
 that is false." This remark fell like a thunderbolt out 
 of a clear sky. But when the first feeling of astonish- 
 ment was over, the silence was so complete that it is 
 stated the fall of a pen, which one of the clerks let drop 
 upon the matting, was heard in the remotest parts of the 
 House. The Speaker required Mr. Canning to withdraw 
 his disorderly expression, but the latter declared that 
 though he was sorry to violate the decorum of the House, 
 no consideration on earth should induce him to retract 
 the assertion. The incident closed by a kind of semi- 
 reconciliation, Peel observing that " nothing could by 
 possibility be more free from the imputation of truckling 
 than the manner in which his right hon. friend had 
 accepted office," 
 
 When Lord Nugent brought in a Bill to extend to the 
 English Roman Catholics the same constitutional privi- 
 leges and political franchises which were enjoyed by their 
 co-religionists in Ireland, Mr. Peel assented to leave 
 being given. With regard to the elective franchise, he 
 allowed at once that he was willing to admit the English 
 Catholic to that privilege, but he should strenuously 
 resist their being themselves elected. In this respect 
 they would stand in the same position as the clergy, who 
 were qualified to elect, but were disqualified to sit as 
 
48 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 representatives in the House. With regard to the magis- 
 tracy, he agreed that it might be advisable that Roman 
 Catholics should be associated with Protestants in the 
 exercise of magisterial duties ; but on the question of 
 admission to offices he begged to reserve himself. The 
 Bill passed the House of Commons by a large majority, 
 but in the Lords it was rejected by seven votes, chiefly 
 through the exertions of Lord Eldon. 
 
 At this period Peel and Canning began to drift widely 
 asunder. The ability of the former, great as it was, be- 
 gan to be overshadowed by the brilliant talents of the 
 latter, and they were regarded as rivals. Conscious of 
 this, neither took the trouble to endeavour to draw the 
 bonds of their relationship closer together. So long as 
 Canning held a seat in the House of Commons, Peel 
 could never hope to be Prime Minister, while his col- 
 league was every day becoming more popular with the 
 country. There was not the least personal ill-feeling be- 
 tween the two ; but on several matters of imperial policy 
 they held divergent views. It was not a little singular 
 that Canning, on the first day of the session of 1824, ex- 
 pressed his continued adherence to the cause of Catholic 
 Emancipation, while Peel still maintained his resolute 
 attitude of opposition to these claims. The Home 
 Secretary now gravitated more than ever towards the 
 Eldon section of the Cabinet, and when the Lord Chan- 
 cellor was attacked, and threatened with an inquiry into 
 the business of the Court of Chancery, he stood forward in 
 the Commons as his defender. But once or twice during 
 this session Peel spoke upon Irish questions in such a 
 manner as to denote a growing liberality of view. Over- 
 tures were made to Canning by Lord Althorp to settle 
 the Irish problem off hand, but the Leader of the House 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 49 
 
 of Commons replied that it was impossible for him to 
 rely on the support of the Whigs, pledged as that party- 
 was to Parliamentary Reform. He was in no con- 
 dition to accept the co-operation of the gentlemen 
 opposite. " Our banquet might be mingled for a time, 
 but soon we must stand on adverse sides." 
 
 The King's speech at the opening of the session of 
 1825 referred to the contentment and prosperity of the 
 people, but admitted that dangerous associations existed 
 in Ireland which endangered the peace of society and 
 retarded the cause of national improvement. Brougham 
 once more pressed the Catholic claims, and with bitter 
 sarcasm said, " Let the right hon. gentleman (Can- 
 ning) say that he will resign if the Catholic question 
 is not carried in the Cabinet ; let the noble and learned 
 lord (Eldon) say he will resign if it is carried. I am 
 quite sure of the result. The Catholic question will be 
 carried, but the noble and learned lord will retain his 
 place. He will behave with the fortitude which has dis- 
 tinguished him in the other instances in which he has 
 been defeated, and the country will not be deprived for 
 a single hour of his inestimable services." Peel again 
 defended the unpopular Chancellor, predicting that he 
 would go down to posterity as a man of great and exalted 
 merits, and as the most consistent politician who had 
 ever held the great seal. As to the Catholic claims, he 
 added that his original view had been strengthened and 
 confirmed by the experience of subsequent events. At 
 the time he thus strongly spoke Peel was almost alone 
 on this question, fighting against the Catholic claims, but 
 fighting, as he must himself by this time have been con- 
 vinced, hopelessly. The Irish administration was pursu- 
 ing a different policy from that which was pursued when 
 
 E 
 
50 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 he (Peel) was its ruling spirit ; and his most distinguished 
 colleagues believed that the day could not be far distant 
 when the Catholic claims must be conceded. Altogether 
 the position he occupied at this juncture was one of 
 extreme difficulty. The Catholics had one hope, and 
 only one, as regarded Peel. His most recent utterances 
 showed that he was open to be convinced on the ques- 
 tion of expediency, and to effect this they now addressed 
 themselves. But the time was not yet come. 
 
 The second reading of a Catholic Emancipation Bill 
 had been carried in the Commons by a majority of 
 twenty-nine — many converts having been made to the 
 measure — when, on the 25th of April, the Duke of York 
 presented a petition in the House of Lords against 
 the Bill, and startled the House and the country by a 
 declaration which he then made to the effect that he 
 should oppose the Catholic claims to the latest moment 
 of his existence, adding, " whatever may be my situation 
 of life, so help me God ! " Peel was himself greatly dis- 
 turbed in mind upon the whole subject, and on the third 
 reading of the Bill in the Lower House much speculation 
 was caused by this sentence which fell from his lips : " I 
 have, at least, not been instrumental in exciting or encou- 
 raging any false hopes in the minds of the Roman Catholics, 
 and I therefore— perhaps for the last tinie — shall now, by 
 my vote, attest my uncompromising opposition to this Bill, 
 which proposes to grant them all that they claim." The Bill 
 was lost by a majority of forty-eight in the Lords ; but the 
 Duke of York's asseveration had caused much disquie- 
 tude even in the minds of some of those who were 
 opposed to Catholic Emancipation. They were anxious 
 to allay public feeling on the subject, whereas the Duke's 
 speech could only embitter and strengthen it. 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 51 
 
 A new Parliament met in November, 1826, and Peel 
 speedily found himself distanced by Canning in the 
 popular estimation to a yet greater degree than before. 
 In the debate on the Address the Foreign Secretary 
 delivered one of the most eloquent speeches ever listened 
 to in the House of Commons, chiefly against the Holy 
 Alliance, which was now moribund. In the peroration 
 of this speech occurred two passages which have since 
 been frequently quoted : " We go to Portugal," said the 
 speaker, " not to rule, not to dictate, not to prescribe 
 constitutions, but to defend and to preserve the inde- 
 pendence of an ally. We go to plant the standard of 
 England on the well-known heights of Lisbon. Where 
 that standard is planted foreign dominion shall not 
 come." Again, " Contemplating Spain, such as our 
 ancestors had known her, I resolved that if France had 
 Spain, it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called 
 the new world into existence to redress the balance of 
 the old." Canning, indeed, was dazzling the country by 
 his foreign policy, and his spirited conduct, combined with 
 his extraordinary talents, made him by far the most con- 
 spicuous figure in the Ministry. 
 
 The sudden illness of Lord Liverpool in February, 
 1827, set speculation afloat upon possible ministerial 
 changes, while the death of the Duke of York removed 
 from the sphere of public life the most powerful and per- 
 sistent opponent of the Catholic claims. ALuding to 
 the latter event, however, Peel said, " The influence of 
 some great names has recently been lost to the cause 
 which I support, but I have never adopted my opinions 
 on that cause either from deference to high station or — 
 that which might more fairly be expected to impress me 
 — high ability. Keen as the feelings of regret must be 
 
52 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 with which the loss of those associates in feeling is recol- 
 lected, it is still a matter of consolation to me that I have 
 now an opportunity of showing that if my opinions are 
 unpopular I stand by them still, when the influence and 
 authority that might have given them currency is gone, 
 and when it is impossible, I believe, that in the mind of 
 any human being I can stand suspected of pursuing my 
 principles with any view to favour or personal aggrand- 
 izement." This speech only widened the gulf between 
 Peel and Canning. "The rival candidates had set 
 up their banners," says one writer, " and issued the 
 declarations of their pretensions to the office of Premier ; 
 Canning, in his speech on the expedition to Portugal, 
 had taken for his cry, 'Liberality in Foreign Affairs,' 
 and Peel had now chosen, ' Exclusiveness in Domestic 
 Politics.' " 
 
 At the close of March, in consequence of the con- 
 tinued illness of the Earl of Liverpool, the King sum- 
 moned Canning to Windsor to advise with him on 
 the future of the Ministry. The King would have no 
 Ministry pledged to the settlement of the Catholic claims, 
 and Canning agreed to leave it an open question, but 
 stipulated that the new Premier should not be one hold- 
 ing the opinions of Lord Liverpool. This was an indi- 
 rect reference to the Duke of Wellington, whose name 
 was now freely discussed in connection with the Premier- 
 ship, and who was not only anti-Catholic, but leaned 
 towards the Holy Alliance abroad, and was the enemy 
 of progressive measures at home. The upshot of Can- 
 ning's interview with the King was that the Minister 
 advised the formation of an anti-Catholic Administra- 
 tion; but his Majesty did not concur in the advice. 
 Palace intrigues in favour of the Duke of Wellington 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 53 
 
 now went forward, and several great nobles intimated the 
 withdrawal of their support if Mr. Canning were placed 
 at the helm. Peel also let it be distinctly known that he 
 should resign if a person favourable to the Catholic 
 claims were appointed to the Premiership. At a meeting 
 between Peel and Canning, the former named the Duke 
 of Wellington as a statesman whose appointment would 
 solve all difficulties ; but Canning strongly dissented 
 from this. In a letter to Lord Eldon, Peel pointed out 
 that he could not serve under Canning without laying 
 himself open to misconstruction with respect to his views 
 on the Catholic question ; but if the Ministry could be 
 reconstructed by Canning, himself alone retiring, he 
 should retire in perfect good humour, and without the 
 slightest disappointment. Early in April Canning re- 
 ceived his Majesty's commands to submit immediately a 
 plan for the reconstruction of the Adminstration. Eldon, 
 Peel, the Duke of Wellington, and Lord Westmoreland 
 declined to serve under the Foreign Secretary, and 
 others followed their example, until Canning was left 
 with only Harrowby, Robinson, Huskisson, and Wynn, 
 as the remnants of Lord Liverpool's Ministry. He 
 gained some powerful adhesions, however. The Duke 
 of Clarence assumed the office of Lord High Admiral ; 
 Canning combined the offices of Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer and First Lord of the Treasury ; Mr. Robinson 
 became Secretary for the Colonies, and went to the 
 Upper House as Lord Goderich ; Lord Anglesey became 
 Master-General of the Ordnance ; Lord Dudley was 
 appointed Foreign Secretary; and Mr. Sturges Bourne 
 accepted the office of Home Secretary. 
 
 There were those who predicted the impossibility of 
 a Canning Administration ; but at least it was safely 
 
54 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 formed, though there were very strong elements outside 
 it. Peel has been blamed for throwing in his lot with 
 the Duke of Wellington at this juncture, as against 
 Canning. But, as Lord Balling and Bulwer asks, "Was 
 it to be expected that he should leave that section of the 
 Ministry where he was a chief to join another where he 
 would be a subordinate? What part could he play 
 amidst Mr. Canning and his friends, joined by a certain 
 portion of the Whigs, with whom he was a perfect 
 stranger? and for what public object was he called upon 
 to make this private sacrifice ? " It was not proposed to 
 settle the great question upon which he joined issue with 
 Mr. Canning; and in a composite Cabinet this question 
 could not but give rise to constant difficulties. There 
 is little doubt that personal feeling swayed the three 
 leading statesmen at the time, but such feeling was in 
 no sense an unworthy one ; and if Peel preferred to serve 
 under the Duke of Wellington rather than under his 
 more brilliant rival, his choice had at least nothing dis- 
 honourable in it. Although misrepresented by others, 
 the chief actors in this ministerial drama quite under- 
 stood one another, and did not impute vindictive mo- 
 tives to each other as the basis of the choice they respec- 
 tively made. 
 
 Canning assumed office with the support of several 
 leading Liberals, but his difficulties speedily began. 
 Upon the reassembling of Parliament on the ist of 
 May, Peel made a personal statement to the effect that 
 he had determined to sacrifice office rather than abandon 
 that course which he had previously pursued for so long 
 a time, and which he had continued while in possession 
 of the office he lately held. But he added, " If any 
 arrangement could have been made so as to secure to 
 
in.] HOME SECRETARY. 55 
 
 the office of Prime Minister sufficient weight, and to me 
 the same principles, I was perfectly content to remain in 
 office, and was desirous to act either with or under my 
 right hon. friend, and to see him possessed of all the 
 influence and authority belonging to his high station. I 
 also beg leave to state that I declared to my right 
 hon. friend that the Catholic question, and my position 
 in respect to it, in the particular office I held, constituted 
 my only objection to embark under his pilotage." This 
 frank and unmistakable language disposes of any charge 
 of unworthy personal feeling on Peel's part. 
 
 The questions of Parliamentary Reform and the repeal 
 of the Test and Corporation Acts now began to be mooted, 
 and Peel gave notice that he should strenuously resist all 
 movements in these directions. Earl Grey, who had now 
 been abandoned by some of the best men of his own 
 party, severely denounced the head of the new Ministry 
 in the House of Lords. He declared that Canning was 
 one of the worst enemies of those beneficial measures 
 which he (Lord Grey) was desirous of conferring upon 
 the country. This blow to the Government was followed 
 by difficulties of a legislative character, exhibiting divided 
 counsels ; and altogether the cares of office weighed very 
 heavily upon the new Premier. He was speedily destined 
 to be relieved from them by the hand of death. Parlia- 
 ment was prorogued on the 2nd of July, and Mr. Canning, 
 who had long been ailing, went to the Duke of Devon- 
 shire's villa at Chiswick to recruit his health. Disease, 
 however, had taken too sure a hold upon his frame ; 
 inflammation set in, and on the 8th of August he expired. 
 He had been hunted to death, it was said ; and it cannot 
 be denied that the sensibilities of this distinguished states- 
 man, who could feel most keenly, were deeply wounded 
 
56 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. hi. 
 
 on many occasions. The feeling of sorrow at his death 
 was very acute. Those who differed from Canning most 
 widely acknowledged the extraordinary powers of one 
 who, by his own inherent energy and talents, elevated 
 himself to the proud position of Prime Minister of 
 England. 
 
 Lord Goderich succeeded to the Premiership, and the 
 Duke of Wellington returned to office as Commander-in- 
 Chief; but Mr. Peel held aloof. The foreign policy of 
 the new Government, culminating in the battle of Nava- 
 rino, offended the Tory section of the Cabinet, who had 
 regarded the Greeks as rebels against their legitimate 
 sovereign. Lord Goderich found himself in a difficulty, 
 and turned to the Whigs. But his intention became 
 apparent to the Tories, and the latter determined to 
 checkmate his plans. Unable to make his choice between 
 the two rival political parties, the Premier resigned, and 
 the Goderich Administration was no more. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 
 
 A FTER the collapse of the Goderich Ministry the 
 x Duke of Wellington formed a Tory Government, 
 in which, nevertheless, there were some liberalising ele- 
 ments. Mr. Peel again became Home Secretary, but he 
 was now also leader of the House of Commons, and 
 undoubtedly the moving spirit of the Administration. 
 Lord Lyndhurst took the place of that unbending enemy 
 of progress, Lord Eldon, and the Cabinet also included 
 Mr. Huskisson, Lord Dudley, and Lord Palmerston. 
 Peel's time had now come, and he had the satisfaction of 
 knowing that he owed his position neither to favour 
 nor to intrigue, but to those talents which, it not of the 
 loftiest order, were yet equally essential to success in 
 the Parliamentary arena. The policy of the new 
 Government was one of compensation. Unable to 
 concede the demands for administrative reform, they 
 decided to lighten the burdens of the people, and by 
 this alternative legislation thus to secure their stability as 
 a ministry. Beneficent as much of their legislation was, 
 however, it was regarded as but the staving off of still 
 greater measures that must ultimately come. 
 
 When Lord John Russell brought forward his motion 
 
58 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, it was 
 opposed by the Government; but Mr. Peel's speech on 
 that occasion was a virtual admission that he could not 
 struggle against the measure. He believed, he said, that 
 the practical grievances which the Acts imposed upon 
 the Dissenters had been exaggerated, but added, " I can 
 only say, that so great is my respect for that large and 
 respectable body denominated Protestant Dissenters, that 
 if I could be satisfied that they really labour under such 
 grievances as have been described I should be very 
 strongly induced to vote for the repeal of the Acts com- 
 plained of." He concluded by expressing his regret that 
 the question had not been allowed to remain quiescent; 
 and that he should give a vote which must be attended 
 with disappointment to a class of persons for whom he 
 had the highest respect. This being the strongest defence 
 the Ministry could make, it was obvious that the destruc- 
 tion of the Acts was at hand. Lord John Russell's 
 motion was carried by a majority of forty-four; and not 
 quite a month later Peel adopted the Bill as a Govern- 
 ment measure, stipulating that a simple declaration should 
 be substituted for the sacramental test. In this form the 
 measure passed. It afterwards went through the Upper 
 House — being supported by the Archbishops of Canter- 
 bury and York, but opposed by Lord Eldon — and became 
 law. Shortly after this the Ministry underwent some 
 important changes. Mr. Huskisson, in opposition to his 
 colleagues, voted for the transfer of the franchise of East 
 Retford — lost on account of bribery — to the already large 
 borough of Birmingham. Having done so, the Minister 
 resigned, although he did not wish his letter to be taken 
 an serienx. But the Duke of Wellington declined to 
 regard the resignation in any other light, and Mr. Hus- 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 59 
 
 kisson was succeeded at the Colonial Office by Sir G. 
 Murray. At the same time Lord Dudley was succeeded 
 at the Foreign Office by the Earl of Aberdeen; Sir 
 Henry Hardinge succeeded Lord Palmerston at the War 
 Office ; and Mr. Charles Grant gave place to Mr. Vesey 
 Fitzgerald at the Board of Trade. 
 
 Peel gave evidence in this session that he was moving 
 onwards. At the instance of Brougham, he consented to 
 the issue of two commissions, one to inquire into the 
 state of the common law, the other to take into con- 
 sideration the state of the law of real property. He also 
 carried a measure, which had been rejected in the pre- 
 ceding session, for regulating the import duties on corn. 
 Duty was substituted for prohibition, and a sliding scale 
 was adopted. This disturbance of the old law of pro- 
 tection, though slight, indicated the course of subsequent 
 legislation on the subject of the Corn Laws. When the 
 question of the currency was again raised by a Bill intro- 
 duced to prevent the circulation of small Scotch notes, 
 Peel again defended the cause of hard money as against 
 paper, and the Government majority was greatly in- 
 creased. 
 
 But the great question of Catholic Emancipation 
 speedily overshadowed all others. It was brought to a 
 head by the result of the Clare election and other inci- 
 dents, amongst which was the resolve of the Catholic 
 Association to nominate Roman Catholics at all future 
 elections, thus keeping up a perpetual war on the subject. 
 Daniel O'Connell was elected for Clare, in opposition to 
 the new Minister, Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald ; and Lord 
 •Anglesey, the gallant but blunt Irish Lord-Lieutenant, 
 declared that there was no way of dealing with the 
 Catholic organization but by satisfying the Catholics. 
 
60 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 His lordship wrote a letter in which he stated his views 
 without circumlocution, and there was no course left for 
 the Government to take but to recall him immediately, 
 and appoint the Duke of Northumberland viceroy in his 
 stead. But it soon became obvious to the Duke of Wel- 
 lington and Mr. Peel that there was only one method of 
 settling this long-vexed question ; and the country was 
 shortly startled by the announcement that the Govern- 
 ment had themselves resolved to propose a measure for 
 the relief of the Catholics. In a memorandum addressed 
 to the Duke of Wellington on the 25th of August, 1828, 
 Mr. Peel had thus expressed his convictions on the sub- 
 ject: "I have proved to you, I hope, that no false 
 delicacy, no fear of the imputation of inconsistency, will 
 prevent me from taking that part which present dangers 
 and a new position of affairs may require. I am ready 
 at any sacrifice to maintain the opinion which I now 
 deliberately give, that there is upon the whole less of evil 
 in making a decided effort to settle the Catholic question 
 than in leaving it, as it has been left, an open question. 
 Whenever it is once determined that an effort should be 
 made by the Government to settle the Catholic question, 
 there can be, I think, but one opinion — the settlement 
 should, if possible, be a complete one." 
 
 The King was brought to consent to the measure only 
 with the greatest difficulty, but he was really powerless to 
 oppose the Premier and the Home Secretary, who, even 
 with this measure, were much less distasteful to him than 
 the Whigs. His Majesty consented, and then retracted ; 
 he yielded, and then refused ; he wept with discreditable 
 weakness at one time, and stormed with unusual excite- 
 ment at another. To put an end to this painful and not 
 very regal vacillation, the Ministers resolved to require 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 61 
 
 his written consent to their proceedings. This led to a 
 discussion which lasted several hours, and was a pro- 
 tracted scene of pitiable weakness and supplication on 
 the one side, and of unyielding firmness on the other. 
 It is said that the King made several personal and rather 
 reproachful appeals to Mr. Peel, which the latter answered 
 more respectfully than affectionately. In the end, the 
 King having, as he said, " nothing to fall back upon," 
 gave the required consent in writing, adding, however, 
 to the document very strong expressions of the pain and 
 misery the proceedings gave him. 
 
 The consent of the King having been obtained, Peel 
 expressed his readiness to commit himself to the support 
 of a measure of ample concession and relief, but desired 
 to give such support out of office. But the Duke of 
 Wellington succeeded in convincing him that his assist- 
 ance in office was indispensable. The King referred 
 to his own scruples, to his uniform opposition to the 
 measure in question, and said, "You advise this mea- 
 sure ; you see no escape from it ; you ask me to make 
 the sacrifice of opinion and consistency — will you not 
 make the same sacrifice ? " Peel felt under these cir- 
 cumstances that he could return to his Sovereign no 
 other answer than the one he did return, viz. that he 
 would make that sacrifice, and would bear his full share 
 of the responsibility and unpopularity attaching to the 
 measure he advised. 
 
 Accordingly, the King's speech at the opening of 
 Parliament in 1829, while asking for powers to put down 
 the Catholic Association, intimated that attention would 
 be called to the laws which imposed disabilities on his 
 Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, and that Parliament 
 would be asked to consider whether the removal of those 
 
62 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 disabilities could be effected consistently with the full 
 and permanent security of the establishments in Church 
 and State. On the ioth of February Mr. Peel introduced 
 the Bill for the suppression of the Catholic Association, 
 and in vindicating this measure adduced a considerable 
 array of facts as to the condition of Ireland. These 
 facts, he said, would lead them deliberately to consider, 
 not merely whether additional powers were necessary for 
 the executive Government, but whether there were not 
 just and sufficient grounds for completely altering the 
 position of the Roman Catholics in Ireland. 
 
 Even in this preliminary debate the taunts against 
 Peel for his alleged inconsistency began. Replying to 
 Mr. Bankes on this head, the Minister appositely quoted 
 in his own justification this passage from a speech 
 made by Mr. Bankes himself at a previous period : 
 " Mr. Bankes hoped it would never be a point of honour 
 with any Government to persevere in measures after 
 they were convinced of their impropriety. Political ex- 
 pediency was not at all times the same ; what at one 
 time might be considered consistent with sound policy, 
 would at another be completely impolitic. Thus it was 
 with respect to the Roman Catholics. What changes 
 had not taken place in the question itself, as well as in 
 the minds of the House, since it was last agitated ! n 
 
 On the 1 2th of February Mr. Peel presented a petition 
 from the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, against the concession of the Catholic 
 claims. The petition had been adopted in meeting as- 
 sembled by 164 to 48, being a larger majority than was ever 
 previously recorded. Peel, who felt that his position as 
 member for the university was an anomalous one, had, 
 in a letter addressed to the Vice-Chancellor, before the 
 
iv.] ' CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 63 
 
 assembling of Parliament, offered to resign his seat. 
 The opponents of Catholic Emancipation prevailed, and 
 accordingly on the 20th of February he formally resigned 
 his seat. The loss of an honour which had been one of 
 the dearest objects of his ambition could not but have 
 affected him deeply ; yet this was only amongst the first 
 exhibitions of that ostracism which fell upon him for his 
 conduct in regard to the Catholic claims. Those who 
 still rallied round him at Oxford proposed him again as 
 their candidate, but he was defeated by Sir R. H. Inglis, 
 a well-known ultra-Protestant champion. The numbers 
 were — for Sir R. H. Inglis, 755; for Sir R. Peel, 609 ; 
 majority for Inglis, 146. A few days afterwards the 
 defeated Minister secured a seat at Westbury, Sir 
 Manasseh Lopez having retired in his favour. During 
 Peel's absence from the House of Commons his chief 
 defenders were found upon the Whig benches. In the 
 Lords, the Government policy at this time was attacked 
 by a member of the royal family, the Duke of Cumber- 
 land, but warmly defended and supported by his Royal 
 Highness's brother, the Duke of Clarence, afterwards 
 William IV. The speech of the latter was lengthy, well 
 argued, and distinguished for its cordial and liberal 
 sentiments. 
 
 But the real battle was yet to be fought, and at one 
 moment there was some apprehension lest Peel himself 
 should not be able to bring forward his great measure in 
 the House of Commons. In his Memoirs he observes 
 that Sir Manasseh Lopez, who had given up his seat, as 
 we have just seen, on his behalf, at Westbury, " suffered 
 in his person from one of the many missiles with which 
 the Town Hall was assailed during the ceremony of the 
 election. It was fortunate for me that that ceremony 
 
64 SIR ROEERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 was not unduly protracted. Very shortly after my return 
 had been declared by the proper officer, the arrival of a 
 Protestant candidate in a chaise and four from London 
 was announced. If he had entered the town a few hours 
 earlier, it is highly probable that I should have fared no 
 better at Westbury than I had done at Oxford." 
 
 Taking his seat on the 3rd of March, Peel announced 
 that on the 5th he would bring forward the Catholic Relief 
 Bill. But on the morning of the 4th he and the Duke of 
 Wellington were summoned to Windsor to a conference 
 with the King. Once more the measure was endangered. 
 His Majesty retracted his consent to the Bill on the 
 ground that it had been unwarily given, whereupon the 
 Premier and Mr. Peel tendered their resignations. " At 
 the close of the interview (which lasted for five hours) 
 the King took leave of us" — we again quote Peel's 
 Memoirs — "with great composure and great kindness, 
 gave to each of us a salute on each cheek, and accepted 
 our resignation of office, frequently expressing his sincere 
 regret at the necessity which compelled us to retire from 
 his service." For some hours the country was without a 
 Government, but late in the evening of the same day the 
 King wrote a letter to the Duke of Wellington informing 
 him that his Majesty anticipated so much difficulty in 
 the attempt to form another Administration that he could 
 not dispense with the services of his late Ministry, that 
 they must therefore withdraw their resignations, and that 
 they were at liberty to proceed with the measures of 
 which notice had been given in Parliament. Peel, feel- 
 ing that after what had occurred the mere permission of 
 his Majesty to proceed with the measures was not suffi- 
 cient authority, suggested to the Duke of Wellington 
 that a written authorization should be procured from the 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 65 
 
 King. This was done, and for the purpose of silencing 
 all cavil on the subject, Mr. Peel, in opening his great 
 speech the next day, began with these words : " I rise as 
 a Minister of the King, and sustained by the just autho- 
 rity which belongs to that character, to vindicate the 
 advice given to his Majesty by an united Cabinet." 
 
 The 5th of March, 1829, may justly be regarded as 
 one of the most memorable days in the annals of the 
 British Parliament. On that day was introduced a 
 measure for the removal of a long-standing grievance 
 and injustice, a measure which ranks amongst the 
 greatest of legislative schemes. Hansard states that at 
 ten o'clock in the morning of that day persons began to 
 assemble in the avenues of the House of Commons ; and 
 although it was distinctly understood that Lord Chandos 
 had declared his determination to persevere in his motion 
 for calling over the House, and, consequently, that the 
 gallery would not be opened until after six o'clock, 
 visitors remained at their posts, and were gradually joined 
 by others, until an immense crowd had collected. When 
 the gallery was at length opened, which was at a few 
 minutes past six, the rush was tremendous ; in two 
 minutes not a seat was unoccupied, and the doors and 
 lobby were crowded with people anxious to avail them- 
 selves of any resignations that heat, pressure, and fatigue 
 might occasion. One who was present states that the 
 pressure was so severe that many persons were more or 
 less injured. A passage for members was kept open with 
 great difficulty ; few of them were recognised, and owing 
 to this fact the intention of a body of Irish law students 
 to give a hearty greeting to Mr. Peel was defeated. 
 Inside the House confusion was created by members 
 hastening to their places, and by a rush of peers and 
 
 F 
 
66 SIR ROBERT PEEL, [chap. 
 
 other privileged persons to obtain seats or standing room 
 below the bar. Every eye was fixed on the hero of the 
 occasion, who sat with folded arms and compressed lips, 
 as though he had formed his resolution with pain, but 
 was resolved to maintain it with inflexible determination. 
 After that portion of the King's speech relating to the 
 affairs of Ireland had been read, Mr. Peel rose. He 
 began his address by an adjuration to lay aside all 
 prejudices and private interests, and confessed that he 
 approached the subject almost overpowered by the 
 magnitude of the questions it involved and the diffi- 
 culties by which it was surrounded. Then, in language 
 at once solemn and dignified, he said, " According to 
 my heart and conscience I believe that the time is come 
 when less danger is to be apprehended to the general 
 interests of the empire, and to the spiritual and temporal 
 welfare of the Protestant Establishment, in attempting to 
 adjust the Catholic question than in allowing it to 
 remain any longer in its present state. I have stated 
 on a former occasion that such was my deliberate 
 opinion, such the conclusion to which I felt myself 
 compelled to come by the irresistible force of circum- 
 stances ; and I will adhere to it, aye, and I will act 
 upon it, unchanged by the scurrility of abuse, by the 
 expression of opposite opinions, however vehement or 
 however general — unchanged by the deprivation of 
 political confidence or by the heavier sacrifice of private 
 friendships and affections. Looking back upon the past, 
 surveying the present, and prejudging the prospects of 
 the future, again I declare that the time has at length 
 arrived when this question must be adjusted." The 
 Minister next addressed himself to prove, by a series of 
 arguments, the two positions — that moral necessity existed 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 67 
 
 for concession, and that there was more danger in con- 
 tinued resistance than in concession accompanied with 
 measures of restriction and precaution. He reviewed 
 the history of the Catholic question, and the state of 
 Ireland as connected with it, from the year 1794 
 down to the time at which he was speaking. The 
 retrospect convinced him that so long as the question 
 continued to be agitated, Ireland could not enjoy tran- 
 quillity nor the empire possess a stable Government. 
 From facts adduced, he demonstrated the impossi- 
 bility of forming an anti-concession Cabinet in the 
 existing state of political parties in England, and in the 
 condition of the elective franchise in Ireland. It had 
 been said, Take away this franchise ; but that could not 
 be. " We cannot replace the Roman Catholics in the 
 condition in which we found them when the system of 
 relaxation and indulgence began. We have given them 
 the means of acquiring education, wealth, and power. 
 We have removed with our own hands the seal from a 
 vessel in which a mighty spirit was enclosed ; but it will 
 not, like the genius in the fable, return within its narrow 
 confines to gratify our curiosity and enable us to cast it 
 back into the obscurity from which we evoked it. If we 
 begin to recede, there is no limit we can assign to such 
 recession ; we shall occasion a violent reaction — violent 
 in proportion to the hopes that have been frequently 
 excited. It must be coerced by new rigours, provoking 
 in their turn fresh resistance." 
 
