1'ECQVET, JEAN. 



PEEL, SIR ROBERT. 



Worki of Mr. John Milton,' Ito. London, 1740. And 5, 

 of tb Lif and Action* of Oliver Cromwell,' 4to, London, 

 BM U>** he published several icrtnoni and poems, and, 

 In 1741, hi* last work. Tolnme of religious discourse*, lie contem- 

 plated various other works, rome of which appear to have been 

 completed, hot noo* wen made public. Among hit manuscript*, the 

 greater part of which became the property of Sir Thomas Cave, Bart, 

 w*r five volume* in 4to, fairly transcribed for the press, entitled 

 Monuticon Arglinnum.' Theae are now depoaitexl in the British 

 Museum. Mr. Peck concladed a laborious and useful life, July 9, 

 1T4S, and was buried in his church of Godeby. 



I'KX'fET, JEAN, was born at Dieppe in 1622. He studied 

 medicine at Hontpellier; and while a pupil there, in 1647, be made 

 the discovery, for which he i* chiefly celebrated, of the receptaculum 

 obyli and the thoracic duct He afterwards went to Paris, and con- 

 tinued hi* researches on the lymphatic system, and showed that the 

 UeUal* do nrt. as had been imagined, terminate in the absorbent 

 gland*, or the liver, or the spleen, but in the receptacle which he had 

 fliicoverwl ; and that their fluid is thence transmitted by the thoracic 

 duet to the left eubclavian vein. His discovery may bo said to have 

 put an end to the idea long entertained, that the blood was formed in 

 the livi r, and to have added important confirmation of the Harveian 

 account of the circulation. 1 'coquet died in 1674. 



I'KDRO, PON, Emperor of Brazil and King of Portugal, was the 

 on of John VI., king of Portugal, and was born at the castle of 

 Quelui on the 12th of Oct. 179S. From early youth he was the 

 active witness of the long scries of political troubles which distracted 

 Portugal ; at the age of nine he accompanied his father, then regent 

 for the Queen Maria Isabella, in their exile to Brazil. The mis- 

 fortunes which had befallen his family became the means of developing 

 tie activity of bis mind, by d-priring him of the hope of depending 

 on other sources than those which should arise from his owu talents 

 and energy. He applied himself with considerable success to the 

 acquisition of various languages, while he devoted the hours usually 

 pent in recreation to the cultivation of poetry and music. At the 

 general pence of 1815 a marriage was contracted for the young prince 

 of Brazil, the title by which bo was then known, with Maria Leopol- 

 dina, archduchess of Austria. At that period the colony of Brazil was 

 raised to the rank of a kingdom, and, when in 1820, John VI. was 

 recalled to Portugal by the Cortes, Don Pedro remained as regent in 

 that country. 



Hi* first position in political life was one of peculiar difficulty ; to 

 preserve the authority with which he had been intrusted, and to 

 secure the peace and prosperity of the kingdom, required the exercise 

 of diplomatic skill, and a firm resolution of no ordinary kind. The 

 Cortes of Portugal were desirous of reducing Brazil to its ancient 

 position as a colony, and to confine its commerce to the mother 

 country ; they also designed for it a new system of government by 

 dividing it into provincial administrations. The prince regent, 

 sensible of the impolicy and injustice of this scheme, placed himself 

 at the bead of the popular opposition which it excited, and refused 

 obedience to the attempted innovations. The Portuguese troops 

 stationed at Pernambnco and Rio Janiero were sent back to Europe, 

 while, on the other hand, the Portuguese commandaut at Bahia 

 retained po**e**ion of that town, and expelled from it the militia. 

 Civil war was the necessary consequence of these proceedings, and on 

 the 13th of May Don Pedro was proclaimed protector and perpetual 

 defender of Brazil ; and, finally, on tha repeated refusal of the Portu- 

 guese Cort* to abandon their design, the independence of Brazil was 

 declared ; and the prince, yielding to the popular wish, was proclaimed 

 emperor on the 12th of October Ib22, and was crowned on the 1st of 

 Dee-ember in the same year. 



Though Don Pedro appears to have satisfied the exigencies of the 

 new state by granting it a constitution based upon liberal principles, 

 partial outbreaks of resistance to his government continued to manifest 

 theowelve*. The long anarchy which had existed in the provinces 

 rendered the inhabitants indisposed to submit to regular rule, and the 

 instinctive hatred of the liracilian* against the Portuguese diminished 

 UM popularity of the ruler. Insurrections broke out at Pernambuco, 

 Ban Salvador, and Bahia, which were however sperdily checked. In 

 1825 the independence of Brazil was recognised by Portugal. The 

 following year a dispute arose between Brazil and the neighbouring 

 republic of Buenos Ayr**, respecting the possession of the territory 

 named the Banda Oriental, the inhabitant* of which were desirous 

 of aiiLena themselves to the new empire, and a war was the result, 

 which trrmintrd unfavourably to the interest* of Brazil. T<> this 

 cause of duoontont another was aHd.d by the death of John VI. in 

 Marsh 1826, and the oonwquent succession of Don Pedro to the 

 crown of Portugal, the Brazilians being afraid that he would prrfer 

 toe kingdom which doended to him by hereditary right, an. I thus 

 Brazil tboul'l again become reduced to the position of a dependency 

 of 1'ortugaL These fears however he endeavoured to dispel by 

 abdicating the crown of Portugal in