 Such being the position of the question, Mr. Peel next 
 argued that the only alternative remaining was that which 
 Ministers proposed to take. As to the religious objec- 
 tions against the measure, he cited details to show that 
 under the Penal Laws the principles of the Reformation 
 
68 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 had made no progress in Ireland. The concessions he 
 now proposed admitted the Catholics to Parliament and 
 to the highest military and civil offices — except those con- 
 nected with Church patronage, with education, and with 
 the administration of the ecclesiastical law — on taking 
 an oath described in the Act. The securities which he 
 proposed, and which he regarded as necessary, were the 
 regulation of the elective franchise in Ireland, a prohibi- 
 tion of attendance at Catholic places of worship in official 
 robes, a restriction of episcopal titles to the Protestant 
 hierarchy, and an efficient registration of members of the 
 monastic orders, particularly the Jesuits. We had a 
 clear right, he maintained, to take measures of security 
 and precaution against the entrance of other members of 
 these orders into the country, and against the extension 
 of religious communities professing no allegiance to any 
 authority in this country, and being under the control of 
 foreign superiors, resident, it might be, at the Court of 
 Rome. Then came the right hon. gentleman's very 
 effective peroration. He admitted that, abstractedly, 
 solid objections might be brought against every extensive 
 and complicated measure, but the Catholic question 
 could never be settled if every man were determined to 
 settle it in his own way. Sacrifices had been made to the 
 Roman Catholics, and he asked them to meet the 
 measure in the same spirit, and with an anxious wish to 
 allay every reasonable apprehension. He hoped that the 
 civil contentions of Ireland would soon be at an end, and 
 that mutual jealousies between the different classes of his 
 Majesty's subjects might be removed. Perhaps he was 
 not so sanguine as others in his expectations of the future, 
 but he trusted that the adjustment of this question would 
 give better and stronger securities to the Protestant in- 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 69 
 
 terest and the Protestant Establishment than any which 
 the existing state of things admitted of. He had watched 
 the progress of events, and had seen day by day dis- 
 union and hatred increasing, and the prospects of peace 
 obscured by the gloomy advance of discontent and sus- 
 picion and distrust, creeping on step by step — to quote 
 the words of Mr. Grattan — " like the mist at the heels of 
 the countryman." He (Mr. Peel) might have taken a 
 more popular and a more selfish course. He might have 
 held language much more acceptable to his friends and 
 his late constituents. " But," he continued, " in the 
 course I have taken I have been mainly influenced by the 
 anxious desire to provide for the maintenance of Pro- 
 testant interests and for the security of Protestant Esta- 
 blishments. This is my defence — this my consolation — 
 this shall be my revenge." 
 
 " Sir " — and these were Mr. Peel's eloquent concluding 
 words — " I will hope for the best. God grant that the 
 moral storm may be appeased, that the turbid waters of 
 strife may be settled and composed, and that, having 
 found their just level, they may be mingled, with equal 
 flow, in one clear and common stream. But if these 
 expectations are to be disappointed — if, unhappily, civil 
 strife and contention shall survive the restoration of poli- 
 tical privilege — if there be something inherent in the 
 spirit of the Roman Catholic religion which disdains 
 equality, and will be satisfied with nothing but ascend- 
 ancy — still, I am content to run the hazard of the 
 change. The contest, if inevitable, will be fought for 
 other objects, and with other arms. The struggle will be, 
 not for the abolition of civil distinctions, but for the 
 predominance of an intolerant religion. 
 
 " Sir, I contemplate the progress of that struggle with 
 
70 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 pain, but I look forward to its issue with perfect compo- 
 sure and confidence. We shall have dissolved the great 
 moral alliance that has hitherto given strength to the 
 cause of the Roman Catholics. We shall range on our 
 side the illustrious authorities which have heretofore 
 been enlisted upon theirs ; the rallying cry of ■ Civil 
 Liberty ' will then be all our own. We shall enter the 
 field with the full assurance of victory, armed with the 
 consciousness of having done justice and of being in 
 the right, backed by the unanimous feeling of England, 
 by the firm union of orthodoxy and dissent, by the ap- 
 plauding voice of Scotland, and, if other aid be requisite, 
 cheered by the sympathies of every free state in either 
 hemisphere, and by the wishes and the prayers of every 
 free man, in whatever clime or under whatever form of 
 government his lot may have been cast." 
 
 This speech, which took more than four hours in its 
 delivery, occupies fifty-four columns in the Parliamentary 
 Debates, and is the greatest oratorical effort associated 
 with Peel's name. It was listened to with the most pro- 
 found attention, and at times the cheers were so loud as 
 to be heard in Westminster Hall and the passages lead- 
 ing to the lobby. At its close the applause was most 
 enthusiastic and protracted, and a quarter of an hour 
 elapsed before order could be restored. The measure 
 was of course opposed ; but in the end the motion was 
 carried by 348 votes against 160, showing the immense 
 majority of 188. In the list of the minority appeared the 
 name of the Secretary's relative, Mr. Jonathan Peel. 
 
 On the second reading the Bill was opposed in an able 
 speech by Mr. M. T. Sadler, Mr. Gladstone's predecessor 
 at Newark, but it was defended in an equally able speech 
 by Lord Palmerston. An incident which occasioned 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 71 
 
 great surprise was the opposition offered to the Bill by 
 the Attorney-General, Sir Charles Wetherell. Peel him- 
 self was astonished at the vigour of his animosity, and 
 the scene altogether has been described as one of a pain- 
 ful character. He said that he had declined to draw the 
 Bill because it was subversive of the Protestant Church, 
 which his Majesty was bound by his coronation oath to 
 support. Sir Charles's attitude, gestures, and language 
 were of the most violent character. In his reply, Peel 
 placed the Attorney-General in an awkward position by 
 showing that although he had frankly told the hon. and 
 learned gentleman of these measures before they were 
 introduced, he had not said one word at the time upon 
 the matter. He (the Attorney-General) had supported 
 the measure for the suppression of the Catholic Associa- 
 tion, knowing that it was to be followed by this measure 
 of relief. In closing his speech, Peel referred to the use 
 which had been made of Canning's name in the debate, 
 and he also alluded to those statesmen to whom the 
 credit for Catholic Emancipation was really due. " The 
 credit belongs to others, and not to me," he remarked. 
 " It belongs to Mr. Fox, to Mr. Grattan, to Mr. Plunket, 
 to the gentlemen opposite, and to an illustrious and right 
 hon. friend of mine who is now no more. By their 
 efforts, in spite of my opposition, it has proved victorious. 
 I will not conceal from the House that in the course of 
 this debate allusions have been made to the memory of 
 my right hon. friend now no more (Mr. Canning) 
 which have been most painful to my feelings. An hon. 
 baronet has spoken of the cruel manner in which 
 my right hon. friend was hunted down. Whether the 
 hon. baronet was one of those who hunted him down I 
 know not; but this I do know, that whoever did join in 
 
72 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 the inhuman cry which was raised against him I was not 
 one. I was on terms of the most friendly intimacy with 
 my right hon. friend down even to the day of his death ; 
 and I say with as much sincerity of heart as man can 
 speak, that I wish he was now alive to reap the harvest 
 which he sowed, and to enjoy the triumph which his 
 exertions gained. I would say of him as he said of the 
 late Mr. Perceval, ' Would he were here to enjoy the 
 fruits of his victory ! ' " 
 
 The second reading was carried by nearly as large 
 a majority as the first, and the Opposition, seeing 
 that nothing could be done against the Bill in the 
 Lower House, fixed their hopes upon the Upper. 
 Although the King behaved most ungenerously to Peel 
 at this time, the Duke of Wellington worked loyally and 
 faithfully with his colleague. After the speech of Sir 
 Charles Wetherell, his Grace intimated to the Attorney- 
 General that his Majesty had no further need of his 
 services. On the third reading of the Bill Sir C. 
 Wetherell revenged himself by a bitter attack upon Peel, 
 to which the latter retorted with spirit, and in replying 
 on the whole question, to another hon. member, at the 
 close of his remarks, he said, " I will tell the hon. member, 
 to use the metaphor of the gallant admiral near him, 
 that it does not always follow that the pilot is bound to 
 steer the same course to guard the ship from danger ; 
 but when different winds are blowing, it is absolutely 
 incumbent to take a different course, to save the ship 
 from those dangers which, if they were incurred, must 
 lead to the inevitable loss not only of the ship but also 
 of her crew. That has been the opinion of all former 
 statesmen, at all times, and in all countries." A good 
 deal of acrimony was shown by various speakers during 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 73 
 
 the debate, but at one point the whole House roared 
 with laughter at an amusing but intentional blunder 
 made by Sir Joseph Yorke. " Mr. Speaker," said the 
 hon. member, " I hope I may conclude the discussion on 
 this Bill with a Parliamentary toast : May the sister 
 kingdoms be united, and may they live hereafter like two 
 brothers !" The majority on the third reading was 178, 
 or only ten votes smaller than that on the first, thus 
 showing the great and compact support extended to the 
 Ministry on this measure. The Bill for the disqualification 
 of the Irish forty-shilling freeholders, which was a distinct 
 measure from the emancipatory one, was proceeded with 
 pari passu. 
 
 On the 31st of March the Relief Bill was read a first 
 time in the House of Lords, the second reading being 
 fixed for the 2nd of April. Mr. Peel was present at the 
 greater part of this debate, leaning on the bar and 
 exhibiting a placid, impassive countenance, which never 
 changed amid the whispered reproaches designed to 
 meet his ear. For some unknown reason he was far more 
 unpopular with the opponents of the Catholics in the 
 Upper House than any of his colleagues ; and whenever 
 a charge of treachery and inconsistency was levelled 
 against the supporters of the measure, the eyes of the 
 speaker and of those who concurred with him were turned 
 on Peel, if he happened to be present. The glances 
 would have been just as effective if directed against a 
 statue. The Duke of Wellington moved the second 
 reading of the bill, and at the close of his speech the 
 Primate of all England, Dr. Howley, moved its rejection, 
 the amendment being seconded by the Primate of Ire- 
 land, Dr. Beresford. The latter spoke with considerable 
 effect, but his speech was answered by the Bishop of 
 
74 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 Oxford, Dr. Lloyd, the only prelate who rose in defence 
 of the ministerial policy. Dr. Lloyd was the friend and 
 adviser of Peel at this period. The Duke of Sussex 
 spoke in favour of the Bill, as did Lord Lyndhurst, one 
 of the most effective parliamentary orators of his day. 
 Two of the ablest speeches in the debate came subse- 
 quently from Lords Grey and Plunket. The division 
 was taken shortly after one o'clock on Sunday morning, 
 when there appeared — for the measure, 147 ; against it, 
 79; majority, as regards peers present, 68. But there 
 were also 70 proxies in favour of the Bill, and but 33 
 against, leaving a majority of 37 on the proxies, or a 
 total majority of 105 in favour of the Bill. The majority 
 being considerably larger than was expected, the safety 
 of the Bill was assured. The measure soon passed 
 through its remaining stages, the third reading being 
 taken on the 10th of April, when the total majority in 
 its favour was 104, or only one vote less than on the 
 second reading. The King, who had vacillated on this 
 subject to the last, gave his assent to the Bill on the 
 13th by Royal Commission, and the religious|disabilities 
 of the Roman Catholics disappeared from the Statute 
 Book. 
 
 The conduct of Peel on this great question has been 
 variously viewed, and it will perhaps be advantageous 
 here to quote the opinions of several distinguished men, 
 as well as Peel's own apology for the course he then 
 took. His relative, Sir L. Peel, observes that by his 
 policy on Catholic Emancipation " he won the calm and 
 lasting approval of all conscientious and wise men, who, 
 expecting no infallibility, and indeed rarely any superior 
 intelligence in public men, delight to find in them an 
 absence of all self-seeking and a patriotic superiority to 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 75 
 
 mere party obligations. The moral qualities which he 
 displayed in this painful struggle were of the highest 
 order. It is curious and instructive to trace his internal 
 struggles, the conflict between a false and a true allegiance, 
 and the slow, final triumph of the higher duty. He 
 maintained throughout, midst many provocations, taunts 
 the most bitter, and invective the most fierce, a full and 
 perfect command over a temper naturally quick and 
 impatient of opposition. He showed an astonishing dex- 
 terity in meeting and answering objections, and an 
 eloquence suited to the high occasion on which it was 
 exercised." He took his course knowing also the sorrow 
 it must cause to a beloved and revered parent. " Yet he 
 wished in some manner to avoid this cup of bitterness. 
 Was there no way left of escaping from this pillory? 
 Could he not resign ? Might he not support the Bill as 
 a private member of the House ? Might he not thus do 
 the cause more service ? These were not palterings 
 with duty j they were the wary approaches to its highest 
 duty of a cautious and circumspect mind. Not plunging 
 with the spirit of a self-immolating votary, afraid to think, 
 impelled, and rushing with a mad delight upon ruin ; his 
 was the calm, steady, and deliberate advance to self- 
 sacrifice of the trained soldier of duty." M. Guizot 
 remarks that when Peel changed his opinion and his 
 policy he was perfectly sincere : " He merely obeyed 
 what he considered to be the truth, and his only object 
 was the public good. He might, without injustice, be 
 taxed with want of foresight; and the secret desire to 
 accomplish those great reforms which he believed to be 
 just and necessary rendered him, perhaps, too ready to 
 break party ties, and prevented him from seeing all the 
 inconveniences of so doing ; but when he himself meets 
 
76 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 these accusations half way who would lay them rigorously 
 to his charge?" It is a curious fact that during the session 
 in which Peel first entered Parliament, his father urged 
 upon Lord Liverpool the necessity for binding him to 
 the Conservative cause, as at bottom his tendencies were 
 Whig, so that his leaning at various points in his life 
 to progressive measures is not to be wondered at. 
 
 Returning to the question of Catholic Emancipation, 
 the eulogium passed upon Peel by Sir James Graham, a 
 political opponent, may be cited as faithfully represent- 
 ing the public sentiment. " Considering the sacrifices 
 which he has recently made," said the hon. baronet, 
 " the connections from which he has torn himself, 
 the public attachments which he has broken asunder, 
 the dangers which he might have created by an opposite 
 course, the difficulties which he might have created by 
 adhering to an opposite system, the civil war which he 
 has avoided by departing from it, and the great service 
 which he has rendered to the State by the manly avowal 
 of a change of opinion : considering all the circum- 
 stances, I think the right hon. gentleman entitled to the 
 highest praise, and to the honest respect of every friend 
 of the Catholics." Lord Dalling and Bulwer, many 
 years later, used language similar to this. " There can 
 be little doubt," he remarks, " that he (Peel) had pre- 
 vented a civil war in which many of the most eminent 
 statesmen in England, and all the eminent statesmen of 
 foreign countries, would have considered that the Irish 
 Catholics were in the right. At the same time he did 
 not derive from the course he had taken the hope which 
 many entertained — that all Irish feuds would henceforth 
 cease, and that it would become easy to establish in 
 Ireland the satisfaction and tranquillity that were found 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 77 
 
 in other parts of our empire. He did, however, deem 
 that if the great and crying cause of grievance which had 
 so long agitated and divided the public mind were once 
 removed there would be no powerful rallying cry for the 
 disaffected, and that in any dangerous crisis the Govern- 
 ment would find all reasonable men in Ireland and all 
 men in England by its side." 
 
 The Westminster Review — and we may select this organ 
 as representing the opinions of an enlightened press — thus 
 distinguished, many years after the passing of the Catholic 
 Relief Bill, the merits of Peel's policy at this important 
 crisis : u The safety of the country required that Catholic 
 Emancipation should be at once conceded — of this there 
 was no doubt. The Whigs, no doubt, ought to have carried 
 it, but the King, it was well known, would not endure a 
 Whig Ministry, and the King was impracticable, testy, 
 and prevaricating, and manageable by no one but the 
 Duke. If the Duke had resigned he would have thrown 
 himself into the hands of the old Tories, Emancipation 
 would have been refused, and civil war and national 
 retrogression and disgrace would have been the conse- 
 quence. But the Duke's resignation would have been 
 necessitated by Peel's retirement. As an honest and 
 disinterested patriot, therefore, Sir Robert Peel, in our 
 judgment, had no option but to act as he did act." 
 
 This extract well represents the question from the point 
 of view of practical politics and statesmanship. With 
 regard to the personal aspect of the matter, we will quote 
 Sir Robert Peel's defence as given in his posthumous 
 Memoirs. After observing that he might have sheltered 
 himself under the dishonest plea of a false consistency, 
 and that if he had been stimulated by personal ambition 
 he might have encouraged and deferred to the scruples of 
 
78 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 the Sovereign, and have appealed to the religious feelings 
 of the country to rally round the Throne, he says in 
 language which must be convincing in its emphasis, 
 " From the imputation of other motives still more 
 unworthy, the documents I now produce will, I trust, 
 suffice to protect my memory. I can with truth affirm, 
 as I do solemnly affirm, in the presence of Almighty 
 God, 'to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, 
 and from whom no secrets are hid,' that in advising 
 and promoting the measures of 1829 I was swayed 
 by no fear except the fear of public calamity, and that 
 I acted throughout on a deep conviction that those 
 measures were not only conducive to the general welfare, 
 but that they had become imperatively necessary in order 
 to avert from interests which had a special claim upon 
 my support — the interests of the Church, and of institu- 
 tions connected with the Church — an imminent and 
 increasing danger. It may be that I was unconsciously 
 influenced by motives less perfectly pure and disinter- 
 ested — by the secret satisfaction of being — 
 
 1 . . . When the waves went high, 
 A daring pilot in extremity.' 
 
 But at any rate it was no ignoble ambition which 
 prompted me to bear the brunt of a desperate conflict, 
 and at the same time to submit to the sacrifice of every- 
 thing dear to a public man, excepting the approval of 
 his own conscience and the hope of ultimate justice." 
 
 Posterity, however, will concern itself less with the 
 private question than with the infinitely more important 
 fact, that at a moment of peril to the nation Peel stepped 
 into the breach and carried his great measure of pacifica- 
 tion. A struggle of three centuries was settled by his 
 
iv.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 79 
 
 bold and decisive action, and the two sections of the 
 King's subjects which had hitherto been at variance and 
 strife now met at Westminster under equal parliamentary 
 privileges. Whatever a man may be as regards the com- 
 plexion of his individual politics, if he removes a gigantic 
 civil or religious grievance he is, on account of that act 
 at least, entitled to everlasting remembrance. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FALL OF THE WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY. 
 
 HTHE Duke of Wellington's Government found itself in 
 no enviable position after the concession of Catholic 
 Emancipation. That measure estranged from it the 
 sympathies of many members of the old Tory party, 
 while the Iron Duke distrusted and disliked such sup- 
 port as he received from the Whigs. With the exception 
 of its two leading spirits, moreover, the Cabinet itself was 
 not strong enough to inspire confidence. Peel now found 
 himself somewhat critically placed : regarded as he was 
 by the King with an aversion which his Majesty did not 
 attempt to conceal, and separated by recent events from 
 many of his life-long friends, the situation naturally 
 caused him great anxiety. Complete union with the 
 moderate Whigs was impossible, and, driven to strike 
 out new lines of action, Peel set himself to strengthen 
 his position by supplementing his Catholic measures 
 with domestic reforms. 
 
 A Select Committee (the sixth of its kind) having 
 reported that without some change in the effete and 
 worn-out watch system, life or property could not be 
 deemed secure in the metropolis, the Home Secretary 
 introduced on the 15 th of April the Bill referred to in a 
 
chap, v.] FALL OF THE MINISTRY. 81 
 
 preceding chapter for the establishment of a Metropolitan 
 Police Force. This measure was of a very valuable and 
 beneficent kind, and yet, although it passed through the 
 House of Commons with scarcely any opposition, it 
 excited great hostility out of doors. It interfered with 
 supposed parochial interests, and the press and a consider- 
 able section of the people opposed it in consequence ; 
 but within a very short time after the Act came into 
 operation its beneficial and statesmanlike character 
 needed no defence. 
 
 The distressed condition of the silk-weavers and the 
 manufacturing classes generally led to a good deal of 
 discussion in Parliament ; and when a government, 
 whether rightly or wrongly, does not move vigorously in 
 such a crisis, some portion of obloquy is sure to attach 
 to it. Incidentally, too, the question of reform was raised 
 in this session, in relation to the disfranchisement of East 
 Retford. It was proposed by the reformers that the 
 representation should be transferred to some large town, 
 but Peel supported the proposal that it should be ex- 
 tended to the neighbouring hundred of Bassetlaw. When 
 the establishment of a system of Poor Laws in Ireland 
 was mooted, Peel said that the incursions of Irish paupers 
 into England was undoubtedly a great inconvenience 
 and hardship upon the people of this country ; and its 
 direct tendency was to reduce the labourers of the 
 country, wherever such incursions took place, as in the 
 West of England, to a level with the paupers from 
 Ireland. At the same time he would not pledge himself 
 to introduce the principle of the English system of Poor 
 Laws into Ireland, without having first given the subject 
 the most deliberate consideration as to its effect on the 
 state of pauperism in this country, and as to its probable 
 
 G 
 
82 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 result in giving poor but able-bodied men in that country 
 the right to demand assistance. 
 
 But the most conspicuous incident of the session, and 
 one far-reaching in its effects, was one closely connected 
 with the . question of Catholic Emancipation. Mr. 
 O'Connell having been elected for Clare, his right to sit 
 gave rise to lengthy debates and a scene in Parliament. 
 The law permitted the election of a Catholic, but he 
 could not sit without taking an oath subversive of his 
 own faith. The Emancipation Act relieved Catholic 
 members who should be elected after the passing of the 
 Act from taking this oath, but O'Connell having been 
 elected before the Bill was carried, was excluded from 
 the operation of the Act. On the 15th of May O'Con- 
 nell appeared at the table of the House of Commons, 
 supported by Lords Duncannon and Ebrington. The 
 old oath was produced, but O'Connell declined to take 
 it, and the Speaker having decided that he could not sit 
 without taking it, the hon. member withdrew. Brougham 
 thereupon moved that O'Connell be called back and 
 heard at the table in support of his claim to sit on taking 
 the oath prescribed in the new Act. Peel and others 
 held that he should be heard at the bar and not at the 
 table; and accordingly on the 18th instant, the day to 
 which the debate had been adjourned, Peel moved that 
 " the member for Clare be heard at the bar, by himself, 
 his counsel, or agents, in respect of his claim to sit and 
 vote in Parliament, without taking the oath of supre- 
 macy." The mover pointed out that the law subjected 
 individuals who sat, or voted, or entered into the House, 
 not having taken the oath of supremacy, to heavy penal- 
 ties ; and therefore, even if there were considerable doubt 
 on the subject, the House ought not to lend its sanction to 
 
v.] FALL OF THE WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY. 83 
 
 the possible infraction of the law. The hon. member's pur- 
 pose would be answered by hearing him at the bar, and in 
 reference to his own security it was better that he should 
 be thus heard than at the table. The motion having 
 been put, O'Connell was called in, when he spoke forcibly 
 in support of his claim. In the discussion which ensued, 
 Peel held that O'Connell was not entitled to the benefit 
 of the Emancipation Act, and that his election must be 
 declared void. The question must be dealt with judi- 
 cially, he said, and decided according to privilege of 
 Parliament, without reference to extrinsic circumstances. 
 Mr. O'Connell was not deprived of any civil right what- 
 ever, but he had claimed a right to sit as member of 
 Parliament under the old law, and by the operation of 
 that law he was excluded. In the end a new writ was 
 issued, and O'Connell was put to the trouble of a new 
 election. The episode, however, did harm to the Ministry 
 amongst those who were conciliated by its previous policy. 
 This questionVas followed by a debate on Parliament- 
 ary Reform, initiated by the Marquis of Blandford. His 
 lordship moved a series of resolutions to the effect that 
 there existed a number of boroughs the representation of 
 which could be purchased, and others in which the number 
 of electors was so small as to render them liable to the influ- 
 ence of bribery ; and that such a system was disgraceful to 
 the character of the House of Commons, destructive of 
 the confidence which the people should repose in it, and 
 prejudicial to the best interests of the country. Peel 
 dashed the hopes of the reformers by opposing the reso- 
 lutions, remarking that if the House was prepared to 
 affirm the abstract principles of resolutions like these, it 
 ought to follow them up by some practical measure. 
 That was impossible at such a late period of the session. 
 
84 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 But, in the second place, he was not prepared to affirm 
 the truth of the charges made against the close boroughs. 
 And again, if the system of close boroughs had contri- 
 buted to the triumph of the great principles of freedom 
 of trade and Catholic Emancipation, as claimed, such a 
 system should rather be preserved than sacrificed. The 
 resolutions were rejected by a majority of 401 to 118. 
 
 Peel on two occasions during this session defended 
 his currency legislation, with respect to which the country 
 generally was in accord with him. In answer to Mr. 
 Attwood, he announced that he would never consent to 
 a revision or alteration of the existing currency of the 
 country, and adduced facts relating to the trade of the 
 country which supported him in his resolution. The 
 distress which existed. was attributable to quite other 
 causes than the nature of the currency. 
 
 A question which now arose in connection with our 
 foreign policy did much to discredit the Government 
 with the country. The crown of Portugal had been 
 usurped by Don Miguel, and England — a power which 
 had been most friendly to the dispossessed Sovereign^ 
 Donna Maria — looked on. Nevertheless, we still gave 
 Donna Maria her title. An expedition, consisting chiefly 
 of Portuguese subjects, embarked from Portsmouth for 
 the island of Terceira, which still acknowledged Donna 
 Maria as the lawful sovereign. The expedition was 
 stopped, however, by a British naval force, on the ground 
 that although ostensibly bound for Terceira, it was really 
 going to Portugal, to be employed against Don Miguel. 
 But as no conclusive proof was given of this latter inten- 
 tion, much discussion ensued upon the points of inter- 
 national law involved. The opinion gained ground that 
 the Duke of Wellington was favouring the cause of the 
 
v.] FALL OF THE WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY. 85 
 
 usurping and absolutist Sovereign in order " to satisfy the 
 great potentates of the continent, who were adverse to 
 freedom." Sir James Mackintosh brought up the subject 
 in the House of Commons, representing our act as one of 
 hostility against the rightful Sovereign of Portugal, and in 
 favour of the usurper. Peel defended the Government, 
 and reviewed the whole circumstances of the case and 
 the recent history of Portugal. The expedition, he 
 affirmed, was clearly designed to act hostilely against 
 Don Miguel, with whom England was not at war, for we 
 still had a consul in Portugal. He was satisfied that the 
 character of England had been vindicated by not allow- 
 ing its ports to be made subservient to such designs. 
 The debate ended without a division, Ministers pro- 
 mising to produce papers ; but the effect was to excite a 
 feeling of dissatisfaction in some quarters with regard to 
 the foreign policy of England. The Government also 
 lost prestige over the appointment of Prince Polignac as 
 Prime Minister to Charles X. of France. The King was 
 exceedingly bigoted himself, while the Prince was ultra- 
 Royalist, the close friend of the Jesuits, and an enemy to 
 the press. The Duke of Wellington was supposed to be 
 privy to his appointment, or to have had some share 
 in it, and a distrustful feeling arose in England in con- 
 sequence. 
 
 To add to these foreign sources of ministerial unpopu- 
 larity, the affairs of Ireland were once more the cause of 
 great solicitude. O'Connell, enraged at the proceedings 
 in the House, and detaching himself from those of his 
 own party who were inclined to take from him the credit 
 of emancipation, began a career of agitation in Ireland. 
 Risings and outrages also, though unconnected with the 
 member for Clare, became the order of the day. At this 
 
86 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 time the Morning Journal was severely attacking the 
 Ministry on its Catholic policy, and the law was put in 
 force against the editor and proprietors of the journal. 
 Convictions were obtained, and sentences passed upon 
 the defendants which were regarded as unusually severe. 
 Moreover, early in the session of 1830, damaging attacks 
 were made upon the administrative capacity of the Duke 
 of Wellington and other members of the Ministry. Lord 
 Ellenborough occasioned grave dissatisfaction by his 
 policy on Indian affairs, and Mr. Peel proposed, in 
 accordance with a pledge given the previous session, a 
 Committee of Inquiry for the purpose of investigating 
 the state of the commerce between this country and our 
 Indian possessions. His speech was marked by consider- 
 able liberality of feeling towards the natives. The Com- 
 mittee was appointed, and sat to the end of the session. 
 Animated debates arose on the question of a re- 
 duction of taxation, and on one occasion Sir James 
 Graham strongly attacked the Duke of Wellington. Peel 
 replied, and said, " We will propose such measures of 
 retrenchment as can be effected with advantage, but will 
 propose none which cannot be maintained consistently 
 with the honour and just influence of this nation ; and I 
 say with confidence, but perfect respect, that whatever 
 may be the consequences of the combination of parties 
 in this House, there is a sufficient fund of good sense 
 prevailing in the country, without reference to ultra- 
 Whig or ultra-Tory, which will ultimately sanction and 
 confirm the course that has been pursued, and which it 
 is our intention to pursue." That the intention of the 
 Government in regard to retrenchment was honest, is 
 proved from the fact that the budget of this year showed 
 a reduction of taxes to the amount 0^3,425,000. They 
 
v.] FALL OF THE WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY. 87 
 
 successfully carried their financial measures in the House, 
 and yet in regard to this matter of expenditure they in- 
 curred unpopularity in the country. When O'Connell 
 presented a petition from Dublin in favour of the repeal 
 of the Union, Sir Charles Wetherell objected to the re- 
 ception of the petition ; but Peel, while he acknowledged 
 that he could not too strongly express his abhorrence 
 of its prayer and its object, said he perceived no reason 
 for refusing to receive the petition — thus affording another 
 proof of his desire to be guided by constitutional princi- 
 ples. Ministers were defeated this session on a matter 
 involving two small superannuation allowances, and this 
 involved a further loss of prestige. Something was 
 done in the course of the session, at the instigation of 
 Peel, to mitigate the severity of the penal code as re- 
 garded cases of forgery, but the Government were not 
 able to overset the growing feeling against them. Its 
 foreign policy generally was regarded as weak and vacil- 
 lating, and only upon such portion of that policy as 
 affected Mexico did the Ministry rise to the nation's con- 
 ception of a spirited policy. Peel was on this occasion 
 the expounder of the course of the Government. 
 
 The end of the Administration was drawing near. 
 George IV., who had been seriously indisposed for 
 months, and on whose behalf Peel piloted through 
 Parliament a Bill allowing the sign-manual to be ad- 
 hibited by a stamp, died somewhat suddenly on Saturday, 
 the 26th of June. This selfish and sensual monarch was 
 not without certain accomplishments and business quali- 
 ties, but his death excited no feelings of poignant regret 
 amongst his subjects. His successor, William IV., was, 
 on the contrary, exceedingly popular, liberal in many 
 respects, honest, good-natured, and impartial. A warm 
 
88 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 debate arose over the King's first message. Brougham, 
 after comparing the Duke of Wellington to Prince Polig- 
 nac, said, " I can perceive in this country, as in that, that 
 the day of force is over, and that the Minister who hopes to 
 rule by an appeal to royal favour or military power may be 
 overwhelmed, though I in nowise accuse him of such an 
 attempt. Him I accuse not. It is you I accuse — his 
 flatterers, his mean, fawning parasites." Peel rose, and in 
 indignant tones demanded whether the speaker presumed 
 to call him the mean and fawning parasite of anybody ? 
 Brougham professed to feel annoyance at such an inter- 
 pretation of his words, and the incident ended. 
 
 Parliament was dissolved in July, and in the same 
 month a revolution occurred in Paris, followed by another 
 in Belgium. O'Connell at once commenced an agitation 
 for the repeal of the Union in Ireland, but in England 
 the elections passed off peaceably. The unjust charge 
 against the Duke of Wellington, however, of having 
 given his countenance to the reactionary measures of the 
 Polignac Ministry, was revived and strengthened, and it 
 operated injuriously against the Government. When 
 Parliament assembled in November the unwisdom of 
 Ministers was again demonstrated. Instead of con- 
 sidering in some way whether a measure of Reform 
 might not be granted in response to the great and grow- 
 ing demand upon this subject, the Duke of Wellington 
 made an express declaration to the effect that he should 
 oppose any measure for reform which might be brought 
 forward, that no such measure should be proposed by 
 the Government so long as he held his present position, 
 and that the legislature could not be improved. This 
 announcement immediately strengthened the feeling 
 against the Government. In the Commons, Peel ener- 
 
v.] FALL OF THE WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY. 89 
 
 getically denounced the renewal of agitation in Ireland. 
 Lord Althorp, the Whig leader, said he would support 
 any measure the tendency of which would be to dis- 
 possess Ministers of their places. The King promised 
 to attend the usual Lord Mayor's banquet on the 9th of 
 November, but on the 8th a proclamation appeared to 
 the effect that not only had his Majesty's intended visit 
 on the following day been postponed, but that neither the 
 Lord Mayor's procession nor the dinner would take place. 
 Letters had been received by the Duke of Wellington 
 stating that a riot was to be apprehended if the King 
 made his appearance in the City, and in one of these 
 letters, written by the Lord Mayor elect, it was suggested 
 that he should come " strongly and sufficiently guarded." 
 Hereupon the Duke advised that the King's visit should 
 be postponed. Debates arose in both Houses as to the 
 postponement of the visit, which had caused a great de- 
 pression in the funds, and the incident greatly aggravated 
 the unpopularity of the Ministry. The Duke of Wel- 
 lington, however, as later records showed, was fully 
 impressed that he had taken the right course in the 
 matter. Peel also adduced evidence in the Commons to 
 prove that Ministers acted wisely and judiciously under 
 the circumstances. 
 
 The fall of the Government was at last occasioned 
 by a trivial matter. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 having introduced a plan for the settlement of the 
 Civil List in the new reign, Sir Henry Parnell, on 
 the ground of want of confidence in the Ministry, 
 moved for a Special Committee of Inquiry. The 
 Government were beaten by a majority of 29, in a 
 House composed of 437 members. This issue was 
 a surprise to both parties. On the following day, 
 
90 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. v. 
 
 November 16th, Peel announced that he and his col- 
 leagues had tendered their resignations to the King, 
 and that his Majesty had accepted them. Under these 
 circumstances Lord Althorp pressed Mr. Brougham 
 to postpone the motion he intended to bring forward 
 upon Parliamentary Reform, and the latter reluctantly 
 consented to do so. The Wellington Administration, 
 which had lost the confidence of the country chiefly 
 through the impracticability of its chief, thus came to an 
 end. 
 
 At this point it may be mentioned that on the 3rd of 
 May, 1830, Peel succeeded his father in the dignity of a 
 baronet, and also in the Parliamentary representation 
 of Tamworth, for which borough he continued to sit 
 until his decease, twenty years later. On the 8th of 
 June, 1820, the subject of our biography was married to 
 Julia, daughter of General Sir John Floyd, Bart, and by 
 this lady, who survived him, he had issue five sons and 
 two daughters. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 
 
 T^HEIR defeat on the Civil List was the ostensible 
 ■* reason for the resignation of the Wellington Ad- 
 ministration, but it was well known that the pressing 
 nature of the Reform question had much to do with their 
 retirement from office. Earl Grey was sent for, and in a 
 few days succeeded in forming a Ministry, but upon the 
 understanding that Parliamentary Reform should be made 
 a ministerial measure. Any hope, therefore, which might 
 have been formed of a coalition with Peel was annihi- 
 lated, that statesman being strongly opposed to reform. 
 Brougham of course now became Lord Chancellor. Peel 
 was now in political adversity, with abundant opportunity 
 for reviewing the past and shaping his course in the future. 
 One who was returned to this Parliament with him, and 
 who listened to his speeches, thus describes him from the 
 oratorical point of view : " Addressing the House several 
 times in the night on various subjects, he always seemed 
 to know more than any one else knew about each of 
 them, and to convey to you the idea that he thought he 
 did so. His language was not usually striking, but it was 
 always singularly correct, and gathered force with the 
 development of his argument. He never seemed occu- 
 
92 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 pied with himself. His effort was evidently directed to 
 convince you, not that he was eloquent, but that he was 
 right. When the subject suited it he would be witty, and 
 with a look and a few words he could most effectively 
 convey contempt ; he could reply also with great spirit 
 to an attack, but he was rarely aggressive. He seemed 
 rather to aim at gaining the doubtful than mortifying or 
 crushing the hostile. His great rivals, Canning and 
 Brougham, being removed, he no doubt felt more at his 
 ease than formerly ; and though there was nothing like 
 assumption or pretension in his manner, there was a tone 
 of superiority, which he justified by a great store of know- 
 ledge, a clear and impressive style, and a constant readi- 
 ness to discuss any question that arose." The same 
 writer further observes that Sir Robert Peel at this time 
 gave one " the idea of a great, prudent, wary leader who 
 was fighting after a plan, and keeping his eye during the 
 whole of the battle directed to the result." Without being 
 superior to several of his competitors as a man, " he was 
 far superior to all as a member of Parliament ; and his 
 ascendancy was the more visible as the whole strength of 
 his party was in him." 
 
 The Whigs being now in office, their Reform Bill was 
 prepared, and introduced into the House of Commons 
 on the ist of March, 1831, by Lord John Russell. The 
 scheme, which was regarded as very sweeping even by 
 some of the reformers themselves, proposed the total dis- 
 franchisement of sixty boroughs in each of which the popu- 
 lation did not amount to two thousand, and the partial 
 disfranchisement of forty-seven where the population was 
 only four thousand. Out of the seats thus gained the 
 number of county members was to be increased, and 
 representatives were to be given to certain large towns 
 
VI.] PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 93 
 
 not heretofore represented. It is said that u the Govern- 
 ment plan was received with profound astonishment, and 
 Lord John continued his explanations of it amid cheers 
 and laughter." Amongst a mass of deprecatory speeches, 
 Mr. Macaulay spoke eloquently in favour of the measure. 
 On the third night of the debate Lord Palmerston vindi- 
 cated his support of reform, and then there were loud 
 cries for Peel. He rose with diffidence, and after reply- 
 ing to Palmerston, and glancing at the condition of 
 France, he said : " It was the duty of the King's Govern- 
 ment to . abstain from agitating this question at such a 
 period as the present — to abstain from the incitement 
 throughout this land to that conflict (God grant it may 
 be only a moral conflict !) which must arise between the 
 possessors of existing privileges and those to whom they 
 are to be transferred. It is the duty of the Government 
 to calm, not to stimulate, the fever of popular excitement. 
 They have adopted a different course, they have sent 
 through the land the firebrand of agitation, and no one 
 can now recall it." 
 
 It was believed that a division taken upon the first 
 reading would have resulted in a defeat of Ministers, 
 but in such an event Sir Robert Peel was neither 
 prepared at the moment with a policy or a party. 
 He therefore recommended that the division should be 
 taken upon the second reading. The first reading was 
 then taken unchallenged, and when the second came on 
 the Government only carried the Bill by a majority of 
 one, the numbers being 302 to 301. The Tory party 
 now made the mistake of not confiding its conduct upon 
 this occasion to Sir Robert Peel, and on the order for 
 committing the Bill put up General Gascoyne to move its 
 rejection. Their most advantageous course, as a party, 
 
94 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 would have been to discuss the Bill in committee, and 
 endeavour to amend it by minimising its effects ; then 
 they would not have appeared as being totally opposed 
 to reform. Peel, however, supported Gascoyne's mo- 
 tion, throwing the blame by anticipation upon the Govern- 
 ment, should their measure be rejected. This event oc- 
 curred. There appeared for the amendment 299, against 
 291 — the Ministry being thus in a minority of eight. 
 
 The Bill being lost, great excitement ensued. What 
 course would Ministers adopt ? Four days later, that is 
 on the 22nd of April, an extraordinary scene of disorder 
 was witnessed in the House of Commons. The Speaker 
 appeared in his official robes, and members knew at once 
 that Parliament was about to be dissolved. Confusion 
 reigned in the House, and many gentlemen rose to their 
 feet at the same time, amongst them being Sir Robert 
 Peel, Lord Althorp, and Sir F. Burdett. Not a word 
 could be heard, but the Speaker called on Peel, who 
 attempted to proceed amidst cheers from his own side 
 and derisive shouts from the ministerial benches. When 
 some amount of order was restored, the right hon. gentle- 
 man said : " The House has this day seen an example of 
 a defiance of all regular authority, even from the place 
 occupied by Ministers of the Crown. I do not complain 
 of the dissolution of this House, I complain merely of the 
 manner in which it was done." He proceeded to say that 
 if this was a foretaste of what was to take place hereafter, 
 he called on them to beware of a reformed Parliament. 
 
 The excitement under which Peel manifestly la- 
 boured betrayed itself in his next utterances : " I will 
 tell you what you are about to establish by a re- 
 formed Parliament. If the Bill proposed by Ministers 
 be carried, it will introduce the very worst and vilest 
 
vi.] PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 95 
 
 species of despotism — the despotism of demagogues ; 
 the despotism of journalism ; that despotism which has 
 brought neighbouring countries, once happy and flourish- 
 ing, to the very brink of ruin and despair." He then 
 attacked the Government, alleging that they had come to 
 a resolution to dissolve Parliament in order that they 
 might protect themselves from that loss of power with 
 which they were threatened. " They have been in office 
 for some months, and not a single measure has emanated 
 from them, from the day they took office till this moment, 
 for the benefit of the country. They have pursued the 
 course adopted by all governments called Liberal. They 
 have tossed on the table of this House some Bills — a 
 Game Bill and an Emigration Bill — and after having esta 
 blished with respect to them and other measures what they 
 call Liberal principles, they abandon them to their fate." 
 Peel was interrupted in his next sentence by loud cries 
 of " order" and " bar," but he vainly endeavoured to pro- 
 ceed, until the Usher of the Black Rod appeared, and the 
 Speaker and the members were summoned to the Upper 
 House to hear the King's speech on the prorogation of 
 Parliament. A strange scene was also witnessed in the 
 Lords before the arrival of his Majesty. The Lord 
 Chancellor (Brougham) having gone to meet the King, 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury was voted to the woolsack. His 
 lordship proceeded to take his seat in the midst of an 
 indescribable hubbub, and it is recorded that the peeresses 
 present were terribly alarmed, while peers shook their 
 fists in each other's faces, and it seemed not unlikely 
 that more than one personal scuffle was imminent. At 
 last the King appeared. Having read his speech, Parlia- 
 ment was dissolved, and on the following day new writs 
 were issued, returnable on the 14th of June. 
 
96 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 The dissolution was hailed with delight in London ; 
 but the excited feelings of the people unfortunately led 
 to scenes of violence in the metropolis and the provinces. 
 The residences of the Duke of Wellington and other 
 opponents of reform were attacked. Meantime the 
 elections proceeded, and it was speedily seen that 
 Ministers would return to Parliament with their forces 
 greatly strengthened. London and other cities and 
 towns pronounced decidedly in favour of the Govern- 
 ment, while as regards the English counties not ten 
 members were returned holding anti-Reform opinions. 
 
 Parliament was opened on the 21st of June, and the 
 great question was immediately brought forward. Peel 
 spoke guardedly and with studied moderation, and the first 
 reading of the Reform Bill was taken without opposition. 
 On the 4th of July the debate on the second reading 
 began. Mr. Macaulay, in his powerful speech on behalf 
 of the measure, said, " Nothing can prevent the passing 
 of this noble law — this second Bill of Rights. I do call 
 it the second Bill of Rights, and so will the country call 
 it, and so will our children. I will call it the ' Greater 
 Charter ' of the liberties of England." In his address, 
 which was loudly called for, Peel said that he was 
 swayed by no motives of self-interest to take his present 
 course ; he had no borough to protect, he had con- 
 tracted no obligation to those who possessed that in- 
 fluence which the present measure was intended to 
 destroy, and he was about to resist the wishes of a great 
 and overpowering majority, backed by the support of an 
 united Government, and acting in conformity with the 
 supposed opinions and wishes of the King. He observed 
 that he had been uniformly opposed to reform upon 
 principle, because he was unwilling to open a door which 
 
vi.] PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 97 
 
 he saw no prospect of being able to close. He had 
 opposed the giving representatives to Manchester and 
 other large towns, because he thought the advantage of 
 such a measure not sufficient to counterbalance the evil 
 of altering the constitution of Parliament and agitating 
 the public mind on the question of Reform. Further^ 
 he did not admit that the opinion of the country was 
 fixed and permanently decided in favour of this Bill. 
 Peel seems to have been firmly convinced at this time 
 that the excitement on the question would pass away* 
 Towards the close of his arguments he again called in 
 question the mode in which the prerogative of the Crown 
 had been used to dissolve Parliament, and in finally 
 defending his own conduct, said, " For my own part, not 
 seeing the necessity for this reform, doubting much 
 whether the demand for reform is so urgent, and doubt- 
 ing still more whether, if carried, this measure can be a 
 permanent one, I give my conscientious opposition to 
 this Bill. In doing this I feel the more confident be- 
 cause the Bill does not fulfil the conditions recommended 
 from the Throne, because it is not founded on the ac- 
 knowledged principles of the constitution, because it 
 does not give security to the acknowledged prerogatives 
 of the Crown, because it does not guarantee the legiti* 
 mate- rights, influences, and privileges of both Houses of 
 Parliament, because it is not calculated to render secure 
 and permanent the happiness and prosperity of the 
 people, and, above all, because it subverts a system of 
 government which has combined security to personal 
 liberty and protection to property with vigour in the 
 executive power of the State in a more perfect degree 
 than ever existed in any age or in any other country in 
 the world." The Tories, nevertheless, were fully con- 
 
 H 
 
98 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 scious that the country was against them on this great 
 question, and that they were fighting a losing battle. 
 When the division came the majority for Government 
 was larger than had been anticipated. There appeared — 
 for the second reading, 367 ; against, 231 ; majority 136. 
 The House altogether thus numbered nearly six hundred 
 members. 
 
 The Bill was warmly contested in Committee, and the 
 third reading was carried by a majority of 55 in a 
 small House, the division not being expected. But upon 
 the question "that the Bill do pass," Sir Robert Peel 
 once more spoke against it. He did this from a sense of 
 duty, he remarked, and because he did not think the 
 measure would conduce to the permanent interests of the 
 country. On that ground he felt bound to oppose the 
 wishes of the people. " I cheerfully submit to pay the 
 penalty to which that difference of opinion subjects me. 
 With reluctance I surrender the hold which I may have 
 on the people's esteem. That is a penalty which they 
 have a right to inflict, but they have no right or power to 
 compel me to acquiesce in their error; for I believe them 
 to be in error. I will not involve myself in the responsi- 
 bility of the measure ; and being, with others, a life-renter 
 only in the admirable constitution which has hitherto 
 secured the peace and happiness of my country, I will 
 not be instrumental in cutting off the inheritance of those 
 who are to succeed me." The Bill passed the House of 
 Commons by a majority of 109, the numbers being — ayes, 
 •345 ; noes, 236. It was read a first time in the Lords on 
 the 22nd of September, but after a debate on the second 
 reading some days afterwards was thrown out by a 
 majority of 41. Upon this adverse vote the House of 
 Commons passed a resolution of confidence in the 
 
vi.] PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 99 
 
 Ministry, regretting also that the Lords should have 
 thrown out the Bill. Parliament was prorogued, but with 
 an intimation that the subject would be again brought 
 forward in the ensuing session. Agitation was now re- 
 newed in the country, and riots occurred in several 
 towns, notably Nottingham, Derby, and Bristol. The 
 last-named place was sacked by a violent mob and 
 partly burned. Very serious loss of life also took place. 
 Parliament met on the 6th of December. It was 
 opened by the King in person, and the speech set forth 
 that a speedy and satisfactory settlement of the Reform 
 question became daily of more pressing importance to 
 the security of the State and the contentment and wel- 
 fare of the people. During the debate on the Address, 
 Sir Robert Peel denied the charge that the unsatisfactory 
 condition of the country was due to the opponents of 
 Reform ; he threw the responsibility for this upon the 
 measures of the Government, for they could not shake 
 the foundations of the ancient institutions of a country 
 without producing discontent which would long survive 
 the introduction of the measure that gave it existence. 
 Warming in his speech, Peel denounced what he de- 
 scribed as the tyranny of the reformers in regard to free- 
 dom of opinion and the persecution of members of the 
 House of Lords. " What system 6f Government can that 
 be," he asked in conclusion, " in which you deny to your 
 opponents the free exercise of judgment and of speech? 
 You cannot propose changes as extensive as those of your 
 Reform Bill without expecting, if you are reasonable 
 men, that they will encounter opposition. You may 
 denounce that opposition ; you may visit it with con- 
 fiscation, exile, and death ; but so long as honour and 
 courage exist among men — and in English bosoms I 
 
ioo SIR ROBERT PEEL. [CHAP. 
 
 trust these will find an eternal spring — you will not, you 
 cannot, deter us from the expression of our honest 
 opinions." Peel looked with genuine, not simulated, 
 apprehension to a reformed House of Commons, but such 
 a termination to the struggle was now inevitable. The 
 people had raised the cry of " The Bill, the whole Bill, 
 and nothing but the Bill ! " and the Tories were power- 
 less to make headway against the current of public 
 opinion. In the debate on the second reading Peel 
 reiterated his objections to the Bill, giving parenthetic- 
 ally an account of the reasons which led him to introduce 
 the Catholic Emancipation Bill, his policy in that matter 
 having been arraigned. On the question of Reform, 
 he said that though his opposition would be unavail- 
 ing it would not be fruitless, because the opposition now 
 made would oppose a bar to further concessions here- 
 after. He sincerely believed that the proposed changes 
 would prove ultimately destructive of all those usages 
 and practices which had ensured to England a large 
 share of peace and prosperity, and which had made and 
 preserved her the proudest kingdom in the annals of the 
 world. 
 
 The second reading was carried by 324 to 162. The 
 House then adjourned for the Christmas holidays, and 
 did not reassemble until the 1 7th of January. The dis- 
 cussions in Committee were so protracted that it was not 
 until the 23rd of March that the measure passed the 
 Commons by a majority of 116. The Bill went up to 
 the Lords, and the second reading was carried after a 
 debate of four days by a majority of 9. Seventeen peers 
 who voted against Reform in 1831 supported it in 1832. 
 In Committee, however, upon a motion of Lord Lynd- 
 hurst's, Ministers found themselves in a minority of 35. 
 
vi.] PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, lot 
 
 Earl Grey and Lord Brougham went down to Windsor, 
 and offered the King the alternative of creating new 
 peers or accepting the resignation of Ministers. The 
 King chose the latter course, and on the evening of the 
 same dayJEarl Grey, in the House of Lords, announced 
 the resignation of the Government. 
 
 This new situation was very perplexing to the opponents 
 of Reform. In the Commons certain resolutions expres- 
 sive of confidence in the late Ministry, and insisting upon 
 an unmutilated Reform Bill, were carried by a majority 
 of 80. During the debate Sir Robert Peel strongly cen^VA 
 sured the proposal to create new peers for the purpose 
 of carrying this or any measure, as bad in itself and very 
 dangerous as a precedent. ! The King applied to the Duke 
 of Wellington for advice, being desirous of entrusting to 
 him the formation of a Government, but the Duke was 
 obliged in the end to recommend the recall of Earl Grey 
 and his colleagues. Peel stated in the House of Com- 
 mons that he had assured Lord Lyndhurst that it was 
 utterly impossible for him to accept office on the under- 
 standing that a Reform Bill should be proposed contain- 
 ing the leading provisions of the recent measure. He 
 also pointed out to the Duke of Wellington that he (Peel) 
 was not the proper person, from his hostile views, to 
 propose a compromise on this question. The Whig 
 Government consequently came in again, and the three 
 Reform Bills for England, Scotland, and Ireland were 
 speedily carried through both Houses, a large number of 
 peers absenting themselves from the debates. Early in 
 August the various Bills received the royal assent, and 
 this great and long-agitated question was finally settled. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PEEL IN OPPOSITION. 
 
 A LTHOUGH the Tories, after the passing of the 
 Reform Bill, were numerically a small party, they 
 were well organized, harmonious, and ever upon the alert. 
 With such a diminished host it might naturally be sup- 
 posed that the Tory leader would lose heart ; but Sir 
 Robert Peel comforted himself with the reflection that 
 his party would yet have abundant means for testifying 
 its power and influence, i while the circumstances and 
 difficulties surrounding the heterogeneous Whig majority 
 were somewhat ominous for the future of that great party. 
 Moreover, he indulged the further reflection that in the 
 long run the middle classes, from good and sufficient 
 motives, would not prove themselves dangerous to the 
 cause of order, but must ultimately range themselves 
 upon that side. For the present there was but one 
 attitude for the Tories, namely, that of watchfulness. 
 
 Peel had not long to wait before the new Government, 
 wafted into power by the popular will, began to feel that 
 it was beset by unusual obstacles. The first reformed 
 Parliament had barely met when disunion manifested 
 itself in the ranks of the Ministerialists. On the election 
 of Speaker the advanced Radicals broke away from the 
 
chap, vii.] PEEL IN OPPOSITION. 103 
 
 Ministry and proposed their own candidate, who was, 
 however, defeated by a large majority. Then, too, the 
 attitude of the Irish Catholics, as represented by O'Connell, 
 continued to be very embarrassing. The Address, in 
 which the resolve to maintain the legislative union 
 between Great Britain and Ireland unimpaired was 
 emphatically expressed, was described by the member for 
 Dublin as " a bloody, brutal, unconstitutional Address," 
 and he went on to attack the Whigs, Mr. Secretary 
 Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby) in particular. The 
 latter retorted with equal point and power. Peel followed, 
 complimenting the Secretary, and intimating that he was 
 prepared to support the Address. Then he turned upon 
 O'Connell, animadverting on his conduct in making the 
 question of repeal the subject elsewhere of appeals to 
 the ignorance, the passions, and the prejudices of the 
 Irish, while he shrunk back from bringing it to a fair 
 discussion before the Legislature. He maintained that 
 the hon. member was bound to show — first, that the mis- 
 government of Ireland had been so great, and that there 
 was such a prospect of its continuance, as to justify the 
 repeal of the union ; and, secondly, that in the event of 
 repeal being carried the two countries could continue in 
 amity under the Sovereign without a prospect of the 
 dismemberment of the empire. This he had not done, 
 and could not do. The speaker cited passages from 
 O'Connell's speeches in Ireland which were very damag- 
 ing to the great agitator, and in the completeness of his 
 answer it was felt that he had even transcended the 
 previous speaker, Mr. Stanley. In closing his address, 
 Peel announced that whenever he saw the Government 
 disposed to maintain the rights of property, the authority 
 of law, and in a qualified sense the established order of 
 
104 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 things against rash innovation, he should without regard 
 to party feeling deem it his duty to support them. 
 "Without the slightest intention of returning to office, 
 but believing it would be a public misfortune in the 
 present crisis of the country that the hands of the 
 Government should be weak, it is my determination to 
 strengthen them as much as possible. I know that the 
 country can only be governed through the House of 
 Commons, and I feel that my opinions are not in accord- 
 ance with those which are supposed to influence the 
 majority of this House ; and having, on the other hand, 
 no disposition to conform to theirs, I shall, consulting 
 public utility alone, support the Government upon grounds 
 as independent as those of men boasting of the most 
 liberal opinions, or returned by the largest constituencies 
 of England." O'Connell gained a little support from the 
 few English members who thought that the Government 
 were inclined to deal too harshly with Ireland, but his 
 amendment to the Address was defeated by the enormous 
 majority of 428 to 40 votes. 
 
 Irish questions occupied a considerable space in the 
 legislation of 1833. Peel supported the measure of 
 Lord Althorp for the suppression of ten bishoprics, and 
 other reforms in the Irish Church; but he detected in 
 the Cabinet a difference of opinion on a matter which 
 was destined to be the subject of future debate, namely, 
 whether Church property might be devoted to secular 
 uses, or whether it must be wholly applied to ecclesias- 
 tical purposes. The condition of Ireland at this time was 
 such that the Government were obliged to introduce a 
 Coercion Bill, empowering the Lord Lieutenant to pro- 
 hibit public meetings of a dangerous tendency, suspending 
 the writ of Habeas Corpus, authorising domiciliary visits 
 
VII.] PEEL IN OPPOSITION. 105 
 
 by magistrates, and other methods of repression. Nine 
 thousand crimes, arising from the insurrectionary condi- 
 tion of the country, had been committed in the year 1832, 
 of which two hundred and forty-two were homicides. The 
 debate on the first reading of the Bill in the Commons 
 was signalised by a smart rhetorical duel between Mr. 
 Stanley and Mr. O'Connell. Peel supported the demand 
 for legislation. He had heard from two Ministers of the 
 Crown, he said, a detail of atrocities, the recital of which 
 made the blood run cold. There was an admission on 
 all sides that the condition of society in many parts of 
 Ireland was most alarming — that the worst crimes had 
 been committed with impunity. Citing statistics in con- 
 nection with the subject, the right hon. gentleman added 
 that the crimes were aggravated by circumstances of 
 needless cruelty and barbarity, such as would not have 
 been perpetrated by the savages of New Zealand. The 
 Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare had observed that 
 "murders, blasphemies, perjuries, rash swearing, rob- 
 beries, assaults on person and property, the usurpation 
 of the powers of the State and of the rights of the 
 peaceable and well-disposed, are multiplied and every- 
 day perpetrated, at the instigation of the devil, by 
 the wicked and deluded men engaged in these con- 
 federacies." After a severe thrust at O'Connell for 
 exciting the passions of the populace for his personal 
 ends, Sir Robert Peel thus concluded a long and fervid 
 appeal to the members of the House : " Range your- 
 selves on the side of order; lend the weight of your 
 authority to the law ; and from that hour you will instil 
 confidence into the peaceable and well-disposed, and 
 strike terror into the coward hearts (for they are cowards) 
 of nightly assassins. Then will men breathe a new 
 
106 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 atmosphere; then will the position of the friends of 
 order and its enemies be reversed ; and those who suffer 
 will come forth with voluntary testimony to aid the law 
 which gives them redress for past injury and protects 
 them from renewed wrong. But if you shrink from your 
 duty, if you pause for a fortnight, if you cover your 
 irresolution under the flimsy veil of requiring further 
 time to consider, then take these consequences : the 
 contagion of depravity will extend ; the places yet healthy 
 will be infected; the whole land will become a moral 
 wilderness, in which every principle of government will 
 be subverted and every rule of justice reversed ; in 
 which there will be no punishment except for innocence, 
 and no security except for triumphant guilt." 
 
 The first reading of the Coercion Bill was carried by 
 466 votes to 89. The Whigs, though cordially disliking 
 this measure, and aware that in some respects it would 
 do them harm, were obliged to pilot it through Parlia- 
 ment in consequence of the condition of Ireland. Mean- 
 time Peel continued to grow in favour as a party leader 
 through such means as his masterly demolition of the 
 principles of Mr. Attwood, who proposed a return to the 
 paper and small- note currency, and his vigorous speech 
 against the Ballot. " I object to the Ballot," he said, 
 "because it would make the House more democratic 
 than it is already, and I think it democratic enough. I 
 say so openly, I do not wish to conceal that I think the 
 House of Commons as democratic as is consistent with 
 the principles of the constitution and with the main- 
 tenance of the just authority and undoubted privileges of 
 the other branches of the Legislature." Replying to the 
 argument that the Ballot would destroy the influence of 
 property, he affirmed that if the influence of property in 
 
vii.] PEEL IN OPPOSITION. 107 
 
 elections were destroyed, the security of all property and 
 the stability of all government would be destroyed with 
 it. In the course of the same speech he made the signi- 
 ficant admission that there were arguments in favour of 
 extending the franchise to women to which it would not 
 be easy to find any logical answer. Mr. Grote's motion 
 for the adoption of the Ballot was lost by 211 to 106, the 
 division list showing a considerable disagreement in 
 opinion upon this subject between the various sections of 
 the Liberal party. 
 
 The Charter of the Bank of England was renewed in 
 the year 1833, and with it the exclusive privileges of the 
 Bank were continued, so that it should remain the prin- 
 cipal and governing monetary association of the empire. 
 The paper of the Bank of England was also made a legal 
 tender for all sums above ^5, except by the Bank itself 
 or its branches j and it was further enacted that bills of 
 exchange drawn at a certain limited date should be 
 exempt from the usury laws — a provision which at periods 
 of crisis worked great commercial evil. Sir Robert Peel 
 opposed the proposal of the Government as giving an 
 appearance of inconvertibility to paper. He predicted 
 that people would never place confidence in Bank paper 
 merely because an Act of Parliament called upon them 
 to do so. While Peel was right in his consistent opposi- 
 tion to the creation of fictitious credit, experience has 
 shown that he was wrong in the extreme view he took 
 upon the question of Bank paper. 
 
 There were some other topics of an important nature on 
 which Peel addressed the House during this session. The 
 sufferings of the Poles excited a good deal of commisera- 
 tion in this country, but when the matter was brought 
 before the notice of the House of Commons, Peel showed 
 
108 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 that the House could not interfere, unless it were prepared 
 to follow up its protest by a declaration of war against 
 Russia. At the same time he was not indifferent to the 
 wrongs and sufferings of a gallant people, and he fully 
 shared in those feelings of indignation which, if the 
 conduct of Russia had been truly described, would be 
 unanimous throughout the House and the country. A 
 proposition having been made to abolish entirely the 
 system of patronage in the Church of Scotland, and to 
 vest the appointment of pastors in the congregations, 
 Peel opposed it on the ground that popular election 
 would diminish the independence of the minister. He 
 also pointed out other objections to the principle pro- 
 posed, but stated that he was ready with the House to 
 apply himself to the removal of any real abuses in the 
 Church of Scotland. 
 
 The memorable session of 1833 closed on the 29th of 
 August, the King proroguing Parliament in person. 
 Besides the legislation indicated, important statutes were 
 passed concerning the East India Company and the 
 Government of India j but by far the most important 
 act of the session was that for the abolition of colonial 
 slavery. The sum of twenty millions sterling was voted 
 as compensation to the West India proprietors, and the 
 objects for which Wilberforce and other philan- 
 thropists had long laboured were at length successfully 
 achieved. 
 
 But the fates seemed to be against the Whig Ministry, 
 notwithstanding the beneficent legislation of 1833. It 
 had been already weakened by the secession of Lord 
 Durham, and the prospects of the session of 1834 could 
 not be viewed with complacency. "It thus happened that 
 moderate men of all parties, including some of the most 
 
vii.] PEEL IN OPPOSITION. 109 
 
 active reformers themselves, began to look to Peel as the 
 Minister most likely to conduct the affairs of the country, 
 without truckling to O'Connell in Ireland and the more 
 violent Dissenters and Radicals in England on the one 
 hand, and without reviving Orangeism and Toryism on 
 the other. Peel, almost without exertion, found himself 
 at the head of the Conservatives, while the Whigs, much 
 to their surprise and annoyance, found themselves by the 
 force of unfortunate circumstances ranged in the category 
 of destructives. The whole course and direction of the 
 session of 1834 strongly tended to increase and confirm 
 this view of parties throughout the country ; it was a 
 session of strange revolutions and of still stranger poli- 
 tical combinations." Making allowance for political 
 sentiment, this is a succinct view of the positron. 
 
 The session opened with an episode between Mr. Sheil, 
 Lord Althorp, and O'Connell, in consequence of a charge 
 of double-dealing towards Ireland made against the first- 
 named member. Peel defended Sheil, who was after- 
 wards completely exonerated by the report of a com- 
 mittee appointed to investigate the charge. This incident 
 added to the discredit of the Ministry ; but graver 
 difficulties were impending. O'Connell brought forward 
 the Repeal question by moving for a select committee to 
 inquire into the means by which the union had been 
 carried, and the effect of the measure upon Ireland. The 
 Irish orator spoke for six hours, though the task was 
 somewhat irksome to him, his ardour for Repeal having 
 considerably cooled. The most spirited and eloquent 
 speech during the debate was delivered by Peel. After 
 showing the advantages accruing from the union, and 
 adducing arguments why it should not be dissolved, he 
 said that the question whether the union ought to have 
 
no SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 taken place was perfectly distinct from the question 
 whether, having taken place, it ought to be dissolved. 
 Measures had been enacted, Catholic Emancipation, Par- 
 liamentary Reform, and so on, constituting changes in the 
 state of society in Ireland, which would probably never 
 have been contemplated, certainly not safely adopted, 
 had Ireland retained her separate legislature. " These 
 changes oppose new obstacles, in addition to all to which 
 I have before referred, to the measure of Repeal. They 
 will aggravate every danger with which the system of 
 government that existed prior to the union was pregnant. 
 They will destroy every check upon the influence of 
 numbers and physical strength, as opposed to the influ- 
 ence of property and station and character. Beware 
 how you act in the presumptuous confidence that you 
 can restore by artificial devices the equilibrium that has 
 been thus disturbed, that you can launch a new planet 
 into the social system, can set bounds to its librations, 
 can so adjust the antagonistic forces which are to deter- 
 mine its orbit, that it shall neither be drawn back into 
 violent contact with the mass from which it has been 
 severed, nor flame through the void of space a lawless 
 and eccentric meteor. To do this is far beyond the 
 grasp of your limited faculties — far beyond any intelli- 
 gence, save that of the Almighty and Omniscient power 
 which divided the light from the darkness, and ordained 
 the laws that regulate in magnificent harmony the move- 
 ments of countless worlds.'' In the end the motion was 
 negatived by 523 votes to 38, and both Houses of Par- 
 liament adopted an address of loyalty to the King, pledg- 
 ing themselves to maintain unimpaired and undisturbed 
 the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland. 
 A prognostication of Peel's with reference to diver- 
 
vii.] PEEL IN OPPOSITION. in 
 
 gences of opinion in the Cabinet was now to be verified. 
 Mr. Ward brought forward a motion for appropriating 
 the surplus revenues of the Church of Ireland for the 
 purposes of government. By way of meeting this motion 
 it was suggested that a commission should be issued to 
 examine into the relations between the Protestant estab- 
 lishment in Ireland and the spiritual wants of the Protest- 
 ant population. The appropriation of Church property 
 to secular uses was repugnant to four members of the 
 Cabinet — Mr. Stanley, Sir James Graham, the Duke of 
 Richmond, and the Earl of Ripon — who accordingly 
 resigned their offices. Their places were supplied, if not 
 adequately filled, by the Marquis of Conyngham, the 
 Earl of Carlisle, Lord Auckland, and Mr. Spring Rice. 
 The royal commission was carried, but it failed to 
 conciliate the enemies of the Establishment, while it 
 still further alienated its most attached friends from the 
 Ministry. 
 
 A serious rupture in the Government upon another 
 question speedily followed. It appeared that in the com- 
 munications which at various times had been made by 
 Ministers to Mr. O'Connell on Irish affairs, the great 
 agitator had been confidentially informed that when the 
 Irish Coercion Bill was renewed the clauses prohibitory 
 of meetings would not be pressed ; but the obnoxious 
 clauses appeared in the Bill notwithstanding, and O'Con- 
 nell charged the Irish Secretary with having practised 
 deception on him. He also declared that the obligation 
 of secrecy under which the communication had been 
 made was now dissolved. Unable to carry the Coercion 
 Bill through the Commons with the clauses against 
 public meetings, Lord Althorp resigned office, a step 
 which was followed immediately by the resignation of 
 
ii2 SIR ROBERT PEEL. • [chap. 
 
 the Premier, Earl Grey. Lord Melbourne now took 
 office as Prime Minister, and Lord Althorp and his col- 
 leagues agreed to serve under him. 
 
 A new Coercion Bill, divested of the objectionable 
 clauses, was passed. Ministers were in some diffi- 
 culty how to meet the Bill introduced by Mr. G. W. 
 Wood for the purpose of opening the universities to 
 Dissenters. They were anxious to conciliate the Dis- 
 senters, and yet the Bill was most distasteful to the 
 bishops and the clergy. Sir Robert Peel opposed it, 
 alleging that when the disabilities of Roman Catholics 
 and Dissenters had been removed, there had never been 
 a hint that the State should be precluded from maintain- 
 ing an established religion. If this Bill were allowed to 
 become law — if they discountenanced the universities as 
 schools of religious instruction — if they entitled Dissenters 
 to enforce their claims by means of a mandamus from a 
 court of law — and if they put an end to the connection 
 at present subsisting between the Church and the univer- 
 sities — they would be doing an act of infinite prejudice 
 to the established religion of the country, without, in his 
 opinion, achieving any material or substantial benefit for 
 the Dissenters. The Bill passed the Commons, but was 
 eventually rejected in the Lords. 
 
 Parliament was prorogued on the 15th of August. An 
 enormous number of Acts had been proposed during the 
 session, but only two were of the first importance, viz. 
 the Central Criminal Court Act and the Poor Law 
 Amendment Act. In the following autumn there was 
 great discontent amongst the working classes. Strikes 
 frequently occurred, though ultimately the popular agita- 
 tion was allayed. 
 
 In November the Melbourne Administration came to 
 
vii.] PEEL IN OPPOSITION. 113 
 
 an end. Yet so little had any political event of im- 
 portance been anticipated that Sir Robert Peel had 
 gone abroad. Lord Althorp, having succeeded his father 
 as Earl Spencer, took his seat in the Upper House, the 
 Government thus being left without a Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer. On the 14th Lord Melbourne accordingly- 
 waited upon the King at Brighton to take his commands 
 respecting Lord Althorp's successor. His Majesty sur- 
 prised the Premier by objecting to the reconstruction of 
 the Cabinet, and finally intimated that he had resolved 
 upon committing the task of Government to other hands. 
 The King further made Lord Melbourne the bearer of a 
 letter to the Duke of Wellington, inviting his Grace to 
 form a new Cabinet. The Duke waited upon his Majesty 
 on the 1 6th, but, either feeling that he could not hope to 
 conduct the King's Government successfully at this 
 crisis, or sinking his own claims on behalf of his late 
 colleague, he advised that Sir Robert Peel should be 
 sent for. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 peel's first administration. 
 
 '""TRAVELLING in Italy at the time the King's 
 messenger reached him, Peel received with 
 genuine surprise the offer of the highest post in 
 the Government. Hastening from Rome, he arrived 
 in London on the 9th of December, and had an inter- 
 view with his Majesty. He accepted the position of 
 Premier — which the Duke of Wellington had pro- 
 visionally filled — though with considerable mistrust of 
 the feelings of the country, an4 extreme doubt of his 
 chances of success. His invitation to Lord Stanley 
 and Sir James Graham to join the new Administration 
 was unsuccessful, and he was obliged to fall back upon 
 the old opponents of progressive measures. The new 
 Premier immediately issued his address to the electors 
 of Tamworth, an address which now ranks among the 
 few great State papers issued on similar occasions. He 
 assured the electors that the course he had adopted in 
 accepting office had not been taken without deep and 
 anxious consideration. He would not, however, accept 
 power on the condition of declaring himself an apostate 
 from the principles on which he had heretofore acted. 
 At the same time he had never been, either before or 
 
chap, viii.] PEEL'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 115 
 
 after the Reform Bill, the defender of abuses or the 
 enemy of judicious reforms. In proof of this, he 
 appealed with confidence to his currency and criminal 
 law reforms. Then followed these important passages 
 on the subject of Reform : " With respect to the 
 Reform Bill, I will repeat now the declaration which I 
 made when I entered the House of Commons as a 
 member of the Reformed Parliament— that I consider 
 the Reform Bill a final and irrevocable settlement of a 
 great constitutional question, a settlement which no 
 friend to the peace and welfare of this country would 
 attempt to disturb, either by direct or by insidious means. 
 Then, as to the spirit of the Reform Bill, and the willing- 
 ness to adopt and enforce it as a rule of government : if, 
 by adopting the spirit of the Reform Bill it be meant 
 that we are to live in a perpetual vortex of agitation ; 
 that public men can only support themselves in public 
 estimation by adopting every popular impression of the 
 day — by promising the instant redress of anything which 
 anybody may call an abuse — by abandoning altogether 
 that great aid of government, more powerful than law or 
 reason, the respect for ancient rights and the deference 
 to prescriptive authority — if this be the spirit of the 
 Reform Bill, I will not undertake to adopt it. But if 
 the spirit of the Reform Bill implies merely a careful 
 review of institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, undertaken 
 in a friendly temper, combining, with a firm maintenance 
 of established rights, the correction of proved abuses and 
 the redress of real grievances — in that case I can, for 
 myself and colleagues, undertake to act in such a spirit 
 and with such intentions." 
 
 Parliament was dissolved on the 30th of December,, 
 and a political struggle of some bitterness ensued 
 
n6 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 throughout the country. Peel was unjustly credited in 
 certain quarters with an intention to return to the old 
 ideas of Protestant ascendancy ; but, notwithstanding 
 this, the Tories increased their numbers at the poll by 
 about one hundred members, exclusive of the Stanley, 
 or "Derby-dilly," party. This did not secure a majority 
 for the Premier, though his followers were much more 
 compact and numerous than in the previous session, 
 when the Conservatives were never able to collect upon 
 any one occasion a larger number than 174. 
 
 Parliament met on the 10th of February, and Peel now 
 began a gallant struggle against a formidable Opposition, 
 a struggle in which he displayed the utmost command of 
 temper, almost unbounded sources of information, and a 
 vigorous and comprehensive grasp of affairs. No party 
 leader ever showed in a more favourable light than did 
 the Premier in the early part of the session of 1835, or 
 one which won for him more genuine admiration. Not- 
 withstanding a ministerial defeat on the election of 
 Speaker — Mr. Abercromby, the Whig candidate, being 
 substituted for Mr. Manners Sutton — Peel brought for- 
 ward his leading measures with the utmost dispatch, and 
 conducted them with signal ability. Beaten on the 
 Address by a majority of nine only in a House composed 
 of 611 members, the Premier declared that he did not 
 think the majority against him sufficient to warrant him 
 in retiring before submitting his measures. A misunder- 
 standing having arisen between Sir Robert Peel and Mr. 
 Hume, the former wrote a letter to his antagonist which 
 bore, or was said to bear, somewhat the aspect of a 
 challenge. Mr. Hume returned a satisfactory response, 
 but the Premier's letter was brought under the notice of 
 the House by Mr. Roebuck, who proposed to make it a 
 
viil] PEEL'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. n? 
 
 breach of privilege. This was resented on all sides, and 
 the motion was withdrawn. Mr. Attwood, the member 
 for Birmingham, reminded the Premier that the latter 
 had once brought in a very good Bill, which passed into 
 law, rendering it a capital felony for one gentleman to 
 pull a trigger against another, or strike a man with a 
 blunt instrument to do him bodily harm. He hoped the 
 right hon. gentleman would not forget his own child. 
 This adjuration drew from Peel the witty and memorable 
 retort, received with great laughter and cheering, " The 
 hon. member is himself guilty under the same Act* 
 because he certainly has inflicted pain on me with a 
 blunt instrument." 
 
 The spirit in which Peel assumed the reins of Govern- 
 ment will be apparent from this declaration of his policy > 
 made in the early days of the session : "I call upon you 
 not to condemn before you have heard, to receive at 
 least the measures I shall propose, to amend them if 
 they are defective, to extend them if they fall short of 
 your expectations; but at least give me an opportu- 
 nity of presenting them, that you yourselves may con- 
 sider and dispose of them. I make great offers, which 
 should not be lightly rejected. I offer you the prospect 
 of continued peace, the restored confidence of powerful 
 states that are willing to seize the opportunity of 
 reducing great armies, and thus diminishing the chances 
 of hostile collision. I offer you reduced estimates, im- 
 provements in civil jurisprudence, reform of ecclesias- 
 tical law, the settlement of the Tithe question in Ireland, 
 the removal of any real abuse in the Church, the com- 
 mutation of the tithe in England, the redress of those 
 grievances of which the Dissenters have any just ground 
 to complain. I offer you those specific measures, and I 
 
n8 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 offer also to advance, soberly and cautiously, it is true, 
 in the path of progressive improvement. I offer also the 
 best chance that these things can be effected in willing 
 concert with the other authorities of the State, thus 
 restoring harmony, ensuring the maintenance, but not 
 excluding the reform (where reform is really requisite), of 
 ancient institutions." 
 
 The ministerial plan for the relief of Dissenters in rela- 
 tion to the celebration of marriage was generally approved 
 by the country, and a plan was also proposed for the 
 adjustment of tithe in Ireland. But these measures were 
 insufficient to appease the Whigs. . Ireland was still de- 
 stined to be the rock ahead. On the 30th of March Lord 
 John Russell brought forward his motion, " That the 
 House do resolve itself into a committee of the whole 
 House to consider of the temporalities of the Church of 
 Ireland." His lordship confessed that to his mind Peel 
 and his colleagues had no ground to stand upon, and 
 he could not see how they would keep themselves out 
 of that great Serbonian bog to which Mr. Burke had 
 
 alluded — 
 
 " The great Serbonian bog 
 Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 
 Where armies whole have sunk." 
 
 On the one hand they might stand on the notion of 
 private property and maintain the ecclesiastical revenues 
 intact and inviolate to their original destination ; or, on the 
 other hand, admitting the right of Parliament to interfere, 
 hold that for the benefit of subjects of the realm, for their 
 religious instruction, for the well-being and harmony of 
 society and the State, it might so interfere. But there 
 was no resting place between the two propositions. 
 
 The debate on Lord John Russell's resolution was very 
 
viii.] PEEL'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 119 
 
 protracted. Several eminent Whigs spoke and voted 
 with the Ministerialists upon this question. Sir Robert 
 Peel, in closing the debate, admitted that the resolution 
 might probably enable his opponents to embarrass the 
 future progress of the Administration. But in the moment 
 of their pride he warned them that, though triumphant in 
 the House, the power they exercised did not act without 
 those walls with that intensity with which it operated 
 within. "The duty I have voluntarily assumed," he 
 continued, "compels me to place before a triumphant 
 conqueror the vanity of human wishes and the instability 
 of mutual triumphs, but yet I must not shrink from it ; 
 and I tell you that notwithstanding your vaunted majori- 
 ties, you do not control public opinion. That public 
 opinion will enforce on you the necessity of taking a 
 direct and open course. The people of England will 
 not sanction attempts to throw unfair obstacles in the 
 way of the Executive Government. They would sanction 
 a direct vote of want of confidence, so far at least as to 
 consider it a legitimate and constitutional act of hostility. 
 Why have you not the manliness to propose it? Why 
 do you implore me to undertake the settlement of this 
 question upon your principles? You are confident in 
 your strength : let me ask you are you competent to 
 undertake the Government? If you can, undertake it. 
 If you are not, why do you embarrass us ? I will not 
 enforce your resolution. I give you notice of the course 
 that I mean to pursue. I shall oppose your motion 
 for a committee; I shall oppose your resolution in 
 committee ; and above all things, and most strenuously, 
 I shall oppose your communication of that resolution to 
 his Majesty." The Premier announced that he should 
 adhere to the principles of his own tithe measure, and if 
 
120 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 he found that he could not proceed to an immediate 
 settlement of the question, he would acknowledge that 
 the time had arrived when he could no longer continue 
 to hold office. 
 
 Lord John Russell's motion was carried by a majority 
 of ^3 — there being for the appropriation of the surplus 
 revenues of the Irish Church to secular uses, 322 ; and 
 for the retention and application of those revenues to 
 strictly ecclesiastical purposes, 289. The initial engage- 
 ment in the campaign having been won, Lord John next 
 proposed that any surplus of the revenues of the Church 
 of Ireland not required for the spiritual care of its 
 members, should be applied to the general education of all 
 classes of the people without religious distinction. This 
 second proposition was carried by 262 to 237. A third 
 motion was then brought forward as follows : " That it is 
 the opinion of this House that no measure upon the 
 subject of tithes in Ireland can lead to a satisfaactory 
 and final adjustment which does not embody the prin- 
 ciple contained in the foregoing resolution." This was 
 carried by 285 votes against 258. 
 
 This series of defeats upon a question on which the 
 Ministry were pledged to a policy of resistance neces- 
 sarily led to the resignation of the Government. It was 
 not a matter that could be postponed or shelved, and 
 there was but one course for Peel and his colleagues to 
 adopt. They accordingly resigned their offices, and in 
 announcing this in the House of Commons on the 8th 
 of April, the Prime Minister briefly recapitulated the 
 circumstances which led to the step. It was one, he 
 said, which the Government had taken with the utmost 
 reluctance, seeing that they were in possession of the 
 entire confidence of the King j but they had deemed it 
 
viii.] PEEL'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 121 
 
 a part of their public duty not to persevere in a useless 
 struggle, which might involve his Majesty and political 
 parties in the country in additional and unnecessary 
 difficulty. The vote of the previous night, in addition 
 to being a vote of want of confidence, opposed such diffi- 
 culties in the way of the practical administration of affairs 
 in Ireland, that it made it next to impossible for them to 
 undertake the execution of the law in that country. 
 The hostile vote of the House was tantamount to a 
 declaration that the Government would be obstructed in 
 the progress of the Tithes Bill ; and being firmly resolved 
 to adhere to the principle of that measure, they respect- 
 fully requested his Majesty to permit them to retire. 
 "The whole of my political life," said the right hon. 
 baronet, " has been spent in the House of Commons ; 
 the remainder of it will be spent here; and whatever 
 may be the conflicts of parties, I for one shall always be 
 anxious to stand well with the House, whether I be in a 
 majority or in a minority. I do not hesitate to declare 
 that, under no circumstances, under the pressure of no 
 difficulties, would I ever have advised the Crown to 
 resign that great source of moral strength which consists 
 in a strict adherence to the practice, to the principles, to 
 the letter, and to the spirit of the constitution of this 
 country. I am confident that that adherence will be the 
 surest method of warding off eventful dangers. It is 
 because I believe, in conformity with that constitution, a 
 Government ought not to persist in carrying on public 
 affairs after a fair trial against the decided opinion of a 
 majority of the House of Commons — it is because I have 
 that conviction deeply rooted in my mind that I have 
 relinquished my post ; although I do sincerely regret the 
 necessity which has compelled me to abandon the King's 
 
122 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 service at the present moment." This reluctance to quit 
 the helm of public affairs is explainable on two grounds : 
 first, the condition of the Whig party, composed as it 
 was of heterogeneous and discordant elements ; and 
 secondly, the desire of Peel to signalise his Administra- 
 tion by the passing of useful and practical legislative 
 measures. 
 
 These hopes were frustrated, however, and the Minis- 
 try came to an end. Yet although Peel was in a 
 minority, it was admitted on all hands that he left office 
 stronger than when he entered upon it. He had welded 
 the Tory party together, so that it was now a formidable 
 and compact whole. The Premier's farewell speech 
 extracted admiration from his opponents, and Lord John 
 Russell declared that the retiring Minister had acted 
 with the most honourable fidelity to the spirit of the con- 
 stitution. " Peel's whole heart was in the public service," 
 as a writer holding opposite political principles to his own 
 has observed. " He seemed actually to love toil. He 
 was indefatigable and most conscientious in the perform- 
 ance of his official duties. The veriest drudge of office 
 was not more constant at his desk. The most plodding 
 committeeman could not rival him in the persevering 
 regularity of his attendance in the House of Commons. 
 During his short but most memorable Ministry of 1835, 
 he went through an amount of labour that was almost 
 incredible. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer as 
 well as First Lord of the Treasury. He had scarcely a 
 single colleague competent to afford him efficient aid. 
 He had to struggle against a hostile House of Commons 
 and a mistrusting country. The fight was not of his 
 choosing, and he knew from the first that it was a hope- 
 less one. But he contended gallantly to the last, toiling 
 
viii.] PEEL'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 123 
 
 incessantly from seven o'clock in the morning till long 
 past midnight, and when at last he resigned he had risen 
 fifty per cent, in public estimation." 
 
 Continued perseverance in the attempt to govern by a 
 minority — as Peel expressed the matter in a communica- 
 tion to the King a few days before his resignation — 
 would naturally render it difficult for an Administration, 
 however composed, to recover due control over the House 
 of Commons. Moreover, the House of Commons, 
 having been habituated to the exercise of functions not 
 properly belonging to them, would be unwilling to re- 
 linquish it ; and thus the Royal prerogatives and Royal 
 authority must inevitably suffer from continued mani- 
 festation of weakness on the part of the executive Govern- 
 ment. Instances might arise — indeed such cases are 
 upon record — where a Ministry would be justified in 
 retaining office after an adverse vote of the House of 
 Commons ; but the relations between Peel and a ma- 
 jority of the House in the session of 1835 prevented his 
 Ministry of that period from coming within that cate- 
 gory. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 
 
 T^ARL GREY having declined to take office, Lord 
 -^ Melbourne again became Premier. Lord John 
 Russell was appointed Home Secretary j Lord Palmer- 
 ston, Foreign Secretary; the Right Hon. Spring Rice, 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and the Marquis of Lans- 
 downe, President of the Council \ the remainder of the 
 offices being filled as in the previous Liberal Ministry. 
 The new Government possessed only a small majority in 
 the House of Commons, and its difficulties began with 
 the resumption of office. Lord John Russell having 
 announced that he and his colleagues would be obliged 
 to postpone until another session the introduction of the 
 expected measure on Church-rates, Sir Robert Peel re- 
 viewed the history of the controversy, affirming that it 
 was a practical question, and one that required immedi- 
 ate settlement. He maintained that the noble lord was 
 under a peculiar obligation to advance the settlement of 
 the question. If the late Government had turned their 
 attention to the question of a commutation of tithes and 
 of Church-rates, they might have been prepared to have 
 brought forward measures this session. To make an- 
 nouncements of principles without being prepared to act 
 
chap. ix.J DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 125 
 
 upon them only tended to increase the dissatisfaction of 
 the people. An executive Government fit to be entrusted 
 with the administration of the affairs of this great country 
 must feel that this question of Church-rates ought not to 
 be left to the discussion of parish vestries, or to be 
 made the subject of resistance by parochial martyrs for 
 another year. Nothing, however, was done in the 
 question. 
 
 Peel was again called upon to defend his currency 
 measures, which he did with vigour and effect. Mr. 
 Cayley having brought forward a motion for the adop- 
 tion of a double standard, the Conservative leader justi- 
 fied his policy of 1819, which had been endorsed on 
 several occasions since by the House. Believing that 
 the agriculturists had no real interest in the proposition 
 apart from a depreciation of the currency, and thereby 
 robbing the public creditor, and feeling it to be incon- 
 sistent with the honour and integrity of the House of 
 Commons to lend itself to any measure which would have 
 that result, he would not permit the pretext of a vague 
 inquiry into agricultural distress to blind him as to the 
 real objects of the proposition, which was neither more 
 nor less than through a depreciation of the standard to 
 seek a relief which would not, he believed, be effectual j 
 and which, if effectual, would, he was confident, be dis- 
 honest. 
 
 During the session of 1835, however, one memorable 
 measure was passed. This was the Municipal Reform 
 Act, its principal feature being that it vested the local 
 government of a town in the rated and permanently 
 resident inhabitants. In the council were vested the 
 entire deliberative functions of the Corporation. They 
 appointed the town clerk anjd treasurer, and from them 
 
T26 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap 
 
 the mayor and aldermen were chosen. The English 
 Municipal Corporations Bill almost led to a rupture be- 
 tween the Lords and Commons. The Commons re- 
 jected the Lords' amendments, and it was hinted that 
 the supplies would be cut off. Affairs became so grave 
 that Sir Robert Peel, who had left London before the 
 close of the session, returned for the purpose of lending 
 his assistance in reconciling the differences between the 
 two Houses. These differences were at last adjusted by 
 mutual concessions, and the Bill for municipal reform — 
 the corollary to the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 — 
 passed into law. 
 
 The Bill for Irish Municipal Reform met with a 
 different fate. Peel strongly opposed it, being afraid 
 that the establishment of the Irish corporations on a 
 popular basis would put into the hands of O'Connell 
 the same power over the elections of municipal officers 
 as he already wielded in connection with Parliamentary 
 elections. This conclusion was somewhat hastily arrived 
 at, and it had the unfortunate effect of rousing into 
 activity national and religious jealousies which were fall- 
 ing into abeyance. In explaining why the Opposition 
 refused any form of municipal government to the Irish y 
 Peel said that in towns having their corporations and 
 their corporate justices independent of the control of the 
 Crown, fresh causes of division and discontent would be 
 consequent on the frequent elections which the Bill 
 would render necessary. " Do you believe . that this 
 Bill," he asked, " will assuage existing animosities ? Do 
 you believe that it will conduce to the administration of 
 equal laws, to introduce this system of annual elections 
 in one hundred and twenty towns in Ireland, placing too 
 the police in the hands of the dominant party ? Are they, 
 
ix.] DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 127 
 
 too, to have the appointment of the officers by whom the 
 grand and petit jurors are selected? Whichever is the 
 party that prevails, you should not permit it to inflict 
 injustice." The speaker quoted O'Connell to show that 
 the town councils would be converted into normal 
 schools for teaching the science of political agitation. 
 He demanded that they should not make the graduates 
 in those schools and the professors in the science of 
 agitation the chosen instruments to wield the civil force 
 of the State and to dispense public justice. The Con- 
 servatives allowed the second reading of the Bill to. pass, 
 but on the motion for going into Committee they at- 
 tempted a trial of strength, but were beaten by a majority 
 of 64. In the Lords the measure was so transformed 
 that the Commons could not accept it, and ultimately the 
 Bill was abandoned. The loss of the measure left a 
 strong feeling of bitterness in the minds of the Irish 
 people against the Conservative party. 
 
 Having been put in nomination for the Lord Rector- 
 ship of Glasgow University, in opposition to Sir John 
 Campbell, Peel was elected by a large majority. When 
 the new Lord Rector was installed, a grand banquet was 
 given at Glasgow in his honour by his political friends and 
 admirers. In an extremely able and liberal speech, Peel 
 made this remarkable admission : " I see the necessity 
 of widening the foundations on which the defence of our 
 constitution and of our religious establishments must 
 rest." He agreed with the Reformers that the machine 
 of government should not be allowed to stand still, 
 though he would not sanction constant intermeddling 
 with the essential functions of the machinery. He then 
 went on to declare that he meant to support the national 
 establishments which connected Protestantism with the 
 
128 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 State in the three countries, as well as the House of 
 Lords in its full integrity. 
 
 The death of William IV. on the 20th of June, 1837, 
 and the accession of Queen Victoria, necessitated a 
 general election. The Ministry gained strength in Ire- 
 land and Scotland ; but in England there was scarcely 
 an appreciable difference in the number of their sup- 
 porters, while in many of the counties they sustained 
 serious defeats. No great question was grappled with 
 in the first session of the new Parliament ; but a Civil 
 List Bill was passed, providing a total sum of ^"385,000 
 annually for the use of the Sovereign. 
 
 Evidence of the power and solidity of the Conservative 
 party was afforded in the month of May by a public 
 dinner given to Sir Robert Peel at Merchant Taylors' 
 Hall. Three hundred Conservative members attended, 
 being more than double the strength which the party 
 could command shortly after the passing of the Reform 
 Bill of 1832. An alliance had, moreover, been formed 
 between Peel and Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham. 
 With this accession of strength the Conservative leaders 
 were confirmed in their hostility to the Whigs. Sir 
 Robert Peel made at this banquet a full exposition of 
 his policy, in probably the most important extra-Parlia- 
 mentary speech he ever delivered. He stated that his 
 object had been for some years past to lay the founda- 
 tions of a great party, which, existing in the House of 
 Commons, and deriving its strength from the popular 
 will, should diminish the risk and deaden the shock of 
 collisions between the two deliberative branches of the 
 Legislature. He alluded to the accession of Lord Stanley 
 and Sir James Graham to the Conservative party as a 
 union, not the result of conferences, not the offspring of 
 
ix.] DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 129 
 
 negotiations, but originally brought about by the force 
 of circumstances, and afterwards cemented by mutual 
 co-operation, by reciprocal confidence and respect. Re- 
 ferring to the surprise manifested in some quarters that 
 so strong an Opposition should not more frequently 
 demonstrate its power, the right hon. baronet explained 
 that their duty as Conservatives was to maintain the 
 ancient institutions of the land. "We have no desire to 
 exalt the authority of the House of Commons above the 
 prerogative of the Crown ; we have no design to under- 
 mine the privileges of the House of Lords ; on the con- 
 trary, it is our duty to defend them. The field of oppo- 
 sition occupied by those who seek to reduce and cripple 
 our establishments is denied to us, because we wish to 
 see the naval and military establishments of the country 
 maintained in proper vigour and efficiency. It is not for 
 us to inflame popular discontent by the exaggeration of 
 public abuses. Nor can we lend the Crown our arm to 
 shake or curtail the liberties of the people. And there- 
 fore, in estimating the course we have adopted, those 
 who feel some impatience with our apparent indifference 
 and passiveness, should always recollect that the prin- 
 ciples maintained by an Opposition do impose some 
 practical restraint on the conduct they must pursue." 
 
 Peel then showed that the Whig Government had been 
 obliged to rely on the aid of the Conservative party, as 
 against its own Radical allies, upon three great ques- 
 tions, viz. the proposed exclusion of the bishops from 
 the House of Lords, the repeal of the Corn Laws, and 
 the Ballot. It was by moderation, by prudence, and by 
 an undeviating adherence to their principles that the 
 Conservatives had attained to their present position. 
 He hoped they would never adopt the advice which was 
 
 K 
 
130 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 sometimes received from ardent friends and professed 
 admirers, namely, to abandon altogether their duty in 
 the House of Commons for the purpose of creating 
 embarrassment, by leaving the Government to fight out 
 the battle by themselves. " My firm belief is, that by 
 steadily performing our legislative functions, by attending 
 to our duty, by censuring Ministers, or attempting to 
 censure them when censure may be required, on all 
 occasions by enforcing our principles, by amending their 
 measures when they require amendment, though, at the 
 same time, we should rescue them from temporary 
 embarrassment, yet we shall thereby be establishing 
 new claims on the public approbation." Lord Stanley, 
 who followed Peel in an eloquent speech, said the new 
 alliance was promoted on the strongest motives which 
 could act on private feeling or influence public conduct — 
 it was founded on a sense of common danger, on the 
 conviction of a common interest. 
 
 In the spirit of these utterances public questions were 
 approached in Parliament. Minor topics were thrown 
 into the shade in the session of 1839 by two questions, 
 one of them being that of the Corn Laws. Mr. C. Pel- 
 ham Villiers, long an advocate of Free Trade, but now 
 trusted and supported by the manufacturers themselves, 
 introduced the subject in the House by moving, on the 
 19th of February, that evidence to prove the injurious 
 effects of the Corn Laws should be received at the bar of 
 the House. The motion was lost by a large majority ; 
 but Mr. Villiers, undismayed by his defeat, on the 12th 
 of March moved that the House should resolve itself into 
 a committee to consider the laws for regulating the 
 importation of corn. The debate lasted for five nights. 
 Peel delivered a lengthy speech, in the course of which 
 
ix.] DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 131 
 
 he asked what had become of the argument as to the 
 depressed condition of manufactures. If profits were so 
 unreasonably low, how did it happen that the number of 
 new factories had greatly increased within the past few 
 years, that the factory destroyed by accident was instantly 
 replaced, and that new factories were constantly erected ? 
 As to the effect of the Corn Laws on the condition of the 
 labourer, he (the speaker) had no hesitation in saying 
 that unless the existence of the Corn Law could be shown 
 to be consistent, not only with the prosperity of agricul- 
 ture and the maintenance of the landlord's interest, but 
 also with the protection and the maintenance of the 
 general interests of the country, and especially with the 
 improvement of the condition of the labouring class, 
 the Corn Law was practically at an end. By statistics 
 showing the great increase in deposits at savings banks, 
 and other arguments, he endeavoured to prove that this 
 was not so. He also replied to the contention that the 
 costs of freight and transport gave sufficient protection to 
 British farmers, and that there was no need to dread 
 competition in corn, while there was every cause for 
 alarm at the growing competition in manufactures. He 
 then went on to advocate restrictive duties as a provident 
 insurance against the dangers of famine — an argument, 
 however, which he completely reversed in 1846. He 
 argued that the more we increased our dependence on 
 foreign supply, the more did we increase, in the event of 
 severe and general pressure, the risk of a monetary de- 
 rangement. The proposal for total and immediate repeal 
 he put on one side as not sufficiently serious. On the 
 question of a fixed duty he demanded fuller and clearer 
 information from the Government. They must have 
 considered how the fixed duty was to be maintained in, 
 
132 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 the seasons of deficient supply and threatened famine ; 
 whether it was to be enforced at all hazards \ whether it 
 was to be relaxed under certain circumstances, and, if so, 
 by what authority and on what conditions it should be 
 relaxed, and, after relaxation, reimposed. He maintained 
 that it had been under the influence of protection to 
 agriculture, continued for two hundred years, that the 
 fen had been drained, the wild heath reclaimed, the 
 health of a whole people improved, their life prolonged, 
 and all this not at the expense of manufacturing pros- 
 perity, but concurrently with its wonderful advancement. 
 Turning upon the Ministry, Peel said : " If you had 
 called upon us to abandon this protection with all the 
 authority of a united Administration, with the exhibition 
 of superior sagacity and triumphant reasoning, we might 
 not have been deaf to your appeal j but when inviting us to 
 follow you, you present nothing but distracted councils, 
 conflicting colleagues, statements of facts not to be recon- 
 ciled, and arguments leading to opposite conclusions, 
 then we peremptorily refuse to surrender our judgments 
 to your guidance, and to throw the protection secured to 
 agriculture by the existing law into the lottery of legisla- 
 tion, in the faint hope that we might by chance draw the 
 prize of a better Corn Bill." When the House divided 
 there were — for going into committee, 195 ; against, 342 jj 
 majority in support of the Corn Laws, 147. But this 
 division did not cause the opponents of the Corn Laws 
 to slacken their efforts. 
 
 The second question which arose resulted in the tem- 
 porary resignation of Ministers. On the 9th of April a 
 Bill was brought in, on the motion of Mr. Labouchere, 
 to suspend the executive constitution of Jamaica, and 
 to make provision for its temporary government. In 
 
ix.] DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 133 
 
 consequence of a dispute between the Governor of that 
 island and the Legislative Assembly, no public business 
 could be proceeded with ; and it was proposed by this 
 Bill to vest the government in the Governor and a 
 council only, to be continued for five years. Early in 
 May, when the order of the day for going into committee 
 on the Jamaica Bill was moved, it was opposed by Sir 
 Robert Peel in an elaborate speech. He exposed the 
 arbitrary provisions of the Bill, the enormous power it 
 would confer on the Governor and commissioners, and 
 the impossibility of imposing an effectual check on the 
 abuse of power exercised at a distance of three thousand 
 miles. In supporting this view Peel alluded to the mode 
 of treating refractory colonies formerly suggested by Mr. 
 Canning, who declared that " nothing short of absolute 
 and demonstrable necessity should induce him to moot 
 the awful question of the transcendental power of Parlia- 
 ment over every dependency of the British Crown ; for 
 that transcendental power has an arcanum of empire 
 which ought to be kept back within the penetralia of the 
 Constitution." On a division being taken there appeared— 
 for going into committee, 294 ; against, 289 ; the majority 
 for Ministers being thus only five. Ten Liberals voted 
 with the Conservatives, and five Conservatives with the 
 Ministry. The next day Lord John Russell and Lord 
 Melbourne stated that with so narrow a majority Minis- 
 ters were unable to conduct the public service with 
 advantage, and had accordingly tendered their resigna- 
 tions. 
 
 Peel was now sent for, and entrusted with the task of 
 government. That which followed has been well epito- 
 mized by M. Guizot. Peel accepted the burden laid upon 
 him, but feeling uneasy at the personal hold which Lord 
 
134 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 Melbourne had obtained over the Queen, he considered 
 it necessary for the Conservatives, on assuming the reins 
 of Government, also to prove that they possessed the 
 entire confidence of the Sovereign. He accordingly 
 requested that the principal office's in the royal house- 
 hold, including the appointment of ladies of the bed- 
 chamber, might be placed at his disposal — an idea which 
 it is said originated with the Duke of Wellington. The 
 Queen, who was herself wounded by the demand, was 
 assured by the Whigs that the pretension was exorbitant, 
 and utterly unauthorised by precedent. The great ladies 
 of the Conservative party had, moreover, spoken of it as a 
 triumph over the Queen, and had said when they com- 
 posed her court they would be better able to restrain 
 her within constitutional limits than the Whigs had been. 
 All this came to the knowledge of her Majesty; and on 
 the day after the demand had been made, the Queen 
 wrote to Sir Robert Peel as follows : " The Queen, 
 having considered the proposal made to her yesterday 
 by Sir Robert Peel to remove the ladies of her bed- 
 chamber, cannot consent to adopt a course which she 
 conceives to be contrary to usage, and which is repug- 
 nant to her feelings." This incident came to be known 
 as "the bed-chamber plot." Peel replied, maintaining 
 that he was constitutionally in the right, and stating that, 
 in view of the existing crisis, it was necessary that he 
 should have that public proof of her Majesty's entire 
 support and confidence which would be afforded by the 
 permission to make some changes in that part of the 
 royal household, which her Majesty resolved on main- 
 taining entirely without change. Neither Monarch nor 
 Minister could now give way, and the negotiation was 
 broken off. Debates arose on the subject in both 
 
IX.] DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 135 
 
 Houses ; Wellington and Peel adhered to their opinions, 
 while the Whigs vindicated the Queen's refusal, and 
 declared that they were perfectly ready to accept the 
 responsibility of it. As the only solution to the diffi- 
 culty, Lord Melbourne once more returned to office. 
 
 But the Whigs were beset with difficulties, and instead 
 of regaining the public favour, the Government continued 
 to lose ground, and grew gradually weaker. At length 
 in January, 1840, Sir J. Y. Buller proposed a vote of 
 want of confidence in the Ministry. During the impor- 
 tant debate which ensued, Mr. Macaulay, who spoke 
 with great eloquence, said he believed that if, with the 
 best and purest intentions, Sir Robert Peel were to 
 undertake the Government of the country, he would find 
 that it was very easy to lose the confidence of the party 
 which raised him to power, but very difficult indeed to 
 gain that which the existing Government possessed, the 
 confidence of the people of Ireland. Challenged to ex- 
 plain himself on the Irish question, and to state the views 
 and principles of conduct which would guide him if he 
 were placed at the head of the Government, Peel 
 frankly replied to the challenge. Two demands were 
 made, viz. that he should specify the grounds of his 
 want of confidence in the Government, and should state 
 his own principles of public policy. "The absolute 
 justice of the first of these demands I willingly admit," 
 he observed. " The other demand, namely, that I should 
 explain in detail my views of public policy, is perhaps 
 not equally imperative in point of strict obligation, but it 
 is a demand to which, from considerations of prudence, 
 I shall most willingly accede. There shall be no limit to 
 the fulness and the unreservedness of the answers which 
 I will give, excepting your impatience. I know too well 
 
136 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 the little value that can be placed on that support which 
 arises from misconception of one's real opinions. I have 
 had too much experience of solemn engagements, entered 
 into for the purpose of overturning a Government, violated 
 when that object has been attained. I have so little desire 
 to procure a hollow confidence, either on false pretences 
 or by a delusive silence, that I rejoice in the opportunity of 
 frankly declaring my opinions and intentions on every 
 point on which you challenge unreserved explanation." 
 
 He then answered his opponents in detail, and 
 referred at length to the great public questions of the 
 time, Reform, the Privileges of Parliament, the Poor Law, 
 the Corn Laws, Catholic Emancipation, the Ballot, and 
 the administration of Ireland. On each of these sub- 
 jects he recapitulated his expressed opinions, indicating 
 his future policy if the Government were entrusted to his 
 hands. " It may be," he said in conclusion, " that the 
 principles I profess cannot be reduced to practice, and 
 that a Government attempting the execution of them 
 would not meet with adequate support from the House 
 of Commons. Still I shall not abandon them. I shall 
 not seek to compensate the threatened loss of confidence 
 on this side of the House by the faintest effort to con- 
 ciliate the support of the other. I shall steadily per- 
 severe in the course which I have uniformly pursued 
 since the passing of the Reform Bill, content with the 
 substantial power which I shall yet exercise — indifferent 
 as to office so far as personal feelings or present objects 
 are concerned — ready, if required, to undertake it, what- 
 ever be its difficulties — refusing to accept it on conditions 
 inconsistent with personal honour — disdaining to hold it 
 by the tenure by which it is at present held." 
 
 Ministers obtained a majority of 21 on this occasion, 
 
ix.] DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 137 
 
 but on the 18th of May, 1841, they were defeated 
 upon their measure for the reduction of the duties 
 on foreign sugars. In the course of the debate Sir 
 Robert Peel taunted Ministers with not possessing the 
 confidence of the country, and in regard to the Corn 
 Laws expressed his own unhesitating resolve to abide by 
 them. Lord Sandon's amendment to the Ministerial 
 measure was carried by 317 to 281. The Government 
 did not resign, but manifested an intention to proceed 
 with legislation upon the corn duties. 
 
 On the 27 th of May Peel seized the opportunity of 
 minutely reviewing the various measures that had been 
 submitted by Ministers to Parliament, but which were sub- 
 sequently abandoned ; and he also enlarged upon the pre- 
 judicial effects on the finances of the country that had 
 accrued from the passing of others. He further pointed out 
 that in every former case where the House had indicated 
 that its confidence was withdrawn from the Government, 
 the Ministers had retired. He maintained that the whole 
 of their conduct betrayed weakness and a servile truck- 
 ling for popular favour ; and that the prerogatives of the 
 Crown were not safe in their hands. He then moved 
 this resolution : " That her Majesty's Ministers do not 
 sufficiently possess the confidence of the House of 
 Commons to enable them to carry through the House 
 measures which they deem of essential importance to the 
 public welfare, and that their continuance in office, under 
 such circumstances, is at variance with the spirit of the 
 constitution." At the close of a long debate, and in a 
 very full house, consisting of 623 members, Peel's 
 motion was carried by a majority of one. Lord Mel- 
 bourne upon this advised her Majesty to dissolve Par- 
 liament, and it was accordingly dissolved on the 23rd of 
 
138 SIR ROBERT PEEL, [chap. 
 
 June. The elections greatly strengthened the Conser- 
 vative party. Their triumph in the English counties was 
 in fact extraordinary, for out of 159 representatives for 
 these counties, only 23 belonged to the Liberal party. 
 
 The new Parliament met in August. In the Upper 
 House an amendment to the Address was carried against 
 the Ministry by a majority of 72. In the Commons a 
 similar amendment expressive of a want of confidence in 
 her Majesty's advisers led to a debate extending over 
 four nights. Peel in the course of his speech on the 
 amendment referred to the Corn Laws. Before the dis- 
 solution he had formed an Opinion, which intervening 
 considerations had not induced him to alter, that the 
 principle of a graduated scale was preferable to that of a 
 fixed and irrevocable duty. Speculating upon the result 
 of the debate and the resignation of the Whig Ministry, 
 he said, " If I accept office, it shall be by no intrigue, 
 it shall be by no unworthy concession of constitutional 
 principle, it shall be by no unnatural and factious com- 
 bination with men (honest though I believe them to be) 
 entertaining extreme opinions from which I dissent. If 
 I accept office, it shall be by walking in the open lights 
 and in the direct paths of the constitution. If I exercise 
 power, it shall be upon my conception — perhaps im- 
 perfect, perhaps mistaken, but my sincere conception — 
 of public duty. That power I will not hold unless I can 
 hold it consistently with the maintenance of my own 
 opinions ; and that power I will relinquish the moment 
 I am satisfied that I am not supported in the maintenance 
 of them by the confidence of this House and the people 
 of this country." 
 
 The division showed a majority of 91 against Ministers, 
 the numbers being — for the Address 269 j for the amend- 
 
ix.] DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIGS. 139 
 
 ment 360. Lord Melbourne now resigned, and Sir Robert 
 Peel received her Majesty's commands to form a 
 Ministry. The principal offices after that of the Premier- 
 ship were thus distributed : Lord Chancellor, Lord 
 Lyndhurst ; President of the Council, Lord Wharncliffe ; 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Goulburn; Home 
 Secretary, Sir James Graham; Foreign Secretary, the 
 Earl of Aberdeen; Colonial Secretary, Lord Stanley; 
 First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Haddington ; 
 President of the Board of Control, Lord Ellenborough ; 
 President of the Board of Trade, the Earl of Ripon ; 
 Secretary at War, Sir Henry Hardinge; Paymaster- 
 General, Sir E. Knatchbull ; and Secretary for Ireland, 
 Lord Eliot. The Duke of Wellington accepted a seat in 
 the Cabinet, but without office. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 peel's great administration. 
 
 T)EEL was now in office and in power, having a large 
 majority in both Houses of Parliament. He 
 demanded time in which to prepare his measures, and on 
 the 7th of October Parliament was prorogued. Ministers 
 kept their counsel all through the recess, and the Queen's 
 speech at the opening of the session in 1842 was conse- 
 quently much canvassed. Amongst other things, that 
 document referred to the state of the laws affecting 
 the import of corn, and of other articles the produce of 
 foreign countries. Measures were promised for the im- 
 provement of the ecclesiastical courts and of the bank- 
 ruptcy laws; regret was expressed at the continued 
 distress in the manufacturing districts ; and it was hoped 
 that the deliberations of Parliament would be directed 
 by a comprehensive regard for the interests and welfare 
 of all classes, thus tending to improve the national 
 resources, to encourage the industry, and promote the 
 happiness of the people. 
 
 Great interest was manifested in the Premier's exposi- 
 tion of his new scheme on the subject of the Corn Laws. 
 This scheme was unfolded on the 9th of February to a 
 crowded House, Sir Robert Peel's speech on that occa- 
 
chap, x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 141 
 
 sion occupying four hours in delivery. He began by 
 admitting the prevalence of distress in the country, yet 
 felt bound to say he could not attribute that distress 
 in any degree to the operation of the Corn Laws, to 
 which it had been supposed to be imputable. Neither 
 did he believe that the sources of our commercial and 
 manufacturing prosperity were dried up. It was impos- 
 sible to take a review of the causes which had affected 
 the industry of the country without perceiving that there 
 had been in operation during the last four or five years 
 several of such causes, the separate effect of which would 
 have been considerable, but the concurrent effect of 
 which was sufficient to account for the depression under 
 which they had laboured. " If you look to the stimulus 
 which was given, partly I think by the facilities of credit, 
 to the great undertakings in the years 1837 and 1838 — 
 to the connection which existed between the companies 
 and the directors concerned in joint-stock banks and our 
 manufacturing establishments — if you look to the immense 
 efforts which were made for the increase of our manufac- 
 tures, for the building of houses for the reception of 
 those who were to labour at those manufactories, the 
 immigration of labourers from rural districts to those 
 which are the seats of our manufactures, the immense 
 increase of mechanical power which took place in the 
 course of the years 1837 and 1838 — you would hardly be 
 surprised that those consequences should have followed 
 those excitements which have frequently followed similar 
 exertions at former periods." 
 
 After pointing to a similar condition of things in 
 America, and dealing with the statistics of our colonial 
 trade, Peel came to the subject of the Corn Laws. He 
 observed that those who complained of a tax upon the 
 
142 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 subsistence of the people had always an advantage. A 
 comparison was made between this and other countries 
 as to the cost of food, and the inference drawn that the 
 people of England ought to be placed on the same 
 footing in respect of the articles of subsistence with 
 those of other countries. Any conclusion founded on 
 such a position was altogether erroneous. Reference 
 had been made to the price of food in Germany, and it 
 was said that the price of food with us should be equalised 
 with that which existed in Germany. But the true ques- 
 tion was not the price of food, but the command which 
 the labouring classes had over it. That included the 
 question whether the people required the necessaries 
 only or the luxuries of life. He advanced statistics 
 in support of his position, and on the question of a 
 fixed duty showed that the effect of such a duty.,on corn 
 would be that at all times, and under all circumstances, 
 they must admit foreign corn into the country. It should 
 also be remembered that the periods of favourable har- 
 vests in the countries from whence we derived our chief 
 supplies of foreign corn generally corresponded with 
 favourable harvests in England. He argued that if our 
 own country produced a sufficient supply of food in 
 certain years for home consumption, it did not render it 
 necessary that we should resort to foreign markets ; for 
 if under these circumstances a supply from abroad was 
 brought in, it would be followed by an unnatural depres- 
 sion of the price of food, which would operate as a 
 discouragement to the natural producer, and which must 
 ultimately lead to our dependence on foreign countries 
 for the supply of food — an event which he should most 
 strongly deprecate. 
 
 Observing that we could not dispense with the system 
 
x.J PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 143 
 
 of averages while the Tithe Commutation Act existed, 
 Peel proceeded to detail his new plan. If the price of 
 wheat in this country could always be near a certain 
 amount, its oscillations, he thought, should be limited to 
 some such price as between 54s. and 58s. He did not 
 believe it would be for the interests of agriculture that 
 the price should be beyond that. But, when he spoke of 
 this average, he did not mention it as the pivot on which 
 a remunerating price should turn, or as a price that the 
 Legislature could guarantee. Remarking that he retained 
 Protection, but only such protection as was consistent 
 with the welfare of all classes of the community, he said 
 it was of the highest importance that we should take 
 precautions to ensure that the main source of the supply 
 of food should be derived from domestic agriculture. 
 They were entitled to place such a duty on foreign corn 
 as was equivalent to special burdens borne by agriculture, 
 but any additional protection could only be vindicated 
 on the ground of general and comprehensive interests. 
 If they should find themselves dependent on foreign 
 countries for some such import as four or five millions 
 of quarters, and if the calamity of a deficient harvest 
 should be a general one, then they might depend upon it 
 that the interest of self-preservation would prevail in 
 those foreign countries over all others. " There must be 
 many years," said the right hon. baronet, " in which a 
 considerable portion of the food supply must come from 
 foreign countries, but I do not abandon the hope that 
 this country, on the average of years, may produce 
 sufficient for its own consumption. Even if that hope 
 should be disappointed, if you must receive from foreign 
 countries, under ordinary circumstances, an addition to 
 your own supply of food, I draw a material distinction 
 
144 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 between that supply, on the one hand, which is casual, 
 which is limited in quantity, and which is brought in for 
 the purpose of repairing an accidental and compara- 
 tively slight deficiency; and, on the other hand, that 
 supply which is of a more permanent and extensive 
 nature." This scheme of a revised Corn Law was 
 opposed by Lord John Russell as inadequate, and, of 
 course, it naturally failed to satisfy Mr. Cobden, Mr. 
 Villiers, and the other advocates of Free Trade. After 
 much opposition, however, the measure was passed 
 virtually in its entirety, and became law. 
 
 The Premier's next great measure was the new Tariff, 
 accompanied by the Property and Income Tax scheme. 
 In the preparation of these legislative proposals, as well 
 as in that of the new Corn Law Bill, it was understood 
 that Peel had received great and valuable assistance from 
 his able and rising young lieutenant, Mr. Gladstone. 
 The latter had already given proof of his capacity to 
 grasp difficult and intricate questions of finance. On the 
 nth of March, when the House was again thronged, 
 Peel rose to make his Financial Statement. Dealing first 
 with the condition of the country, he showed that our 
 annual expenditure was annually outrunning our income, 
 and accumulating a growing deficiency. The proposition 
 of the late Ministry for raising ^5 per cent, additional 
 on the duties on excise and customs had failed ; and Peel 
 having examined every possibility in connection with 
 indirect taxes, came to the conclusion that he could not 
 expect to raise a sufficient additional revenue from any of 
 the great articles of consumption. He declined to seek 
 revenue from these sources, or from locomotion, or from 
 gas, and asked where he should draw his new taxation 
 from. "Shall I resort to the plans invented by those 
 
x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 145 
 
 who in small communities choose to turn their attention 
 to finance, and who think that their inventive genius is 
 on a level with that of Archimedes when they discover 
 a pianoforte, an umbrella, or some such article, not yet 
 made the subject of taxation, and who immediately 
 suggest the scheme to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 accompanied by a modest claim for a large percentage 
 of the amount received, in consideration of the novelty 
 of the thought and the certain success of its operation?" 
 The Premier next announced that in order to recruit the 
 national finances he must make an earnest appeal to the 
 possessors of property. For the purpose of repairing 
 a mighty evil, he proposed that the incomes of the 
 country should bear a charge of sevenpence in the pound, 
 not amounting to quite three per cent. This would not 
 only supply the deficiency in the revenue, but enable him 
 to propose those great commercial reforms which would 
 have the effect of reviving commerce and improving 
 the manufactures of the country in a way that must soon 
 react on every other interest, and which would ensure 
 even in a narrow, pecuniary point of view, by the 
 diminished price of the articles of consumption and the 
 lessened cost of living, compensation to every one subject 
 to the pecuniary charge. 
 
 Peel then sketched out his whole scheme, reviewing 
 the course of Pitt's policy upon the income-tax. Under 
 the new arrangement, incomes of less than ^150 
 would be exempted. As to the charge upon land, 
 he proposed that the tenant's occupation of land 
 should be estimated at one-half instead of three-fourths 
 of the rent, as formerly. He further proposed that all 
 funded property, whether held by natives of this country 
 or foreigners, should be subjected to the impost. From 
 
 L 
 
146 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 statistics produced, he formed the expectation of raising 
 the sum of ,£3,771,000 as the product of the property 
 and the income tax, the duration of which, he considered, 
 should be for five years, with the option of putting an 
 end to it in three years. Coming next to Ireland, he 
 observed that as he could not find machinery there 
 similar to that of England for levying the tax, he 
 proposed an increase of duty on Irish spirits and an 
 equalisation of the stamp duties. From these sources, 
 together with an additional duty levied on coal exported 
 to foreign countries, and the product of the property and 
 income tax, he expected to raise altogether an annual 
 sum of ^£4, 3 10,000. 
 
 As this sum would leave a surplus, after meeting 
 the deficiency in the revenue, Peel stated that he 
 should be able to effect a revision in the commercial 
 code by making a considerable abatement of the duties 
 levied upon some of the great articles of consumption. 
 His general principle would be, first, the removal of pro- 
 hibition in every case, and the relaxation of duties of a 
 prohibitory character; and secondly, the reduction of 
 duties to a very considerable amount on raw materials 
 used in manufactures. In some cases merely a nominal 
 duty would be retained; and in no case, or scarcely any, 
 would a duty of more than 5 per cent, be levied upon 
 raw articles used in manufacture. Upon articles partially 
 manufactured, the duty in future would not exceed 1 2 
 per cent. ; and on manufactured articles, speaking gene- 
 rally, the maximum duty would not exceed 20 per cent, 
 in any case. The whole of the tariff would be arranged 
 under twenty different heads. Out of 1,200 articles, it 
 was proposed to reduce the duty on 750, including all 
 those which entered into manufactures. There were thus 
 
x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 147 
 
 about 450 articles in respect of which, on comparing the 
 present rate of duty with the cost of the article, it did 
 not appear necessary for the interests of commerce or 
 for the interests of the consumer to make any reduction. 
 Sugar he was unable for a variety of reasons to include 
 in the new tariff, but timber and coffee were included ; 
 and it was also proposed to reduce the taxes on stage 
 coaches, so as to enable them more effectually to com- 
 pete with railroads. With regard to commercial treaties, 
 the Minister expressed a hope of being able to effect such 
 mutually beneficial arrangements between Great Britain 
 and foreign countries as might enable him hereafter to 
 take other measures for the improvement and extension 
 of commerce. 
 
 In concluding his exposition of this truly great and 
 comprehensive financial scheme, the Premier made a patri- 
 otic appeal to the members of the House of Commons. He 
 begged them to be worthy of the conduct of their fathers in 
 times of national crisis. They had now had twenty-five 
 years of peace, and in view of the financial difficulties 
 and embarrassments in which they were placed, he hoped 
 they would not refuse to make similar sacrifices to those 
 which their fathers made for the purpose of upholding 
 the public credit. " Your conduct will be contrasted with 
 that of your fathers under difficulties infinitely less press- 
 ing than theirs. Your conduct will be contrasted with 
 that of your fathers, who, with a mutiny at the Nore, a 
 rebellion in Ireland, and disaster abroad, yet submitted, 
 with buoyant vigour and universal applause (with the 
 funds as low as 52), to a property tax of 10 per cent. I 
 believe that you will not subject yourselves to an injuri- 
 ous or an unworthy contrast. It is my firm belief that 
 you will feel the necessity of preserving inviolate the 
 
14$ SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 public credit — that you will not throw away the means of 
 maintaining the public credit by reducing in the most 
 legitimate manner the burden of the public debt. My 
 confident hope and belief is that now, when I devolve 
 the responsibility upon you, you will prove yourselves 
 worthy of your mission — of your mission as the repre- 
 sentatives of a mighty people; and that you will not 
 tarnish the fame which it is your duty to cherish as the 
 most glorious inheritance, that you will not impair the 
 character for fortitude, for good faith, which, in propor- 
 tion as the empire of opinion supersedes and predomi- 
 nates over the empire of physical force, constitutes for 
 every people, but above all for the people of England — I 
 speak of reputation and character — the main instrument 
 by which a powerful people can repel hostile aggressions 
 and maintain extended empire." 
 
 The new tariff was received with great favour by the 
 commercial classes and the country generally. In some 
 respects it was a great and decided advance towards the 
 adoption of the principles of free trade. Any criticism 
 of details was overshadowed by the acceptance which the 
 scheme found as a whole. Peel met and considered all 
 objections in a firm yet admirable spirit, and although 
 opposition was threatened to the property and income 
 tax, the propositions of the Government substantially 
 passed into law. Mr. Gladstone, as Vice-President of the 
 Board of Trade, introduced and piloted through the 
 House the Bonded Corn Bill, a measure supplementary 
 to the New Tariff Scheme. 
 
 Immediately before the close of the session, a sharp 
 passage of arms occurred between Lord Palmerston and 
 Sir Robert Peel. The former welcomed Ministers as con- 
 verts to the new commercial principles, although they 
 
x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 149 
 
 must have been preparing these measures for some time 
 past. But a great step had been made in the right direc- 
 tion when a Tory Government spoke out as the present 
 Government had done. Peel replied, defending his 
 changes of opinion, and recapitulating equally great 
 changes during Lord Palmers ton's own career. This 
 session of 1842 was one of the most arduous of Peel's 
 parliamentary life. 
 
 On the 2 1 st of January, 1843, while the Premier was 
 walking with his private secretary, Mr. Drummond, near 
 Charing Cross, the latter was shot by a Scotchman 
 named MacNaughten, who had mistaken him for Sir 
 Robert Peel. The assassin appears to have been swayed 
 by no political motive, and was in fact insane ; but the 
 incident made a strong impression upon Peel, which was 
 not without its own results. The Anti-Corn Law League 
 having now become a great fact, it was necessary that 
 the Prime Minister should make some declaration of his 
 intentions with regard to the Corn Laws. Accordingly, 
 when the session opened on the 2nd of February, 1843, 
 he emphatically stated that when asked to come forward 
 and declare whether he contemplated extensive changes 
 in the Corn Laws, he felt it right to avow that her 
 Majesty's Government had it not in contemplation to 
 propose such extensive changes. Upon this the Free 
 Trade agitation acquired greater impetus. In the House, 
 Mr. Cobden said he must tell the right hon. baronet that 
 it was the duty of every honest and independent member 
 to hold him individually responsible for the present 
 position of the country. " I tell him that the whole 
 responsibility of the lamentable and dangerous state of 
 the country rests with him." Peel, greatly excited, in 
 replying said, "Be the consequences of these insinuations 
 
IS© SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 what they may, never will I be influenced by menaces, 
 either in this House or out of this House, to adopt a 
 
 course which I consider " He was unable to finish 
 
 the sentence, and his hearers came to the conclusion 
 that he laboured under the idea that the charge of 
 responsibility made against him was a provocation to his 
 assassination. Mr. Cobden — than whom no man was 
 more utterly incapable of such an insinuation— explained, 
 and Lord John Russell and other Whig members, as 
 well as his friends, defended him from the imputation 
 as an indignity which he could never have deserved. 
 Cobden repeated his disclaimer with emphasis, and Peel 
 accepted his explanation, though not with that cordiality 
 which the circumstances demanded. The Premier's sus- 
 ceptibility was the cause of this unfortunate misunder- 
 standing, and that susceptibility was doubtless rendered 
 more extreme by the trying nature of his position. 
 
 The state of Ireland kindled alarm in the minds of 
 politicians in the year 1843; an d Lord Eliot, Chief 
 Secretary, introduced a Bill for continuing the laws with 
 respect to the possession of firearms in that country. 
 The policy of the Government was severely condemned 
 by O'Connell, Sheil, and others, whereupon Peel ex- 
 pressed the anxiety and pain with which he viewed the 
 condition of things in Ireland. Having referred to the 
 removal of the political disabilities of the Roman Catho- 
 lics, he said, in tones of unfeigned regret, "I thought I 
 saw, in some respects, a great moral and social improve- 
 ment ; that the commercial intercourse of Ireland with 
 this country was increasing; that there was a hope of 
 increasing tranquillity in Ireland, and of a diminution of 
 crime ; that the redundant and superfluous capital of 
 this country, which was seeking a vent in foreign specu- 
 
x.J PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 151 
 
 lations of the most precarious nature, would be applied 
 to a sphere more legitimate and more productive — the 
 increasing improvement of Ireland. The agitation has 
 blasted all those hopes." The agitation for Repeal of 
 the Union proceeded apace. On the 15th of August five 
 hundred thousand Irishmen assembled at Tara. They 
 were addressed by O'Connell, who said that before twelve 
 months were over the Parliament would be in College 
 Green. " The Irish Parliament will then assemble," 
 said the agitator, " and I defy all the generals, old and 
 young, and all the old women in pantaloons — nay, I defy 
 all the chivalry of the earth — to take away that Parlia- 
 ment from us again." 
 
 A second meeting was summoned for the 8th of 
 October, at Clontarf, near Dublin, O'Connell having 
 issued a manifesto that legal and constitutional means 
 for the redress of Irish grievances had now been ex- 
 hausted ; but a Government proclamation appeared on 
 the 7th of October prohibiting the meeting, and a week 
 later O'Connell and his associates were arrested on 
 charges of conspiracy, sedition, and unlawful assembling. 
 Their trial was appointed for the 10th of January follow- 
 ing, in the Court of Queen's Bench, Dublin. 
 
 Meanwhile, though surrounded by embarrassments of 
 various kinds, Peel continued to conduct the affairs of 
 the country with undiminished energy. In matters of 
 foreign policy " he respected the rights and dignity of 
 other states, small as well as great, weak as well as 
 strong, and regarded the employment of menace or force 
 solely as a last extremity, legitimate only when it was 
 absolutely necessary." Peace and justice were his watch- 
 words in foreign policy. He was seconded in his 
 opinions by his Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen. The 
 
152 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 Conservative Cabinet, on taking office, found itself com- 
 pelled to deal with wars in China and Afghanistan, and 
 serious boundary controversies with the United States. 
 Questions also arose between England and France as to 
 the right of search for the suppression of the slave trade, 
 the occupation of Tahiti, and the war in Morocco. In 
 all these foreign negotiations the English Cabinet mani- 
 fested an enlightened and conciliatory policy, although 
 Lord Aberdeen was subjected to considerable animad- 
 version, and reproached as being the tool of France. It 
 was predicted that Tahiti would prove a source of 
 greater difficulty than Ireland to the British Government, 
 but the matter of the French occupation of Tahiti was 
 in the end amicably settled, as also was the Morocco 
 difficulty. 
 
 The O'Connell prosecution eventually ended in a 
 fiasco. The trial came on in due course ; it was 
 exceedingly lengthy, and the arguments were of a very 
 technical character. It ended with O'Connell being 
 sentenced to one year's imprisonment, to pay a fine of 
 ,£2,000, and to find bondsmen for his good behaviour 
 for five years from the expiration of the term of his 
 imprisonment. Judgments were also passed upon the 
 other defendants. An appeal was made to the House of 
 Lords on a writ of error. The peers referred the matter 
 in the first instance to the English judges, who affirmed 
 the proceedings of the Irish court. But in the following 
 September the question was finally decided by the law 
 lords, a majority of whom declared in favour of the 
 prisoners. The Irish question was thus left, after most 
 protracted proceedings, in statu quo. 
 
 The session of 1844 was opened on the 1st of Feb- 
 ruary by the Queen in person. The speech referred 
 
x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 153 
 
 to our late successes in India, to the establishment 
 of commercial relations with China, to the good under- 
 standing which subsisted between England and all foreign 
 powers, and to the commercial and manufacturing pros- 
 perity of the country. Measures for the improvement of 
 Ireland were also promised, though a firm determination 
 was expressed to maintain the Union. Peel, in the 
 debate on the Address, still advocated Corn Law protec- 
 tion, dwelling upon the advantages of his sliding scale as 
 compared with Lord John Russell's proposition for a 
 fixed duty. The Premier maintained that his past 
 measures had fulfilled the expectations he had held out, 
 and that he now met Parliament under greatly improved 
 circumstances both at home and abroad. The Address 
 was voted by a large majority. 
 
 The revision of the Bank Charter was the most import- 
 ant measure of the session. No legislation of this year 
 equalled it in magnitude as regards the great interests it 
 involved, or the effects it produced upon the commercial 
 and monetary transactions of the kingdom. By the Act 
 of 1833 it was provided that the charter for securing 
 certain privileges to the Bank of England should expire 
 in 1855, reserving to the Legislature the power of revising 
 the charter ten years earlier. In introducing his measure, 
 Peel stated that this was now his intention. His treat- 
 ment of the subject, which was remarkably able and 
 lucid, confirmed the impression already created, that 
 in matters of finance he was by far the most capable of 
 living statesmen. He proposed there should be a com- 
 plete separation of the two departments of issue and 
 banking in the Bank of England j that its business should 
 be conducted on the same principles as governed other 
 bodies dealing with Bank of England notes; that the fixed 
 
154 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 amount of securities on which the Bank should issue notes 
 should be ^"14,000,000 ; that the whole of the remainder 
 of the circulation should be issued exclusively on the 
 foundation of bullion ; and that there should be a complete 
 and periodical publication of the accounts of the Bank 
 of England, with a view to increase its credit and prevent 
 panic. He provided for a weekly account of the issue 
 of notes, the amount of bullion, &c. ; and proposed, on 
 emergency, but only with the assent of three members of 
 the Government, to allow the Bank to extend its issues 
 beyond ^14,000,000. The Bank had hitherto paid 
 ;£i 20,000 to Government for its privileges, but as its 
 privileges and business would now be increased, he 
 proposed to raise the sum to ,£180,000. This would be 
 deducted from the sum of ^248,000, which the Govern- 
 ment paid to the Bank for the management of the public 
 debt. Various provisions affecting joint-stock and private 
 banks were included in the Bill, all tending to the security 
 of the public and the better regulation of business. The 
 proposal limiting the issue and circulation of country 
 notes met with considerable opposition, but the attempts 
 to introduce serious modifications in the Bill were 
 defeated. Peel's original propositions were ultimately 
 carried by a large majority. 
 
 Anxious to initiate some legislation for the benefit 
 of Ireland, Peel brought forward in the session of 1845 a 
 proposal for increasing the grant to Maynooth College. 
 The course he adopted, however, alienated from him the 
 sympathies of many of his own followers. Besides the 
 increase of the grant, he proposed the establishment of 
 three Irisji colleges for secular education. The Premier 
 said the Government were prepared in a liberal sense and 
 confiding spirit to improve the institution of Maynooth 
 
x.J PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 155 
 
 and to elevate the tone of education there. He pro- 
 posed, therefore, that a vote for the sum of ,£30,000 
 should be taken for the proper accommodation of the 
 president and professors, and for the maintenance and 
 education of five hundred free students. Meeting the 
 strong religious objections which this proposition en- 
 countered, Peel said, " We do not think there is any 
 violation of conscientious scruples involved in our propo- 
 sition. We believe that it is perfectly compatible to hold 
 steadfast the profession of our faith without wavering, and 
 at the same time to improve the education and to elevate 
 the character of those who — do what you will, pass 
 this measure or refuse it — must be the spiritual guides 
 and religious instructors of millions of your fellow- 
 ' countrymen." 
 
 The measure excited violent hostility in some quarters. 
 Sir R. H. Inglis described it as " a gigantic scheme of 
 godless education ;" and Col. Sibthorp said that if he had 
 not seen the First Lord of the Treasury take the oaths at 
 the table of the House, he should have doubted whether 
 he were a Protestant, a Roman Catholic, or a Maho- 
 metan ; nor should he be surprised if the time came when 
 they would see him sitting cross-legged as a Mahometan 
 or embracing the Pope. The Premier was subjected to 
 much vituperation of a similar kind by those who 
 declared that they had lost confidence in him. Meetings 
 were held in Exeter Hall, Covent Garden Theatre, and 
 other places, condemning the scheme as an endowment 
 of the Roman Catholic religion. The Whigs and many 
 of the Radicals supported the Minister, who was 
 fiercely attacked by Mr. Disraeli. The hon. gentleman 
 said that in Peel we had a great Parliamentary middle- 
 man, " a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the 
 
156 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 other." The ultra- Protestants petitioned by hundreds 
 of thousands against the Bill, describing it as high 
 treason against heaven. The personal and newspaper 
 attacks upon Peel were most bitter, but through all the 
 storm of obloquy he remained firm. Towards the close 
 of the debate on the second reading he reviewed the 
 whole question, and stated that he did not regret the 
 course which he had taken. " I say without the least 
 hesitation, you must break up in some way or other that 
 formidable confederacy which exists in Ireland against 
 the British Government and the British connection. I 
 do not believe you can break it up by force j you can do 
 much to break it up by acting in a spirit of kindness, 
 forbearance, and generosity." In concluding, he used 
 these memorable words : " Punish us ; visit us with 
 censure ; let the two parties combine against us on the 
 ground that the policy we are adopting ought to be 
 carried out by its original promoters ; take what other 
 course you please, but let not your indignation fall on the 
 measure ; let it be confined to those who proposed it." 
 The second reading was carried by a majority of 147. 
 The Bill was contested at every stage, but ultimately it 
 passed and was sent up to the House of Lords. Here it 
 was defended by Dr. Whately, the distinguished Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin. The Bill became law, but its framer 
 in the outset exaggerated its salutary effects. He had, 
 however, taken another important step in the direction of 
 the removal of Irish grievances. 
 
 Before we approach the legislation on the Corn Laws, 
 other measures demand mention. By an act framed by 
 the Lord Chancellor, the possession of religious endow- 
 ments in the hands of Dissenters was confirmed ; and an 
 end was put to all legal controversy respecting the right 
 
x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 157 
 
 to voluntary endowments connected with Dissenting 
 chapels by vesting the property in the religious body in 
 whose hands it had been for the preceding twenty 
 years. The validity of Presbyterian marriages was 
 settled ; ameliorations of the Poor Law were effected ; 
 and the municipal disabilities of the Jews were removed. 
 The Government carried a Bill for modifying the laws 
 affecting the labour of children in factories, though not 
 without much discussion, and a threat pointing to resig- 
 nation on the part of the Premier. A singular incident 
 arose during a debate on the sugar duties. An amendment 
 was carried against the Government reducing further 
 than they proposed the duty upon colonial and in some 
 instances foreign sugars. Peel was not present at the 
 time, but a few days later he went over the whole 
 subject. Ministers, he said, had proposed measures 
 which had made little progress, and left them in no 
 enviable position. They had not received cordial assent 
 and agreement in those quarters where they reasonably 
 expected to find support. But if they had forfeited the 
 confidence of their supporters, they would not ask for it 
 by encouraging expectations which they were not pre- 
 pared to realise. Ministers thought their own course the 
 right one, and were prepared to abide by the engage- 
 ments they had made. Some of Peel's followers 
 remonstrated against his attitude, but he would not 
 yield. Mr. Disraeli complained that the Premier 
 dragged his followers unreasonably through the mire. 
 11 The right hon. baronet has joined in the anti-slavery 
 cry ; but it seems that his horror of slavery extends to 
 every place except the benches behind him. There the 
 gang is still assembled, and there the thong of the 
 whip still sounds He may be right, he may be 
 
158 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 even to a certain degree successful, in pursuing the line 
 of conduct which he has adopted, menacing his friends 
 and cringing to his opponents ; but I for one am disposed 
 to look upon it as a success neither tending to the 
 honour of the House nor to his own credit." Peel made 
 no reply to these taunts. There were those who thought 
 that he should have defended himself and his friends ; 
 but acrimonious personal contests were most distasteful 
 to him, and herein, probably, lies the chief reason 
 for his silence. The House answered to the Premier's 
 call, and at the close of the debate reversed its previous 
 vote. 
 
 Peel continued to manifest his superiority as a prac- 
 tical statesman and a financier, but signs of dissatisfaction 
 and disorganization began to exhibit themselves in the 
 ranks of his followers. There was one question at the 
 opening of the session of 1845, moreover, which attracted 
 much attention, and caused considerable speculation as 
 to the policy of the Government. This was the income- 
 tax, which had been voted in 1842 only for a period of 
 three years definitely. On the 14th of February the 
 Premier submitted his financial statement to the House. 
 He had a prosperous revenue to deal with, and he mani- 
 pulated the various financial questions involved in the 
 Budget with his usual skill. It appeared that on the 5th 
 of January, 1845, there was a surplus amount over the 
 expenditure of ^3,357,ooo, and that by making the 
 account up to the approaching 5th of April he might 
 reasonably estimate the actual surplus revenue at 
 ^5,000,000. This sum, he observed, would be either 
 sufficient for the repeal of the income-tax, or it would 
 enable him to make large remissions in general taxation. 
 He decided on the latter course, and proposed that the 
 
x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 159 
 
 income-tax should be imposed for three years longer. 
 His chief financial propositions were the following : the 
 duties on British plantation sugar he proposed should be 
 reduced from 25s. 3d. per cwt. to 14s. per cwt., and the 
 foreign free-grown sugar from 35s. 9d. to 23s. 4d. He 
 proposed also the total repeal of the duty on cotton-wool, 
 amounting to five-sixteenths of a penny per lb., and 
 yielding a revenue of ^"680,000 ; the repeal of the auc- 
 tion duty, ^250,000; of the duties on glass, ^640,000; 
 of the export duty on coal, ;£ 183,000 ; and of reductions 
 on duty on the numerous minor articles in the tariff to 
 the extent of ^320,000. These sums, together with an 
 estimated loss on the sugar duties of ;£i, 300,000, would 
 amount to .£3,388,000. Peel concluded by remarking 
 that the Government had not sought popularity by avoid- 
 ing the question of continuing the property-tax. They 
 had selected taxes for reduction and abolition against 
 which there had been no agitation. It was their convic- 
 tion that industry and commerce would be immediately 
 benefited by their proposals. The details of the Budget 
 were variously criticised, but the ministerial proposals 
 were adopted by large majorities. Peel's ascendancy 
 was still complete, and the Opposition shrank from 
 making attacks upon his financial propositions, in respect 
 to which his position was regarded as invulnerable. 
 
 The Free-traders, disappointed at the non-fulfilment 
 of their hopes, now redoubled their exertions for the 
 abolition of the Corn Laws. At the opening of the 
 session, referring to the agricultural distress, Peel said 
 that he could not look to Parliament for any further 
 legislative interference. The restoration of the former 
 amount of protection was impossible ; but he would 
 go no further. Mr. Cobden thereupon submitted his 
 
160 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 motion for an inquiry into the causes of agricultural dis- 
 tress. He brought forward trenchant arguments in 
 favour of Free Trade, and was by turns simple and 
 ingenious, familiar and eloquent, urgent and not bitter, 
 abundant in facts and adroit in argument, evidently ani- 
 mated by a profound conviction and a sincere patriotism, 
 and totally free from jealousy and democratic hostility. 
 He demanded to know the plan of the Conservatives, 
 and hoped it was not a mere pretence. If they gave him 
 a committee of that House, he would explode the delu- 
 sion of agricultural protection. He would bring forward 
 such a mass of evidence that the system could not live 
 for two years afterwards. He warned the aristocracy 
 against obstructing the spirit of the age. 
 
 Mr. Cobden's speech was a very powerful one, and 
 the Premier himself was to some extent shaken by 
 it. It was circulated broadcast over the country, thus 
 acquiring immense influence. The Prime Minister left 
 the task of replying to it to ' Mr. Sidney Herbert, who 
 opposed the inquiry principally on the ground that it was 
 useless, and had already been attempted several times 
 without producing any other effect than to spread alarm. 
 Mr. Herbert having observed that the agriculturists did 
 not come whining to Parliament at every period of tempo- 
 rary distress, Mr. Disraeli took up the phrase and severely 
 commented upon it. He charged the Premier with play- 
 ing fast and loose with the country gentlemen, but at 
 last being compelled to interfere he sent down his valet, 
 who said in the gentlest manner, " We can have no whin- 
 ing here." " For my part," continued Mr. Disraeli, " if 
 we are to have Free Trade, I, who honour genius, prefer 
 that such measures should be proposed by the hon. 
 member for Stockport (Mr. Cobden) than by one who by 
 
X.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 161 
 
 skilful parliamentary manoeuvres has tampered with the 
 generous confidence of a great people and a great party. 
 For myself, I care not what may be the result. Dissolve 
 if you please the Parliament you have betrayed, and 
 appeal to the people who, I believe, mistrust you. For 
 me there remains this at least — the opportunity of express- 
 ing thus publicly my belief that a Conservative Govern- 
 ment is an organized hypocrisy." This attack drew Peel 
 to his feet. Having answered various charges made 
 against him by both sides, he thus briefly replied to 
 Mr. Disraeli : " The hon. member for Shrewsbury repeats 
 an accusation he made on a former occasion of our having 
 retained power by a forgetfulness of the pledges we gave 
 in Opposition. When I proposed the tariff in 1842, and 
 when that charge which the hon. member now repeats 
 was made against me, I find the hon. gentleman got up 
 in his place and stated, ' that that charge had been made 
 without due examination of the facts of the case,' and 
 that ' the conduct pursued by the right hon. baronet was 
 in exact, permanent, and perfect consistency with the 
 principles of Free Trade laid down by Mr. Pitt. His 
 reason for saying this much was to refute the accusations 
 brought against the Government that they had put for- 
 ward their present views in order to get into power.' 
 These sentiments I find attributed to Mr. Disraeli. I 
 do not know whether they are of sufficient importance to 
 mention them in the House ; but this I know, that I then 
 held in the same estimation the panegyric in which I now 
 regard the attack." The retort in this case, from its 
 coolness and brevity, was more cutting than the attack. 
 
 In domestic policy the weakest effort of the Govern- 
 ment was that made to check the railway mania of 1845, 
 which attained to such a feverish and universal pitch as to 
 
 M 
 
1 62 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 become a gigantic species of gambling. The people 
 rushed madly to partake in any railway speculation that 
 was set afloat, and the railway department of the Board 
 of Trade failed to put an effectual check upon the 
 numberless undertakings put forward. At length the 
 Legislature enacted that before petitions for Bills could be 
 presented to Parliament ;£io per cent, on the estimated 
 capital should be lodged with the Accountant-General. 
 Yet so great was the rage after railway stocks that at one 
 time a sum of ;£i 5,000,000 on account of deposits was 
 actually vested in the Accountant-General's hands. The 
 Government contemplated other legislation on this sub- 
 ject, but it had to give way to more important subjects. 
 
 In the autumn the question of the Corn Laws as- 
 sumed a formidable and irresistible importance. The 
 deficiency in the harvest, the reduced quantity of grain 
 remaining in the country,; the probable limited supply 
 available from foreign parts, the potato disease in Ireland, 
 and the fearful condition of the population generally in 
 the sister island — all these things gave the final blow to 
 the system of Protection. Mr. Bright, Mr. W. J. Fox, 
 Mr. Cobden, and the other leaders of the League, had 
 now overwhelming arguments to support their principles, 
 and they pressed them home with much force and 
 eloquence. Referring to Peel, Mr. Bright said he knew 
 well enough what was wanted. " He sprang from com- 
 merce, and, until he has proved it himself, I will never 
 believe that there is any man — much less will I believe 
 that he is the man — who would go down to his grave, 
 having had the power to deliver that commerce, and yet 
 ; not having the manliness, honesty, and courage to do it." 
 Mr. Fox said there were many reasons why the Premier, 
 rather than any other man whatsoever, should grant this 
 
x.] PEEL'S GREAT ADMINISTRATION. 163 
 
 measure and become its author ; and that, having gra- 
 dually led forward the adoption of free-trade principles in 
 the various acts of our commercial legislation, he should at 
 length crown the whole with this. Mr. Cobden was even 
 still more outspoken. " There is no man in the world," 
 he said, " whether he be the Grand Turk, or whether he 
 be a Russian despot, who has more power than Sir 
 Robert Peel has in this country. He has the power, and 
 I say he is a criminal and a poltroon if he hesitates a 
 whit." 
 
 Finally, the accumulated facts and arguments on this 
 question, together with the powerful reasons above 
 enumerated, prevailed with the Premier, and he resolved 
 on bringing forward his great measure of relief. He had 
 previously proposed several plans, but had been sup- 
 ported only by three members of his Cabinet, Lord 
 Aberdeen, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert. 
 A letter from Lord John Russell to his constituents, the 
 electors of the City of London, enlarging upon the serious 
 crisis in the condition of the country, had the effect of 
 precipitating matters. Lord John now demanded entire 
 freedom of trade, and was supported in this demand by 
 other Whig leaders. Concessions by the Government 
 were now inevitable. On the 25th of November, 1845, 
 at a Cabinet Council, Peel advocated the only course 
 possible. The Duke of Wellington, who had previously 
 opposed repeal, now gave way, but Lord Stanley adhered 
 to his protectionist principles. Early in December it 
 was prematurely announced in the press that the im- 
 mediate abolition of the Corn Laws had been resolved 
 upon. Instead of Parliament being called together, on 
 the 6th Ministers tendered their resignation, and Lord 
 John Russell was summoned from Edinburgh to form a 
 
1 64 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. x. 
 
 Cabinet. Being in a minority in the House of Commons, 
 his lordship almost decided upon declining the task 
 committed to him ; but on the Queen placing in his 
 hands a letter from Sir Robert Peel, in which that states- 
 man promised his aid to the Whigs on the Corn Law- 
 question, he accepted the task. Fruitless negotiations 
 now took place, in which " the Whigs aimed at too much 
 security, and Sir Robert at too much liberty." Lord 
 John Russell asked for the ex- Premier's plans, and the 
 latter said he did not feel bound to divulge them ; he 
 had given in his adhesion to the general principle. 
 
 Unable to reconcile the personal differences between 
 certain of the leading Whigs themselves, however, Lord 
 John Russell was obliged to give up all hope of con- 
 structing a Government. Sir Robert Peel was again sent 
 for. He had told the Duke of Wellington of Lord John's 
 inability to form a Ministry, adding that the country 
 was now without a Government, and that for his own part 
 he was resolved to sacrifice his desire of retirement to a 
 sense of duty. The Duke, being thus appealed to, con- 
 sented to join the Cabinet, which was reconstructed on 
 the same basis as Peel's former Ministry, with the single 
 exception of Lord Stanley, who retired. His lordship 
 was succeeded in the office of Secretary for the Colonies 
 by Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 The battle of Free Trade was now drawing near its 
 close. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 HPHE Premier had accepted a task which he knew 
 must bring down upon him obloquy and misrepre- 
 sentation ; but having put his hand to the plough, he 
 resolved not to look back. There had been periods 
 already when he had been subjected to unworthy impu- 
 tations, but these were destined to be far transcended by 
 the one that was now dawning upon him. He accepted 
 office for the purpose of accomplishing one great and 
 grand object ; and when this was done it was generally 
 assumed that his party would go to pieces. It seems 
 strange that this honesty should have been impugned, 
 when he deliberately chose a course of conduct that must 
 assuredly result in the alienation of his friends, and one 
 that involved unusual and overwhelming sacrifices on the 
 part of a political leader. Supported by the consciousness, 
 nevertheless, that he was acting solely for the public in- 
 terest, he pressed forward to the achievement of his great 
 end. Such inconsistency as his will ever be condoned 
 by a grateful people. 
 
 Parliament met on the 22nd of January, 1846, and the 
 Royal speech expressed gratification on the prosperous 
 state of the revenue, as well as the general improvement 
 
1 66 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 which had taken place in the internal condition of the 
 country. The hope was also expressed that a further reduc- 
 tion of the protective duties would be found to insure 
 the continuance of the prosperity of the people. The Ad- 
 dresses in the two Houses were carried without a division. 
 In the Commons, Sir Robert Peel tendered a full ex- 
 planation of the late ministerial crisis, and also of the views 
 and intended measures of the Government. He observed 
 that the immediate cause which led to the dissolution of 
 the late Government was that great and mysterious 
 calamity, the failure of the potato crop. It appeared to 
 him to preclude further delay, and to require immediate 
 decision as to the course to be taken with regard 
 to the Corn Laws. But while he stated the failure 
 of the potato crop to be the immediate cause, he 
 would not withhold the homage which was due to the 
 progress of reason and to truth by denying that his 
 opinions on the subject of Protection had undergone a 
 change. His experience during the last three years had 
 confirmed him in his new opinions ; and he felt no hesi- 
 tation in declaring that change, however much he might 
 by so doing incur the imputation of inconsistency. 
 While he had been reviled for apathy and neglect, he and 
 his colleagues were at that very time engaged in the most 
 extensive and arduous inquiries into the true state of the 
 Irish scarcity; and in the course of those inquiries he 
 had come to the conclusion that the protective policy 
 was unsound, and therefore untenable. The Premier 
 concluded with a review of the public services he had 
 rendered under four sovereigns, remarking that if power 
 had any value it was because it gave increased opportu- 
 nities for rendering public service. It was no easy task 
 to insure the harmonious and united action of monarchy, 
 
xi.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 167 
 
 aristocracy, and a reformed House of Commons ; but 
 these objects they had attempted to accomplish, and he 
 did not think they were inconsistent with a pure and 
 enlarged Conservatism. But he claimed freedom in the 
 retention of power. " I will not stand at the helm during 
 the tempestuous night if that helm is not allowed freely 
 to traverse ; I will not undertake to direct the course of 
 the vessel by observations taken in the year 1842. I 
 will reserve to myself the unfettered power of judging 
 what will be for the public interest. I do not desire to 
 be Minister of England ; but while I am Minister of 
 England I will hold office by no servile tenure; I will 
 hold office unshackled by any other obligation than that 
 of consulting the public interests and providing for the 
 public safety." This address was received with great 
 favour by the Opposition, but it was bitterly attacked 
 from the Conservative benches by Mr. Disraeli, who 
 charged the Premier with treachery, and prophesied the 
 degradation and demoralisation of the House of Com- 
 mons if the principles to which they had listened were to 
 be acknowledged. 
 
 The House of Commons was densely crowded on the 
 27th of January, when Sir Robert Peel explained his 
 great scheme for the repeal of the Corn Laws. He began 
 his exposition by assuming that the repeal of prohi- 
 bitory and the relaxation of protective duties was in itself 
 a wise policy ; and observed that during the last three 
 years there had been an increased productiveness in 
 the revenue, notwithstanding a large remission of taxa- 
 tion j there had also been an increased demand for 
 labour, and increased competence, comfort, contentment, 
 and peace among the population. He advised the con- 
 tinued application of principles which had produced such 
 
1 68 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 salutary results. If the resolution now proposed were 
 deemed rash, nothing could be more easy than to meet him 
 on an early night with a resolution that protection to 
 domestic industry was in itself a good, and that the 
 principle ought to be sanctioned by the House. But it 
 might, on the other hand, be the desire of the House to 
 put an end to a contest that had long existed. He was 
 not about to apply the great principle of relaxation of 
 duty to any one particular interest ; on the contrary, he 
 asked all the interests of the country — manufacturing, 
 commercial, and agricultural — to make the sacrifice, if it 
 were one, of their protection to the common good. 
 Having shown from the legislation of 1842 and 1845 
 that he had given the manufacturers free access to every 
 raw material of manufacture, he called upon such of 
 them as were engaged in making up the three articles, 
 wool, linen, and cotton, to relinquish the protection which 
 was now given to the articles of their manufacture. It 
 was intended to abolish all duties upon the importation 
 of the coarser articles of manufactures in wool, linen, and 
 cotton, and to reduce the duties on linen and woollen 
 goods of a finer quality from 20 to 10 per cent. The 
 silk duty would be readjusted, and the duties upon 
 brandy, sugar, leather goods, &c, would be reduced. 
 
 Coming next to articles of agriculture, the Premier 
 stated that he proposed to reduce the duty on all seeds 
 to 5s. per cwt. ; Indian corn, or maize, which was of great 
 importance in fattening cattle, would in future be intro- 
 duced duty free, as would also buckwheat maize and 
 buckwheat flour. The duty on butter, cheese, hops, &c, 
 would be reduced to half its present amount ; and on all 
 articles of agricultural produce which constituted food as 
 distinct from corn, he proposed an immediate repeal of 
 
xi.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 169 
 
 duty. Though he did not intend to propose the imme- 
 diate repeal of the Corn Laws, he did intend to propose 
 that their continuance should only be temporary. The 
 Bill which he should introduce on this subject would 
 therefore contain an enactment that, after a certain date, 
 grain of all kinds should come in duty free. A consider- 
 able reduction would be made at once in the existing 
 amount of duty, and the duty so reduced would be 
 limited in its continuance till the 1st of February, 1849. 
 As to the main question before the House — the inter- 
 mediate state of the law — he proposed that until the 
 date already mentioned there should be levied certain 
 reduced duties on all wheat imported into this country 
 from foreign parts. These duties he specified, remark- 
 ing that he intended to accompany the arrangement pro- 
 posed, by provisions calculated to advance the interest of 
 that portion of the community which would be called 
 upon to relinquish Protection. 
 
 Reviewing some of the burdens which fell upon land, Sir 
 Robert Peel referred first to the highway rates, and said he 
 proposed to compel parishes to unite themselves into dis- 
 tricts for the repair of the roads. Those districts would be 
 generally the same with the poor-law unions, and thus the 
 high roads would be under the control of 600 instead of 
 (as at present) 16,000 different authorities. He also indi- 
 cated certain changes in the law of settlement which would 
 operate favourably in the agricultural interest, and relieve 
 it from a great burden. Another important point was 
 that in order to give facilities to the improvement of 
 agricultural skill and industry, he proposed that State 
 loans should be granted to enable improvements to be 
 made, security of course being taken to protect the 
 country against loss. This was another plan by which 
 
170 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 he hoped to enable the agricultural interest to meet com- 
 petition with the foreign grower. With respect to the 
 local burdens pressing on the agriculturist, he must 
 declare at once that he could not advise any alteration 
 in the mode of the assessment of the poor-rates. They 
 were not really a charge upon the land. He would, 
 however, relieve the agricultural interest of the charge 
 of maintaining prisoners in the county gaols, and would 
 provide for that charge by an annual vote of the House. 
 He would also transfer the charge for prosecuting felons 
 to the State. 
 
 If there was any part of the United Kingdom likely 
 to suffer from the withdrawal of Protection, continued 
 the Minister, it was Ireland; for Ireland had not, as 
 England had, the means of finding employment for her 
 agricultural population in her manufacturing districts. 
 Amongst social advantages, consequently, to be placed 
 against the relief from local burdens, he proposed that 
 all the charge for the rural police in Ireland should be 
 thereafter borne by the public treasury. With regard to 
 the cost of medical relief of the poor, he proposed to 
 relieve English and Scotch unions of half this charge, 
 and to take it upon the Government. Medical relief in 
 Ireland, being under a different system, would be here- 
 after dealt with. Government would also bear part of 
 the charge for education in the parish workhouses, 
 together with the salaries of auditors, and other officers. 
 
 Before this law was rejected he hoped that both par- 
 ties would remember it proposed great benefits for society 
 at large. But in making these great reductions on the 
 importation of articles, he could give the House no 
 guarantee that foreign countries would follow our ex- 
 ample. He had resolved to consult our own interests 
 
XI.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 171 
 
 alone, and not to punish other countries and ourselves 
 by continuing high duties, and the necessary concomitant 
 of high duties — smuggling. He could not promise them 
 that foreign countries would exhibit any gratitude for 
 what they were doing; on the contrary, they might at- 
 tempt to profit by it. But our export trade had flourished 
 in spite of increased duties upon it. He was convinced, 
 however, that in time other countries would follow our 
 example. If asked why he had determined to disturb 
 our domestic prosperity, he answered that what had 
 occurred since October, 1845, was one of the grounds on 
 which he had resolved to bring forward his present pro- 
 position. There was a sympathy existing between manu- 
 facturers and the operatives, which led both of them 
 to the conclusion that these laws ought to be altered. 
 Although there was now a calm and no coercion, things 
 might "undergo a change. They might have worse har- 
 vests, and therefore they ought to avail themselves of an 
 adjustment of this question, which must ultimately be 
 made, and which could not long be delayed without 
 endangering the peace and security of the empire. He 
 recommended his proposition to the calm consideration 
 of the House, in the hope that it would, in the language 
 of her Majesty's speech, " promote friendly feelings be- 
 tween different classes, provide additional security for the 
 continuance of peace, and maintain contentment and 
 happiness at home by increasing the comforts and better- 
 ing the condition of the great body of the people." 
 
 The debate on the ministerial propositions extended 
 over nearly three weeks, forty- eight members speaking 
 in favour of Free Trade, and fifty-five on behalf of Protec- 
 tion. Mr. Philip Miles began the discussion by moving 
 an amendment for the rejection of the Government 
 
172 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 scheme. Lord John Russell supported the Ministry, but 
 begged the Prime Minister to reconsider the point as to 
 the period of three years before the total abolition of 
 the corn duties, and to decide in favour of immediate 
 change. In defending his plans, Sir Robert Peel said 
 that with regard to the party question raised he had 
 nothing to say ; for party interests the Government 
 measures were bad measures. But, as he showed by the 
 terrible news from Ireland, this legislation was pressing 
 for the welfare of the country. They could not stand 
 still in this matter. Which would be their motto, 
 ' Advance ' or ' Retrograde ' ? Other countries were 
 watching their example. 'Times of depression must 
 perhaps return ; unfavourable seasons, gloomy winters 
 may again set in ; " the years of plenteousness may have 
 ended," and " the years of dearth may have come ; " and 
 again you may have to offer the unavailing expressions 
 of sympathy and the urgent exhortations to patient 
 resignation. Commune with your own hearts, and answer 
 me this question : will your assurances of sympathy be 
 less consolatory — will your exhortations to patience be 
 less impressive — if with your willing consent the Corn 
 Laws shall have then ceased to exist ? Will it be no 
 satisfaction to you to reflect that by your own act you 
 have been relieved from the grievous responsibility of 
 regulating the supply of food ? Will you not then cherish 
 with delight the reflection that, in this the present hour 
 of comparative prosperity, yielding to no clamour, im- 
 pelled by no fear — except, indeed, that provident fear 
 which is the mother of safety — you had anticipated the 
 evil day, and, long before its advent, had trampled on 
 every impediment to the free circulation of the Creator's 
 bounty ? ' 
 
xi.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 173 
 
 This powerful speech was described by Mr. Bright as 
 one more to be admired than any which had been delivered 
 within the memory of any man in the House. He had 
 watched the right hon. baronet as he went home on the 
 previous night, and, for the first time, envied him his 
 feelings. Turning to the Conservatives, Mr. Bright said, 
 "You chose the right hon. baronet and placed him in 
 office. Why ? Because he was the ablest man of your 
 party. You always said so, and you will not deny it 
 now. . . . There are such things as the responsibility of 
 office. Look at the population of Lancashire and York- 
 shire, and ask yourselves whether with all your valour, 
 and although you talk of raising the standard of Protec- 
 tion, there are men in your ranks who will take their 
 seats on the Treasury bench pledged to a maintenance of 
 the Corn Law. I defy them [to do it." Mr. Disraeli 
 again reiterated his charges against the Premier, affirm- 
 ing that the country was flourishing because they had 
 given it a just, judicious, and moderate Protection. In 
 England we ought to give a preponderance to the agri- 
 cultural over the manufacturing interest. Sir George 
 Clerk, in a very able reply to Mr. Disraeli, repudiated 
 this idea both as a member of Parliament and as an 
 individual landowner. Mr. Cobden said the debate 
 turned on two topics, the conduct of Ministers and the 
 propriety of an appeal to the country, and he warned the 
 Conservatives that the more they covered the Ministers 
 with obloquy and odium, the more would the people of 
 England sympathize with them. If Sir Robert Peel 
 should visit the manufacturing districts, his march through 
 them would be one continued triumph. 
 
 When the House divided, there appeared — for Govern- 
 ment, 337; against, 240; majority, 97. At a later 
 
174 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 stage of the measure, on the 2nd of March, Mr. 
 Villiers proposed as an amendment the immediate 
 abolition of all duties on imported corn. Many mem- 
 bers, with Lord John Russell, thought this might en- 
 danger the Government scheme, and the amendment was 
 rejected by a majority of 187. The second reading came 
 on upon the 20th of March, when another amendment for 
 the rejection of the Bill was moved by Mr. E. Yorke. In 
 closing the debate, Sir Robert Peel vindicated his own 
 conduct and measures from the repeated attacks made 
 upon them, and said, " I am not surprised to hear hon. 
 members predict to me that my tenure of power is short. 
 Let these measures pass into a law. Suspend your 
 indignation until then ; and then it will be perfectly open 
 to you to determine what measure you will adopt for 
 the purpose of terminating my political life." The House 
 divided as follows : for the second reading, 302 j against, 
 214; majority, 88. Further discussions took place, but 
 on the third reading the ministerial majority had risen 
 to 98. The measure went up to the Lords, and a long 
 debate ensued on the second reading. The division 
 gave these figures: contents, 211; non-contents, 164; 
 majority for the second reading, 47. In the end the 
 Bill passed and became law. 
 
 By one of those dramatic surprises which sometimes 
 occur in political life, the moment of Peel's greatest 
 triumph was destined also to be that of his downfall as a 
 Minister. A Bill framed for the repression of outrage in 
 Ireland was introduced in the House of Commons on the 
 30th of March by Sir James Graham. Lord G. Bentinck 
 and his friends resolved if possible to avenge the agri- 
 cultural interest by defeating this Bill. In fact, the leader 
 of the disaffected Conservatives, alluding to Peel, said 
 
xi.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 175 
 
 that every honest man ought to join to do summary- 
 justice upon the traitor, however much he might love the 
 treason. Mr. Cobden repudiated such a construction of 
 the vote which he and those who thought with him felt 
 compelled to give. During the debate Sir Robert Peel 
 warmly denied the charge of having harassed Mr. Can- 
 ning to death, brought against him by Mr. Disraeli and 
 Lord George Bentinck, and adduced evidence in support 
 of his denial. The union of the Whigs, Radicals, and 
 Conservatives resulted in a majority of 73 against the 
 Government, the numbers being — for the second read- 
 ing of the Bill, 219; against, 292. This division 
 took place on the 26th of June, being the very day 
 upon which the Corn Law Bill passed in the House 
 of Lords. 
 
 This result was not altogether unanticipated, and the 
 Ministerial defeat came at the moment when intelligence 
 had arrived of a peaceful settlement of the difficulty 
 which had arisen with America on the Oregon question, 
 and when England herself was generally in a prosperous 
 condition. On the 29th of June the resignation of the 
 Government was announced in both Houses. In the 
 Commons, Sir Robert Peel reviewed at length his poli- 
 tical career, and justified his policy, which had been so 
 much assailed. Referring to the Free Trade question, he 
 paid the following tribute to Mr. Cobden : " Sir, there is 
 a name which ought to be associated with the success of 
 these measures j it is not the name of the noble lord the 
 member for London, neither is it my name, sir; the name 
 which ought to be and which will be associated with the 
 success of these measures, is the name of a man who, 
 acting I believe from pure and disinterested motives, has 
 advocated their cause with untiring energy, and by 
 
176 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 appeals to reason enforced by an eloquence the more to 
 be admired because it was unaffected and unadorned — 
 the name which ought to be and which will be associated 
 with these measures is the name of Richard Cobden." 
 The speaker closed with a personal allusion which has 
 become more widely known than any other utterance 
 throughout his long parliamentary career: "In relinquish- 
 ing power, I shall leave a name, severely censured I fear 
 by many who, on public grounds, deeply regret the 
 severance of party ties — deeply regret that severance not 
 from interested or personal motives, but from the firm 
 conviction that fidelity to party engagements — the exist- 
 ence and maintenance of a great* party — constitutes a 
 powerful instrument of government; I shall surrender 
 power severely censured also by others who, from no 
 interested motive, adhere to the principle of Protection, 
 considering the maintenance of it to be essential to the 
 welfare and interests of the country; I shall leave a name 
 execrated by every monopolist who, from less honourable 
 motives, clamours for Protection because it conduces to 
 his own individual benefit ; but it may be that I shall 
 leave a name sometimes remembered with expressions of 
 goodwill in the abodes of those whose lot it is to labour 
 and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, 
 when they shall recruit their exhausted strength with 
 abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is no 
 longer leavened by a sense of injustice." 
 
 The Minister who began life as the champion of the 
 aristocratic party thus closed it with an appeal to the 
 great body of the common people. With these dignified 
 words he took leave of his official career. It is stated 
 that . the applause which followed his peroration was 
 loud and prolonged, and that on leaving the House 
 
XL] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 177 
 
 he found the approaches all thronged. Upon per- 
 ceiving Peel, all in that great crowd took off their hats, 
 and, opening their ranks to let him pass, accompanied 
 him in silence to the door of his house. That moment 
 was one in which the statesman might, with just and 
 legitimate pride, feel that he had not lived in vain. 
 
 N 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 
 
 /^\N the fall of Peel's second Administration a Whig 
 ^^^ Ministry was formed, with Lord John Russell as 
 Premier. The Government received the cordial though 
 independent support of the late Prime Minister, who fre- 
 quently tendered his advice upon the various public 
 measures brought forward. There was no political 
 jealousy in Sir Robert Peel ; for office itself he had never 
 cared ; and now that he was relieved of its burden he 
 placed the practical benefit of his experience at the 
 service of his successors. As an opponent he was most 
 disinterested; "time had chastened the few prejudices 
 he possessed, and his clear head was undisturbed by any 
 of those clouds with which the passions or promptings of 
 the heart obscure the judgments of most public men." 
 Peel, however, liked the sense of personal influence in 
 politics, and was still drawn strongly towards the arena 
 in which that influence had for so many years been dis- 
 played. 
 
 The cheerfulness with which he went out of office was 
 manifested in a letter to his friend, Lord Hardinge. 
 " You will see," he observed, " that we are defeated by a 
 combination of Whigs and Protectionists. A much less 
 
chap, xii.] LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 179 
 
 emphatic hint would have sufficed for me. I would not 
 have held office by sufferance for a week." And again, 
 "There is nothing I would not have done to insure the 
 carrying of the measures I had proposed this session. 
 But the moment their success was insured, and I had 
 the satisfaction of seeing two drowsy Masters in Chancery 
 mumble out at the table of the House of Commons that 
 the Lords had passed the Corn and Customs Bills, I was 
 satisfied." Replying to a congratulatory address from 
 the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Peel urged an 
 early reconciliation of manufacturing and agricultural 
 interests, remarking that full justice had hardly yet been 
 done to the moderation and forbearance of the class 
 concerned in the cultivation of the soil. He assured the 
 Chamber that in a private station he would give his con- 
 tinued support to those principles of commercial legisla- 
 tion which had been approved equally by the deductions 
 of reason and by the results of practical experiment. 
 " I shall rejoice," he added, " in the progress of all mea- 
 sures, adopted with due caution and circumspection, that 
 shall be calculated by extending commerce to give addi- 
 tional security for general peace, and by insuring their 
 just reward to skill and industry, to lay the best founda- 
 tion for the intellectual and moral improvement of the 
 people." These promises were practically fulfilled during 
 the first session he was in opposition by the support he 
 gave to the Government in their proposals for the relief 
 of the terrible suffering and distress in Ireland, and 
 other measures. He also supported the temporary sus- 
 pension and final abrogation of the Navigation Laws. 
 The abolition of these laws followed of course almost 
 as a natural consequence upon the repeal of the Corn 
 Laws. 
 
180 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 Parliament was dissolved on the 23rd of July, 1847, 
 and Sir Robert Peel issued an important manifesto to 
 the electors of Tamworth. The Protectionist electors of 
 the borough had clamoured for his resignation, and the 
 address he now issued had both a local and personal 
 and a national significance. Peel vindicated the motives 
 which had dictated his whole policy, and the measures 
 to which he had been a party. The endowment of 
 Maynooth he treated as an isolated act in no way pre- 
 paratory to a general endowment of the priesthood, 
 though with regard to this point he declined to fetter his 
 discretion as a legislator by any pledge to refuse the 
 consideration of such a scheme " at all times and in all 
 circumstances." He thus remarked upon his commercial 
 policy : " It is my firm persuasion that the course sanc- 
 tioned by the present Parliament with reference to our 
 financial and commercial policy has tended to fortify the 
 established institutions of this country, to inspire confi- 
 dence in the equity and benevolence of the Legislature, 
 to maintain the just authority of an hereditary nobility, 
 and to discourage the desire for democratic change in 
 the constitution of the House of Commons." The right 
 hon. baronet concluded by expressing a wish that the 
 electors would choose a representative entirely on public 
 grounds, and not permit considerations of mere personal 
 regard, or of his long connection with them, to' influence 
 their judgment. Peel and his brother were eventually 
 elected without opposition. 
 
 On several subsequent occasions, alike in the country 
 and in the House of Commons, Sir Robert,Peel reiterated 
 his conviction that the Legislature would never seek to 
 re-impose the Corn Laws. In July, 1849, when Mr. 
 Disraeli brought forward his motion for a committee to 
 
xii.] LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 181 
 
 take into consideration the slate of the nation, the ex- 
 Premier delivered an impassioned speech, in the course 
 of which there occurred the following passage. Having 
 denied that the repeal of the Corn Laws was a lucky- 
 accident, he said, " My belief is that it pleased Almighty 
 God to listen to your prayers, to turn scarcity and dearth 
 into cheapness and plenty, and so to direct and prosper 
 your consultations on the brink of a great precipice and 
 on the coming of a. tremendous calamity, that you esta- 
 blished peace and happiness in the foundations of truth 
 and justice. You have reaped the reward of that policy, 
 you have passed unscathed through the sternest trials to 
 which the institutions of any nation were ever subjected. 
 You stood erect amid the convulsions of Europe. And 
 now you are to have a proposal made to you of some paltry 
 fixed duty. Take then your 5s. duty and consider what 
 it is. If it be 5s. on wheat, it will give you 2s. 6d. on 
 barley, 2s. on oats — that is, is. 6d. more on barley and 
 is. more on oats than you have at present — an equivocal 
 advantage at the best. But by every consideration which 
 can influence consistent and rational legislators, by the 
 highest suggestions of a generous policy, by the boldest 
 calculations of the lowest and most selfish prudence, I 
 implore you to reject this proffered boon. I implore you 
 not to sacrifice nor to barter the glorious heritage you 
 have obtained by your sagacious and most timely policy, 
 for the smallest and most worthless policy for which the 
 greatest advantage was ever surrendered since the days 
 of him who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage." 
 Mr. Disraeli's motion was negatived by a majority of 296 
 to 156. On a further occasion in 1850, during another 
 debate, on a motion by Mr. Disraeli, on the subject of 
 the Poor Laws and the agricultural distress, Peel de- 
 
1 82 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 fended himself for his course upon the Corn Laws — a 
 course which, he said, he believed to have been his duty 
 to his God and his country, and of the wisdom of which 
 he was more convinced than ever. Protection never 
 could be revived, he asserted ; and the landed aristocracy 
 would one day see that the abrogation of Protection had 
 established more firmly than ever their just influence. 
 These predictions have been signally verified. Periodical 
 debates on the subject of Protection have occurred since 
 1850, but every year that has passed has only rendered 
 more remote the chances of a restoration of the system. 
 The supporters of Protection have gradually declined in 
 numbers until they are now almost extinct. In no 
 instance has legislation been more completely justified 
 by the course of events. 
 
 In less than eighteen months after accepting office 
 the Whigs were driven to bring forward the same legisla- 
 tive measures which had proved fatal to their pre- 
 decessors. On the 29th of November, 1847, Sir George 
 Grey, the Home Secretary, introduced a Bill for the 
 repression of crime and the protection of life in Ireland, 
 the lines followed being almost identical with those of 
 the Bill which wrecked the Peel Government. But Peel 
 gave his hearty support to the measure, though he could 
 not repress all mention of previous events. He would 
 quarrel with none of the details of the measure, he said, 
 and he could not resist the force of the appeal which had 
 been made to the House, because it was precisely the 
 same appeal which he had himself made, and made in 
 vain. Then addressing himself to those Conservatives 
 who had combined with the Whigs in June, 1846, he 
 remarked that he hoped those who opposed the measure 
 brought forward then would not think it incumbent upon 
 
xii.] LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 183 
 
 them, from any consideration for the late Government, 
 to withhold their support from the Bill now before the 
 House. The Bill was carried by the enormous majority 
 of 224 votes against 18. 
 
 Peel spoke on several important measures brought 
 forward by the Whig Government. When Lord John 
 Russell introduced the question of popular education, 
 Peel supported the propositions of the Cabinet, and, 
 while expressing his firm attachment to the Anglican 
 Church, exhibited scrupulous equity towards different 
 creeds. He defended a religious as opposed to a secular 
 education, and did not believe that the latter alone 
 would be acceptable to the people of this country. 
 Referring to the Roman Catholic population, and taking 
 as an example a district in Manchester called the " Irish 
 town," where the Irish inhabitants numbered from 60,000 
 to 70,000, he asked : " Is it for the advantage of the 
 State that the children of these 60,000 or 70,000 people 
 should be brought up in ignorance and vice ? I confess 
 I cannot conceive a more urgent case, not so far merely 
 as the intellectual advantage of the Roman Catholics is 
 concerned ; but if there be any virtue in our principle — 
 if the true remedy against barbarism and crime and 
 degradation of character is instruction — it is not for the 
 advantage of the Protestant community that these Roman 
 Catholic children should remain immersed in ignorance." 
 With regard to the admission of Jews into Parliament, 
 Peel gave evidence of a like advanced liberality of senti- 
 ment. Baron Lionel de Rothschild having been elected 
 one of the four representatives of the City of London, 
 Lord John Russell proposed to relieve the Jews from the 
 political disability which denied them admission into the 
 House of Commons. Sir Robert Peel broke away from 
 
1 84 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 many with whom he had hitherto acted, and unreservedly- 
 supported the proposition. While impressed by the con- 
 viction that the spirit and precepts of Christianity ought 
 to influence their deliberations, yet, on the other hand, 
 as a legislature they had no authority to determine 
 religious error, and no commission to punish it. Even 
 if they could determine who were the descendants of the 
 persons guilty of the inexpiable crime of the Crucifixion, 
 were they to visit the sins of the fathers upon the 
 children, not unto the third or fourth, but unto the three- 
 hundredth or four-hundredth, generation ? That awful 
 power was not theirs. "Vengeance is mine. I will 
 repay, saith the Lord." 
 
 Ireland still continued to tax the energies of English 
 statesmen in 1848 and 1849. Prosecutions were alter- 
 nated now by coercive measures, and now by measures 
 of relief. In the latter year, a select committee having 
 been appointed upon the Irish Poor Law, a committee of 
 the whole House was agreed to, after a long discussion, 
 to consider the Government proposition of a rate in aid. 
 The most remarkable feature of these Irish debates was 
 a comprehensive speech by Sir Robert Peel. From his 
 first entrance upon Parliamentary life Irish questions had 
 demanded his attention. He now spoke with vigour and 
 boldness, and developed at great length his views re- 
 specting the state of Ireland, suggesting also a plan for 
 the redemption of landed property in that country. 
 Some of his phrases struck like an electric shock upon 
 the minds of his hearers. " If," he said, "technicalities 
 and legal difficulties stood in their way, they should cut 
 the Gordian knot and release the land." " Sooner than 
 let the present state of things continue, he would alto- 
 gether oust the Court of Chancery of its jurisdiction over 
 
xii.] LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 185 
 
 this subject." Alluding to the social condition of Ireland, 
 he maintained that to mitigate her sufferings, and to lay 
 the foundation for a better state of things, measures of 
 no commonplace and ordinary character were requisite. 
 With regard to emigration, he expressed his doubts as to 
 the good results of a system of Government emigration, 
 dwelling on the enormous expense it would involve, 
 approving of what the Ministry were already doing to 
 encourage voluntary emigration, and exhorting them to 
 develop their measures in this direction rather than to 
 adopt more direct and vaster schemes. But it was the 
 state of landed property in Ireland which Peel regarded 
 as of the greatest importance. Almost the only measure 
 from which' he derived a hope of safety was the introduc- 
 tion of new proprietors, who should take possession of 
 land in Ireland freed from its existing encumbrances, and 
 who should enter upon its cultivation with adequate 
 capital, with new feelings, and inspired by new hopes. 
 If a new settlement similar to that of Ulster could be 
 effected, no religious distinction should be allowed to 
 enter into the arrangement. Perhaps it might be prudent 
 to appoint a commission for the purpose of considering 
 the whole subject, and the possibility of encouraging 
 that change in property which he believed to be indis- 
 pensable. Peel, in answer to objections, pointed out 
 the connection of his proposition with an Act which 
 Parliament had passed in 1848 for the purpose of facili- 
 tating the sale of encumbered estates. 
 
 The proposed new scheme was strongly opposed 
 by the old Irish party, who regarded it as a method of 
 expulsion ; but Peel's speech and his propositions had 
 already exercised a powerful effect. There was conse- 
 quently soon introduced a Bill for facilitating the sale and 
 
1 86 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 transfer of encumbered estates. By this Act, a simple, 
 short, and inexpensive mode of selling and transferring 
 land was substituted for the tardy and ruinous course of 
 procedure which had hitherto prevailed. The legislation 
 thus initiated was wide, original, and of almost incalcu- 
 lable importance in ameliorating the social condition of 
 Ireland. That unhappy country had owed the emanci- 
 pation of the Catholics to Peel: and now "the most 
 effectual measure ever adopted for the social regeneration 
 of Ireland was the last great act of Peel's influence on 
 the internal government of his country." So wrote M. 
 Guizot in 1857, and his words up to that period repre- 
 sented the general feeling on the subject of Irish remedial 
 legislation. A later Liberal Administration, however, in- 
 troduced measures equally great, and as far-reaching in 
 their effects. 
 
 On the 27 th of June, 1849, Sir Robert Peel was enter- 
 tained at a grand dinner at the Mansion House. The 
 Lord Mayor, Sir James Duke, in proposing his health, 
 glanced at the great political measures with which his 
 name would be connected — the Currency, the reform of 
 the Criminal Law, Catholic Emancipation, the revision 
 of the Tariff, the abolition of the Corn Laws, and the 
 permanent improvement of the condition of Ireland. In 
 the autumn the eminent statesman visited Scotland, 
 receiving the freedom of the City of Aberdeen. Towards 
 the close of the year Peel had the honour of receiving a 
 visit at Drayton Manor from King Louis Philippe, whom 
 he congratulated on having preserved the peace of the 
 world. The King, speaking under the influence of deep 
 emotion, replied that the task for which he had been 
 praised was easy, when at the head of affairs in this country 
 were such men as Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen. 
 
xii.] LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 187 
 
 The session of 1850 opened with bright and cheerful 
 prospects. Sir Robert Peel was heard in several debates, 
 but in none with the eloquence which marked his speech 
 during the discussion on the foreign policy of Lord 
 Palmerston. This was fated to be his last speech in that 
 House where he had long been one of its most distin- 
 guished ornaments. On the 17th of June, on a motion 
 by Lord Stanley, the Government were censured for undue 
 interference in the affairs of Greece. Two British sub- 
 jects, Mr. Finlay, a Scotchman, and Don Pacifico, a 
 Gibraltar Jew, asserted that they had been injured by 
 the Greek Government, and demanded large indemnities 
 in consequence. Serious differences arose on this sub- 
 ject between the Cabinets of London and Paris, and 
 the French Ministers at Athens and London quitted 
 their posts. Lord Stanley's motion was carried in a not 
 very large House by a majority of 37. 
 
 This defeat led to a debate on the general foreign policy 
 of the Government, opened by Mr. Roebuck, who moved 
 " That the principles on which the foreign policy of her 
 Majesty's Government has been regulated have been such 
 as were calculated to maintain the honour and dignity 
 of this country, and, in times of unexampled difficulty, to 
 preserve peace between England and the various nations 
 of the world." The debate which ensued was very 
 protracted. Sir Robert Peel rose on the last night, the 
 28th, and although he could not endorse the motion, the 
 generosity with which he spoke of Lord Palmerston 
 greatly moved the House. " We are all proud of him," 
 he said. Peel reminded the House that since the acces- 
 sion of the Whig Cabinet he had constantly supported 
 it in its home administration, and frequently also in its 
 embarrassments with foreign powers. He had now come 
 
1 88 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 forward with no condemnation, nor was he a party to 
 any combination ; but when he was required to acquiesce 
 in a declaration of positive approbation of the foreign 
 policy of the Government as distinguished from the 
 policy of its predecessors that was a different matter. 
 The resolution was too comprehensive. " It is my firm 
 belief," he said, " that you will not advance the cause of 
 constitutional government by attempting to dictate to 
 other nations. If you do, your intentions will be mis- 
 taken, you will rouse feelings upon which you do not 
 calculate, you will invite opposition to Government ; and 
 beware that the time does not arrive when, frightened by 
 your own interference, you withdraw your countenance 
 from those whom you have excited, and leave upon their 
 minds the bitter recollection that you have betrayed 
 them. If you succeed, I doubt whether or no the insti- 
 tutions that take root under your patronage will be lasting. 
 Constitutional liberty will be best worked out by those 
 who aspire to freedom by their efforts. You will only 
 overload it by your help." Mr. Roebuck's motion was 
 carried by 310 votes against 264, being a majority of 
 46 for the Government. 
 
 On the following day Sir Robert Peel left his house for 
 his usual ride. Calling first at Buckingham Palace to 
 inscribe his name on the Queen's visitors' list, he 
 proceeded up Constitution Hill, where he met one of 
 Lady Dover's daughters, also on horseback. Advancing 
 to meet her, his horse shied at some object, and threw 
 him over its head. He fell with his face to the ground. 
 Dr. Foucart, of Glasgow, who was near the spot, came 
 up, and asked Sir Robert whether he was much hurt. 
 " Yes, very much," he replied, and with a deep groan he 
 fainted before a carriage could be procured. After being 
 
xii.] LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 189 
 
 placed in the carriage of Mrs. Lucas he recovered his 
 senses, and said, " I feel better." Sir James Clark now 
 appeared and tendered his services, having heard of the 
 accident. The suffering statesman was conveyed home 
 with difficulty; but on reaching his own door he 
 resumed full consciousness, and walked into the house 
 without assistance. The meeting with Lady Peel and 
 his family greatly affected Sir Robert, and he again 
 fainted. He was carried into the nearest room, the 
 dining-room, and laid upon a sofa; from this he was 
 never moved. Sir Benjamin Brodie and other phy- 
 sicians and surgeons were summoned, but they were 
 unable to ascertain the actual effects of the accident and 
 the full extent of the injury. The alarm and nervous 
 irritability of the patient were very great, and it was not 
 until after his death that it was discovered that, in addi- 
 tion to a fracture of the collar-bone, the fifth rib on the 
 left side was fractured. It was the rib pressing upon the 
 lung, and producing a congestion of that organ, which 
 was the immediate cause of death. 
 
 As soon as the accident became known, multitudes of 
 inquirers, from the royal princes downwards, called at 
 Whitehall Gardens to ascertain the condition of the suf- 
 ferer. His condition became rapidly worse ; yet in his 
 delirium his thoughts were with his friends, and the names 
 of Lord Hardinge and Sir James Graham were frequently 
 upon his lips. On the afternoon of the 2nd of July it 
 became apparent that the end was at hand. The Bishop of 
 Gibraltar, an old friend of Sir Robert's, was sent for ; and 
 on his arrival Lady Peel and her children returned into the 
 sick-room, surrounding the bed in silence and in prayer. 
 The distinguished patient, reviving for a moment, recog- 
 nised them, and endeavoured to give them his hands, 
 
190 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 uttering the scarcely articulate words, " God bless you ! " 
 Lady Peel's emotion was so great that she had to be led 
 away. Shortly after eleven o'clock at night Sir Robert 
 expired, without agony, surrounded by three of his 
 brothers, three of his sons, his son-in-law, Lord Villiers, 
 and his cherished friends, Lord Hardinge and Sir James 
 Graham. 
 
 In the House of Commons, on the following day, in 
 the absence of Ministers, Mr. Hume, Mr. Gladstone, 
 Mr. Napier, and Sir R. H. Inglis paid their tribute of 
 homage to the deceased with, expressions of sincere 
 regret, and moved the adjournment of the House. " I am 
 quite sure," said Mr. Gladstone, " that every heart is too 
 full to allow us, at a period so early, to enter upon the 
 consideration of the amount of that calamity with which 
 the country has been visited in his, I must even now say, 
 premature death ; for though he has died full of years 
 and full of honours, yet it is a death which our human 
 eyes will regard as premature, because we had fondly 
 hoped that in whatever situation he was placed, by the 
 weight of his character, by the splendour of his talents, 
 by the purity of his virtues, he would still have been 
 spared to render to his country the most essential services. 
 I will only, sir, quote those most touching and feeling 
 lines which were applied by one of the greatest poets of 
 this country to the memory of a man great indeed, but 
 yet not greater than Sir Robert Peel : — 
 
 * Now is the stately column broke, 
 The beacon light is quenched in smoke ; 
 The trumpet's silver voice is still ; 
 The warder silent on the hill.' " 
 
 M. Dupin, the President of the French Assembly, also 
 passed an eloquent eulogium upon the deceased states- 
 
xii.] LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 191 
 
 man. On the 4th of July Lord John Russell, with the 
 sanction of the Queen, proposed to inter the remains of 
 Sir Robert Peel with public honours. In announcing 
 this to the House of Commons, his lordship justly 
 described Peel's great services to his country. " Having 
 had no political connection with him myself," said Lord 
 John Russell, " perhaps this proposal may come more 
 fitly from me, as not being moved by any partiality. 
 But I do feel that this country now, and that posterity 
 hereafter, in reckoning the names of eminent statesmen 
 who have adorned the annals of this country, and have 
 contributed to their lustre, will place that of Sir Robert 
 Peel among the foremost' " 
 
 Mr. Goulburn, who had been Peel's Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, and was one of the executors of his will, 
 declined on behalf of his family the proposal for a 
 public funeral. In doing so he quoted the following 
 passage from Sir Robert Peel's will, made on the 8th of 
 May, 1844, when the right hon. gentleman was at the 
 head of a large party in the House, and when his 
 measures had been crowned with a success even transcend- 
 ing his own expectations : " I desire that I may be 
 interred in the vault in the parish church of Drayton, in 
 which my father and mother were interred, and that my 
 funeral may be without ostentation or parade of any 
 kind." These sentiments the deceased never changed, 
 but reiterated them to Lady Peel only six weeks before 
 his death. In the House of Lords, the Marquis of Lans- 
 downe, Lord Stanley, Lord Brougham, and the Duke of 
 Wellington — two of whom had widely differed from the 
 deceased on great political questions — did honour to his 
 memory by their expressions of deep regret over his sud- 
 den and lamented death. 
 
192 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 Peel was buried at Drayton on the. 9th of July, the 
 parish church being crowded by the people amongst 
 whom he had lived, and by whom he was revered and 
 beloved. In the House of Commons, on the 12 th of July, 
 Lord John Russell proposed that a monument should be 
 erected to the deceased in Westminster Abbey. " Let 
 us do it now," said the Whig leader, " not two centuries 
 hence, as in the case of the honours to Hampden and 
 Lord Falkland — not even ten, twenty, or thirty years from 
 hence, but now, when every one agrees in the desire to 
 do honour to the memory of Sir Robert Peel." The 
 House at once assented to the proposition, and the Queen 
 gave the necessary authority for carrying it into effect. 
 
 But of all the memorials, perhaps the one to be most 
 remembered is that raised in the name of the work- 
 ing classes, and for which a penny subscription was set 
 on foot. Mr. Cobden readily associated his name with 
 this " Poor Man's National Monument." He wrote in 
 doing so, " The illustrious statesman who has been taken 
 away from us with such awful suddenness, sacrificed 
 every other object of ambition to secure to the firesides 
 and workshops of the toiling multitudes of this country 
 the blessings of increased prosperity, health, and happi- 
 ness." Mr. Cobden then reminded the working men that 
 in the moment of his severest trial, when he lost his 
 friends, and the floodgates of calumny were let loose 
 upon him, Peel turned for sympathy and justice to the 
 mass of the people. The writer also quoted the words 
 from his last speech as a Minister, which we have already 
 given in the course of this biography, and added, " Thus, 
 in the work you have undertaken, you are, perhaps un- 
 consciously, realising the aspirations of the departed 
 statesman. In piling up the pence of the working class 
 
xii. J LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 193 
 
 into a pyramid to his memory, let me suggest that the 
 above passage be inscribed upon its base. It will prove 
 that he did not over-estimate the justice or gratitude 
 of his countrymen." Monuments, statues, and other 
 memorials to Peel's memory have since been raised in 
 London, Manchester, Glasgow, and other great cities 
 and towns of the empire. 
 
 It only remains to be added here that Sir Robert Peel 
 declined a peerage, the Order of the Garter, and other 
 honours and distinctions which her Majesty and her 
 royal predecessor were desirous of conferring upon him 
 for his eminent public services. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHARACTER OF PEEL. 
 
 T F the actions of one generation must be submitted to 
 the judgment of another, there are still fitting tri- 
 butes to the worth of a statesman, or any other eminent 
 public man, which may be paid by his contemporaries. 
 Amongst such tributes is to be reckoned the universal 
 and unsolicited sympathy which was evoked by the 
 untoward death of Sir Robert Peel. This sympathy not 
 only sprang unbidden from the lips of his friends and 
 associates, but came in an equally emphatic and spon- 
 taneous degree fro'm his political opponents. It was a 
 moment when all political feelings were absorbed in the 
 feeling of regret that so distinguished a career should be 
 brought to a premature close. Those who most widely 
 differed from him admitted that in all the great acts of 
 his political life he had been actuated by a sincere and 
 conscientious desire to compass that which should be for 
 the public good. Lord Brougham, who for forty years 
 had been opposed to Sir Robert Peel on most political 
 questions, acknowledged fully and cheerfully his splendid 
 merits, and expressed his conviction that upon the sub- 
 jects on which they had differed from each other he 
 acted from the most pure and conscientious motives. 
 " At the last stage of his public career," said his lord- 
 
chap, xin.] CHARACTER OF PEEL. 195 
 
 ship, " chequered as it was, and I told him in private 
 that chequered it would be, when he was differing from 
 those with whom he had been so long connected, and 
 from purely public-spirited feelings was adopting a course 
 which was so galling and unpleasing to them — I told 
 him that he must turn from the storm without to the 
 sunshine of an approving conscience within." Whether 
 right or wrong, Peel had made sacrifices, said Brougham, 
 compared with which all the sacrifices exacted from 
 public men by a sense of public duty which he had 
 ever known or read of sunk into nothing. Lord Stanley 
 said he should be joined by universal Europe in the 
 regret he expressed for the sudden bereavement which 
 had befallen Peel's family, for the great loss sustained 
 by his country, and for the sudden removal from the 
 world of one who in private life was universally admitted 
 to be in the possession of every virtue, and to be strictly 
 unimpeachable. Whatever might be the difference of 
 political views, no one would deny to the deceased the 
 praise of having been an able, an assiduous, and a con- 
 scientious servant of his country. Nor must the brief 
 tribute of the Duke of Wellington be forgotten. The 
 Iron Duke stated that in the whole course of his com- 
 munications with Peel he never knew an instance in 
 which he did not show the strongest attachment to 
 truth, referring not to the truth of language merely, but 
 to that fuller and higher truth of motive and of un- 
 swervingly upright conduct. 
 
 As a writer of the time observed, Peel died in harness. 
 He never sought repose, and his almost morbid restless- 
 ness rendered him incapable of enjoying it. His life was 
 one of constant effort.; and, adopting the maxim that 
 anything which is worth doing is worth doing well, he 
 
196 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 gave to everything in which he engaged labour the most 
 strenuous and conscientious. His official powers were 
 justly described as Atlantean, for they have rarely been 
 paralleled, and his ministerial expositions were on the 
 same gigantic scale. A writer in the Times observed, 
 however, that " there was an almost equal appearance 
 of effort in his most casual remarks, at least when 
 in public, for he would never throw away a chance ; 
 and he still trusted to his industry rather than to his 
 powers. But a man whose life is passed in the service 
 of the public, and whose habits are parliamentary or 
 official, is not to be judged by ordinary rules, for he 
 can scarcely fail to be cold, guarded, and ostentatious. 
 His egotism was proverbial ; but, besides the excessive 
 use of the first person, it occasionally betrayed him into 
 performances at variance both with prudence and taste.' 7 
 In illustration of his egotism, it is a fact that in the 
 speeches of no statesman of equal eminence are to be 
 found so many defences of or apologies for his public 
 measures, and this is not altogether accounted for on the 
 ground that perhaps his policy was more frequently 
 attacked than that of any other political leader. 
 
 As a public speaker, Peel was one of the most effec- 
 tive orators in the House of Commons ; and yet in the 
 higher aspects of oratory his speeches fell far below those 
 of Burke, Fox, and Canning. He was fluent, but they 
 were eloquent. He had talents of silver, but they had 
 talents of gold. In a word, Peel was the product of 
 effort, while the great orators we have named were men 
 of genius. Without being able to define this genius in 
 all its fulness, we can feel wherein it differs from the 
 mere talent of less gifted men. , Peel's oratory was of 
 no burning and electric character; it was methodical, 
 
xiii.] CHARACTER OF PEEL. 197 
 
 persuasive, convincing. He had a powerful voice and 
 an emphatic delivery, and his language was sometimes 
 superior to his matter. He invariably presented the 
 topics he treated with clearness and skill. As Milton 
 said, " His words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, 
 trip about him at command, and, in well-ordered files, as 
 he could wish, fall aptly into their places." Peel 
 thoroughly enjoyed the feelings which accompany the 
 delivery of a speech of great length, and one that was 
 looked forward to by the House, and he exhibited 
 singular dexterity in replying to opponents who laid 
 themselves open to his retorts. " Let some blundering 
 speaker," said a contemporary critic, "make some 
 awkward admission or obvious exaggeration — let some 
 philosopher wander out of the ordinary track, and draw 
 arguments for annual Parliaments from the annual revo- 
 lution of the earth — then Sir Robert Peel treasures them 
 all up, gives them a ludicrous turn, and with his face all 
 wreathed with smiles turns round to enjoy the bursting 
 laughter and the ringing cheer which echo leaves behind 
 him." His practice as a debater led to his acquiring the 
 reputation of being the greatest master of plausibilities 
 in the House of Commons. As a speaker Peel occa- 
 sionally touched the heights of genuine eloquence, 
 but chiefly in those passages of his oratory which had a 
 personal bearing ; more frequently he was imposing and 
 successful in argument, and on almost all occasions he 
 was telling and effective. 
 
 In private life he was especially beloved and esteemed. 
 His reading was most extensive, his classical scholar- 
 ship being wide and accurate, and it is well known that 
 he expended his private fortune in the patronage of 
 literature and the arts. At Drayton Manor he possessed 
 
198 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 a fine library and a magnificent collection of pictures and 
 drawings. He was always ready to extend his official 
 patronage to men of talent and genius, and typical 
 instances of this arise to the memory as we think of 
 Thomas Hood and Haydon the painter. When the 
 latter was in the throes of despair, it was the hand .of 
 Peel that privately ministered to his needs. He stands 
 conspicuous amongst Ministers for the number of men 
 eminent in every branch of art and science whose merits 
 were, upon his recommendation, publicly acknowledged. 
 Although he threw himself with such ardour into public 
 life, he yet keenly enjoyed the pleasures of the country, 
 and no portion of his life was happier than that 
 which he spent at Drayton, managing his estates with 
 industry, caution, and vigour, and entering into the 
 pursuits and interests of those by whom he was sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 The character of this man, whose brilliant Administra- 
 tion effected so much permanent good for the country, 
 while personally its leader was subjected to obloquy and 
 misrepresentation, is more complex than it seems. M. 
 Capefigue, writing from the standpoint of a high Tory 
 and a high Churchman — being a Royalist in politics 
 and an Ultramontane in religion — severely censured Sir 
 Robert Peel for the rapidity of his political changes. 
 He complained that he had destroyed his party, and 
 that everything he touched he impressed with a meanness 
 of resources natural to a man specially occupied with 
 figures and calculations. The Tory party was lost, says 
 M. Capefigue, on the day it put itself into the hands of 
 Peel, because he had neither the instinct of its glory, 
 its education, nor the prescience of its great destinies. 
 We have given the opinion of this hostile foreign critic 
 
xiii.] CHARACTER OF PEEL. 199 
 
 because it is typical of that restricted band of English 
 politicians who never forgave Sir Robert Peel his re- 
 versal of the traditional policy of the Conservative party. 
 We now pass on to other opinions. " In the early part 
 of his life," says Lord Dalling and Bulwer, " I have no 
 doubt that ambition, and the personal motives of ambi- 
 tion, had a certain influence over his actions. At a 
 later period, in his last Administration, and after quitting 
 office, I believe he had no personal view that separated 
 him in the slightest degree from an entire and disin- 
 terested devotion to the interests of his country. He 
 was a scholar in the highest sense of the term; nor 
 did the attention he could give to the driest details v of 
 business damp his sympathy for the elegancies of litera- 
 ture, or his appreciation of what was beautiful, whether 
 in painting or sculpture. He had no hatred, no invete- 
 rate prejudices, against persons or things. His domestic 
 virtues are too well known to make it necessary to 
 allude to them. In short, without pretending to raise 
 him above the defects and littlenesses of human nature, 
 I do not know where to point to any one who united 
 such talents for public business with such qualities in 
 private life." The same writer, however, in instituting a 
 comparison between Canning and Peel, admits that the 
 great acts of the latter were the development of Mr. 
 Canning's principles — the hatching of the earlier states- 
 man's ideas. " Each left a school. In the one we may 
 learn how to sustain our renown and our power abroad ; 
 in the other how to advance our prosperity at home. 
 Both were the citizens of a free State ; but if I might 
 venture to distinguish the peculiarities of these two 
 illustrious Englishmen by a reference to classical ex- 
 amples, I would say that the one resembled a Greek in 
 
200 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 the most glorious times of Athens, the other reminded 
 you of a Roman in the noblest epoch of the city of 
 Romulus." 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield, in his " Life of Lord George Ben- 
 tinck," has left a sketch of the character of Peel which 
 has been frequently commented upon. He complains 
 that while gifted and accomplished, Peel had one great 
 deficiency — he lacked imagination, and wanting imagina- 
 tion he wanted prescience. After a protracted display 
 of admirable tactics, he always concluded his campaigns 
 by surrendering at discretion. There was always some 
 person representing a theory or system exercising an 
 influence over his mind. His life was one of perpetual 
 education. No one ever strained the constitution so 
 much ; and he was the unconscious parent of political 
 agitation. As regards his oratory, his style may be called 
 the didactic. These are some of the points of the criticism 
 which Lord Beaconsfield thus concludes : " One cannot 
 say of Sir Robert Peel, notwithstanding his unrivalled 
 power of despatching affairs, that he was the greatest 
 Minister that this country ever produced, because, twice 
 placed at the helm, and on the second occasion with the 
 Court and the Parliament equally devoted to him, he never 
 could maintain himself in power. Nor, notwithstanding 
 his consummate parliamentary tactics, can he be described 
 as the greatest party leader that ever flourished amongst 
 us, for he contrived to destroy the most compact, power- 
 ful, and devoted party that ever followed a British states- 
 man. Certainly, notwithstanding his great sway in debate, 
 we cannot recognise him as our greatest orator, for in 
 many of the supreme requisites of oratory he was singu- 
 larly deficient. But what he really was, and what pos- 
 terity will acknowledge him to have been, is the greatest 
 
xiii.] CHARACTER OF PEEL. 201 
 
 member of Parliament that ever lived." In an acute and 
 discriminating analysis of Peel's character by Mr. Bage- 
 hot, that writer expresses in different form a similar idea 
 to one cited from Lord Beaconsfield, when he says that 
 Peel did not so much act himself as he was acted 
 upon. But Mr. Bagehot adds that Peel purified the 
 Tory party, and that so long as constitutional statesman- 
 ship is what it is now (he was writing a quarter of a 
 century ago), " so long as its function is the recording 
 the views of a confused nation, so long as success in it is 
 confined to minds plastic, changeful, administrative, we 
 must hope for no better. You have excluded the profound 
 thinker ; you must be content with what you can obtain 
 — the business gentleman." Mr. Roebuck remarked 
 that had the intellect of Sir Robert Peel been of a bolder 
 and more original cast he would probably have been a 
 less successful Minister, as in that case he might often 
 have proposed reforms before the nation was prepared to 
 receive them, and thus have diminished his power as a 
 Minister while earning the renown of a philosopher. 
 The statesman, to be useful, must be powerful ; and in a 
 Government like ours, and among a practical people like 
 the English, the safest course for a reforming Minister is 
 never to be before his age." The same critic well ob- 
 serves that Peel's sympathies were not sectional but 
 national. 
 
 We cannot exhaust the judgments which have been 
 given of the character of Peel, but two more we will add 
 to those already quoted — one from a French statesman 
 who was thrown into personal contact with him, the other 
 from an English relative. " He was a great and honest 
 servant of the State," says M. Guizot, having previously 
 paid a tribute to his disinterestedness, " proud with a sort 
 
202 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. 
 
 of humility, and desiring to shine with no brilliancy 
 extrinsic to his natural sphere ; devoted to his country 
 without any craving for reward ; heedless of fixed prin- 
 ciples or long-standing political combinations; anxious at 
 all times to ascertain what was demanded by the public 
 interest, and ready to carry it into effect without caring 
 either for parties and their rules of conduct or for his own 
 acts and words ; severing himself from the past without 
 cynical indifference, braving the future without adven- 
 turous boldness, solely swayed by the desire to meet the 
 necessities of the present, and to do himself honour by 
 delivering his country from peril or embarrassment." He 
 was always patriotic and sincere, "and marvellously 
 adapted, in a period of transition like ours, to conduct 
 the Government of modern society as it has become, and 
 as it is becoming more and more, in England and else- 
 where, under the influence of the democratic principles 
 and feelings which have been fermenting in Europe for 
 fifteen centuries, and which in our days are gaining vic- 
 tories in regard to which no one can yet tell what will be 
 their true and final result." 
 
 Answering the oft-repeated charge that the character 
 of Peel is an enigma, Sir Lawrence Peel observes that 
 " his mind might have been in some instances more 
 constant, but that constancy would have been gained at 
 the cost of its truthfulness. The struggles of his 
 political life resemble those of the religious life of 
 many an earnest man. Examine the life of a Luther ; 
 see the reluctance to move, the tardy steps, the falter- 
 ing, the halting steps, a backward step or two, the 
 doubts whether the speaking spirit be of heaven or 
 of hell, the final, full, and glorious close ; let a man 
 then look inward ; let him insert in his own mind 
 
xiii.] CHARACTER OF PEEL. 203 
 
 the ' tent that reaches to the bottom of the worst ; ' 
 let him ask himself in earnest if he has not felt these 
 agonies at various stages of his life and of his opinions : 
 and I think he will find within himself a solution of 
 the question why this great man's character has appeared 
 an enigma." It was impossible for such a man either 
 to suppress his convictions or to refrain from acting 
 upon them. 
 
 Words once used to describe Walpole are eminently 
 applicable to the statesman whose career we have traced. 
 By his intelligence and prudence, and without the assist- 
 ance of the more divine influence of genius, he was able 
 to perceive and provide for the interests of a commercial 
 nation ; and he saw that he could assist the prosperity of 
 his country effectually by clearing away, as much as 
 possible, the duties and impositions by which he found 
 British commerce encumbered and impoverished. " He 
 found our Book of Rates (or the Tariff) the worst and 
 left it the best in Europe — a most important eulogism. 
 We have here merit, and of a most solid nature ; a man 
 in a high station going through minute details and tediously 
 disgusting examinations, and exerting his patience, his 
 industry, and his talents in a sort of silent and obscure 
 drudgery, where, though they were exerted highly to the 
 benefit of the community, they could not be exerted with 
 that eclat to which they most assuredly were entitled." 
 While not exhaustive, these sentences sufficiently in- 
 dicate the nature of Peel's commercial policy. But 
 there was more in this eminent man than the mere 
 reformer of the commercial tariff. It is, perhaps, his 
 most conspicuous merit that he knew the seasons when 
 to take public opinion at the flood, and thus to avert 
 revolution by timely concessions. There were periods 
 
204 SIR ROBERT PEEL. [chap. xiii. 
 
 of national crisis when he only had the power to carry 
 organic changes loudly demanded by the people ; and it 
 is his abiding distinction that he answered the call as a 
 patriot and a statesman, while he suffered his fame as a 
 great party leader to be temporarily overshadowed. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen, Lord, his foreign policy, 151. 
 
 Althorp, Lord, denounces the Wellington Ministry, 89 ; measure 
 
 for reforming the Irish Church, 104 ; resigns office, ill. 
 Amusing squib on Peel, 7. 
 Attwood, Mr., passage of* arms with Peel, 117. 
 
 Bagehot, Mr., on Peel and the Tory party, 201. 
 
 Ballot, Peel's opinions on the, 105. 
 
 Bank Charter, revision of the, 153. 
 
 Bank of England, its issues, 22 ; its charter, 107 ; the paper money 
 question, 24. 
 
 Bed-Chamber Plot, the, 134. 
 
 Beresford, Archbishop, seconds rejection of Catholic Emancipation 
 Bill, 73. 
 
 Blandford, Marquis of, introduces a motion on parliamentary re- 
 form, 83. 
 
 Bright, Mr. John, appeals to Peel on the Corn Laws, 162 ; eulogium 
 on the Premier, 173. 
 
 Brodie, Sir Benjamin, attends Peel, 189. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, his attack on Lord Eldon, 49 ; on the Duke of 
 "Wellington, 88; becomes Lord Chancellor, 91; tribute to 
 Peel, 194. 
 
 Burdett, Sir F., committal of, 9. 
 
 Byron and Peel at Harrow, 5. 
 
 Canning, duel with Castlereagh, 7; powerful speech on the 
 Catholic claims, 44 ; Foreign Secretary, 46 ; scene with 
 Brougham, 47 ; speech against the Holy Alliance, 51 ; sum- 
 moned by the King, 52 ; forms a Ministry, 53 ; difficulties of 
 his Government, 54 ; illness and death, 55. 
 
 Canning and Peel, comparison between, 199. 
 
 Capefigue, M., estimate of Peel, 198. 
 
 Caroline, Queen, the case of, 31. 
 
 Catholic claims, the, 16. 
 
 Catholic Emancipation Bill carried in the Commons, 50 ; rejected 
 by the Lords, 50 ; Peel's measure carried, 74. 
 
 Chatham, Lord, resigns office, 12. 
 
206 INDEX. 
 
 Children in factories, 157. 
 
 Cobbett, William, his motion against Peel, 26. 
 
 Cobden, Mr., urges Peel to declare for Free Trade, 149 ; imputation 
 upon, 149; speech on the Corn Laws, 159; on Peel, 173, 192. 
 
 Committee on currency, 22. 
 
 Corn Laws, Peel speaks on, 130 ; his revised scheme, 140 ; Peel's 
 declaration in 1843, 149 ; a formidable question, 162 ; speeches 
 of Bright and Cobden, 162 ; Lord John Russell's letter on, 
 163; Peel's great scheme for repeal, 167 ; debates, 171 ; Peel's 
 Bill carried, 175. 
 
 Criminal laws, disgraceful condition of the, 37. 
 
 Dalling and Bulwer, Lord, on Peel's Catholic Emancipation 
 
 policy, 76 ; estimate of Peel, 199. 
 Disraeli, Mr. (Lord Beaconsfield), attacks upon Peel, 155, 157, 
 
 160; Peel's cutting reply to, 161; again attacks Peel, 167; 
 
 motions by, 180, 181 ; sketch of character of Peel, 200. 
 Don Pacifico case, the, 187. 
 
 Drummond, Mr., assassinated in mistake for Peel, 149. 
 Durham, Lord, secedes from Whig Ministry, 108. 
 
 Eldon, Lord, 36 ; defended by Peel, 48. 
 Ellenborough's, Lord, Indian policy, 86. 
 English and Irish Poor Laws, 81. 
 Epigram on the Earl of Chatham, 10. 
 
 Financial statements by Peel, important, 144, 158. 
 Forty years of reforms, 14. 
 
 Gascoyne, General, moves rejection of Reform Bill, 93. 
 
 George IV., King, and the Catholic question, 60; vacillating con- 
 duct, 61 ; yields to the Premier's appeal, 64 ; gives his assent 
 to the Catholic Emancipation Bill, 74 ; dies somewhat sud- 
 denly, 87. 
 
 Gibraltar, the Bishop of, attends Peel in his last illness, 189. 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., assists Peel with his New Tariff, 144 ; Vice- 
 President of the Board of Trade, 148 ; introduces the Bonded 
 Corn Bill, 148 ; Secretary for the Colonies, 164; on the death 
 of Peel, 190. 
 
 Glasgow University, Peel Lord Rector of, 127. 
 
 Goderich, Lord, his brief Administration, 56. 
 
 Goulburn, Mr., and Peel's will, 191. 
 
 Gower, Lord, 9. 
 
 Graham, Sir James, eulogium on Peel, 76 ; alliance with Peel, 128. 
 
 Grey, Sir George, Irish Protection Bill, 182. 
 
 Grey, Lord, supports Catholic emancipation, 74 ; becomes Prime 
 Minister, 91 ; resigns office, 112. 
 
 Guizot, M., on Peel's Catholic Emancipation policy, 75 ; observa- 
 tions on the character of Peel, 201. 
 
INDEX. 207 
 
 Hardinge, Lord, Peel's letter to, 178. 
 
 Herbert, Sidney, replies to Cobden, 160. 
 
 Holy Alliance, the, 46. 
 
 Howard, John, tribute 1 to, by Burke and Bentham, 38. 
 
 Howley, Archbishop, moves rejection of Catholic Emancipation 
 
 Bill, 73- 
 Hume, Mr., Peel's misunderstanding with, 116. 
 Huskisson, Mr., and the Wellington Ministry, 58. 
 
 Income Tax, Peel on the, 158. 
 
 Ireland, deplorable condition of the South, 17; inquiry into the 
 
 condition of the country, 18 ; Coercion Bill introduced, 104 ; 
 
 further restrictive measures, 182 ; its Poor Laws, 184. 
 Irish Municipal Reform Bill, the, 126. 
 
 Labouchere, Mr., motion on the Jamaica question, 132. 
 Lansdowne, Marquis of, appointed President of the Council, 124. 
 Liverpool, Lord, and Peel, 13; succeeds to the Premiership, 15. 
 Livery of London petition Parliament, 9. 
 
 Lloyd, Bishop of Oxford, supports Catholic Emancipation, 73. 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, supports Catholic Emancipation, 74. 
 
 Macaulay, Mr., speaks in favour of reform, 93, 96. 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir J., and reforms of the criminal code, 39; on the 
 crown of Portugal, 85. 
 
 Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Peel and the, 179. 
 
 Manchester massacre, the (Peterloo), 28 ; its effects, 31. 
 
 Maynooth College scheme, Peel's, 154 ; fiercely attacked, 155 ; 
 the Bill passes, 156. 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, becomes Prime Minister, 112; his Ministry dis- 
 missed, 113; again becomes Premier, 124; his defeat and 
 resignation, 133 ; returns to office, 135 ; defeated on the sugar 
 duties, 137; further defeated on a motion by Peel, 137; dis- 
 solves Parliament, 137 ; finally resigns office, 139,. 
 
 Memorable scene in the House of Commons, 65. 
 
 Municipal Reform Act carried, 125. 
 
 O'Connell, Daniell, on Peel, 15; Repeal of the Union, 16; his 
 famous attack on Peel, 17; challenges the Chief Secretary to 
 a duel, 18 ; elected for Clare, 59 ; scene inParliament, 82 ; sent 
 back for re-election, 83 ; commences agitation in Ireland, 85 ; 
 episode with Sheil and Althorp, 109; his arrest, 151; the 
 prosecution proves abortive, 152. 
 
 Oxford University, Peel elected for, 21. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, 7 ; defends CatholicEmancipation, 70; appointed 
 
 Foreign Secretary, 124; debate on his foreign policy, 187. 
 Parnell, Sir Henrv, motion on the Civil List, 89. 
 
208 INDEX. 
 
 Peel, the first Sir Robert, his patriotism and loyalty, 4 ; created a 
 baronet, 4 ; opposed to his son's currency views, 24. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, the statesman, 2 ; his characteristics, 2 ; ancestors, 
 3 ; his father, 3 ; Peel's birth and education, 5 ; distinguished 
 career at Oxford, 6 ; elected for Cashel, 6 ; first speech in Par- 
 liament, 8 ; on the "Walcheren expedition, 10 ; defends the 
 Government, 1.1 ; his personal appearance, 13 ; is praised by 
 the King, 13 ; appointed Under-Secretary for the Colonies, 13 ; 
 Chief Secretary for Ireland, 15 ; introduces peace perservation 
 measures, 17; speech against Catholic Emancipation, 19; 
 elected for Oxford University, 21 ; retires from Irish secretary- 
 ship, 21 ; chairman of the committee on currency, 22 ; his 
 measure for the resumption of cash payments, 24 ; defends 
 himself against Cobbett, 27 ; defends the Manchester magis- 
 trates and the Six Acts, 29 ; on case of Queen Caroline, 32 ; 
 speech on the Catholic claims, 33 ; appointed Home Secretary, 
 36 ; civil and criminal reforms, 39 ; police legislation, 40 ; his 
 services at the Home Office, 41 ; vindicates his policy on the 
 currency, 42 ; his reply to Canning on Catholic claims, 45 ; his 
 measure for an Irish Constabulary Force, 46 ; on the franchise 
 for Catholics, 47 ; rivalry with Canning, 48 ; declines to join 
 his Ministry, 53 ; throws in his lot with the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, 54 ; Home Secretary and leader of the House of Commons, 
 57 ; on the Test and Corporation Acts, 58 ; resolves to settle 
 the Catholic question, 60 ; interview with the King, 61 ; resigns 
 his seat for Oxford, 63 ; his return for "Westbury, 63 ; difficulty 
 with the King, 64 ; introduces the Catholic Emancipation Bill 
 in the House of Commons, 65 ; memorable scene, 65 ; Peel's 
 speech, 66 ; his greatest oratorical effort, 70 ; tribute to Can- 
 ning, 71; replies to Sir C. Wether ell, 72; criticisms on his 
 Catholic Emancipation policy, 74 ; his defence of this policy, 78 ; 
 establishes a Metropolitan Police Force, 81 ; on Irish and 
 English Poor Laws, 81 ; the case of O'Connell, 82; opposes 
 the extinction of small boroughs, 8^ ; defends the Government 
 on their Portuguese policy, 85 ; defends the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, 86 ; succeeds his father in the baronetcy, 90; his marriage 
 and family, 90; on Reform, 93, 96, 98, 99 ; answers O'Connell, 
 103 ; supports Coercion Bill, 105 ; opinions on the ballot, 105 ; 
 on the Polish question, 107 ; the Union with Ireland, 109 ; on 
 the disabilities of Dissenters, 112; appointed Prime Minister, 
 114 ; address to the electors of Tamworth, 114 ; declaration on . 
 Reform, 115; misunderstanding with Mr. Hume, 116; witty 
 retort on Mr. Attwood, 117; announcement of Government 
 policy, 117; speech on the Irish Church question, 119 ; defeat 
 of his Government, 120 ; he resigns office, 122 ; speech on the 
 Church Rate question, 124; again justifies his policy of 1819, 
 125 ; opposes Irish Municipal Reform Bill, 126 ; elected Lord 
 Rector of Glasgow University, 127; important address at 
 Merchant Taylors' Hall, 128 ; speech on the Corn Laws, 130 ; 
 
INDEX. 209 
 
 on the Jamaica Bill, 133 ; the Bed-Chamber Plot, 134 ; ex- 
 plains his views on Ireland, 135 ; moves a vote of want of 
 confidence in the Melbourne Ministry, 137 ; is again called to 
 the Premiership, 139 ; his revised Corn Law scheme, 140 ; new 
 tariff of 1842, 144 ; important financial statement, 144 ; on the 
 property and income tax, 145 ; answers the taunts of Lord 
 Palmerston, 148; assassination of his private secretary, 149; 
 his imputation upon Mr. Cobden, 149 ; the Irish policy of his 
 Government, 150; the revision of the Bank Charter, 153 ; his 
 Maynooth College scheme, 154 ; appeals to his supporters, 157 ; 
 financial statement of 1845, 158 ; his retort on Mr. Disraeli, 
 161 ; resolves to abolish the Corn Laws, 163 ; temporarily resigns 
 office, 163; resumes the Premiership, 164; explains the minis- 
 terial measures, 166; his great scheme for the repeal of the 
 Corn Laws, 167 ; defends his measure, 172; the Bill carried, 
 175 ; tribute to Mr. Cobden, 175 ; defeat of his Government, 
 175; memorable speech on leaving office, 176; letter to Lord 
 Hardinge, 178; reply to the Manchester Chamber of Com- 
 merce, 179 ; manifesto to the electors of Tamworth, 180; speech 
 on Mr. Disraeli's motion, 180; on the education question, 183 ; 
 in favour of removing Jewish disabilities, 183 ; important speech 
 on Ireland, 184 ; entertained at the Mansion House, 186 ; 
 receives a visit from King Louis Philippe, 186; last speech in 
 Parliament, 187; is thrown from his horse, 188; illness and 
 death, 189; tributes to him in the House of Commons, 190; 
 . buried at Drayton, 192; monuments to his memory, 193; 
 sympathy at his death, 194; his character, 196; oratory, 196; 
 private life, 197. 
 
 Peel, Sir L., on Catholic Emancipation policy, 74; on Sir Robert 
 Peel, 209. 
 
 Peel, Jonathan, votes against Catholic Emancipation, 70. 
 
 Peel, William Yates, the friend of Byron, 6. 
 
 Perceval, Spencer, Prime Minister, 7 ; discovers the worth of Peel, 
 13 ; assassinated, 15. 
 
 Plunket on the condition of Ireland, 19 ; eloquent speech on the 
 Catholic claims, 32. 
 
 Poor man's national monument to Peel, 192. 
 
 Portland Ministry, the, 7. 
 
 Portugal, the crown of, 84. 
 
 Quarterly Review, the, on the London watch system, 40. 
 Queen Caroline, the case of, 32. 
 
 Railway mania of 1845, the, 161. 
 
 Reform, the first Bill defeated, 94 ; scene in the House, 94 ; dissolu- 
 tion of Parliament, 96 ; riots in London and the provinces, 96 ; 
 the Bill reintroduced and carried, 98 ; rejected by the Lords, 
 98; further riots in the country, 99; "The Bill, the whole 
 P 
 
2io INDEX. 
 
 Bill, and nothing but the Bill," ioo ; the Whig Government 
 retires, 101 ; resumes office and carries the Bill, 101 ; Peel's 
 declaration on, 115. 
 
 Repeal of the Union, agitation for, 151. 
 
 Resumption of cash payments, measure for, 24. 
 
 Roebuck Mr., motion on Whig foreign policy, 187; remarks on 
 Peel, 201. 
 
 Romilly, Sir Samuel, and the Reformation of the Criminal Code, 
 38. 
 
 Russell, Lord John, moves the repeal of the Test and Corporation 
 Acts, 57 ; introduces Reform Bill, 92 ; motion on the Irish 
 Church, 119; appointed Home Secretary, 124; letter to the 
 electors of London, 163; fails to form a Government, 164; 
 succeeds Peel as Premier, 178 ; on the death of Peel, 191 ; pro- 
 poses a national monument, 192. 
 
 Sadler, M. T., opposes Catholic Emancipation, 70. 
 
 Sidmouth, Lord, and the Manchester massacre, 29. 
 
 Six Acts, the, 29. 
 
 Slavery, abolition of colonial, 188. 
 
 Stanley (Lord Derby) attacked by O'Connell, 103 ; joins the Peel 
 
 party, 128 ; allusions to Peel, 195. 
 Statesmen judged by posterity, 1. 
 Sussex, Duke of, supports Catholic Emancipation, 74. 
 
 Tamworth, Peel's address to the electors of, 114 ; manifesto, 180. 
 Tariff of 1842, Peel's great, 148. 
 Test and Corporation Acts, 58. 
 
 ViLLlERS, Mr. C. P., motion on the Corn Laws, 130; proposes 
 amendment to Peel's measure, 174. • 
 
 Walcheren expedition, the, 10. 
 
 Walpole and Peel, a comparison between, 203. 
 
 Ward, Mr., motion on the Irish Church, III. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, and the Premiership, 52 ; relations with 
 -Peel, 53-4 ; commander-in-chief, 56 ; forms a Tory Govern- 
 ment, 57 ; moves second reading of the Catholic Relief Bill in 
 
 , the Lords, 73 ; unpopularity of his Government, 85 ; declara- 
 tion on the Reform question, 88 ; fall of his Administration, 90 ; 
 accepts a seat in Peel's Cabinet, 139 ; supports abolition of the 
 Corn Laws, 163 ; eulogy on Peel, 196. 
 
 Westbury, Peel returned for, 63. 
 
 Westminster Review, the, on constitutional changes, 14 ; on 
 Catholic Emancipation, 77. 
 
 Wetherell, Sir C, opposes Catholic Emancipation, 71. 
 
INDEX. in 
 
 William IV., King, speech in favour of the Catholic claims, 63 ; 
 
 death of, 138. 
 Wood, G. W., introduces bill to admit Dissenters into universities, 
 
 112. 
 
 York, the Duke of, extraordinary declaration by, 50 ; death of, 51. 
 Yorke, E., moves rejection of Corn Law Bill, 174. 
 Yorke, Sir Joseph, amusing bon mot by, 73. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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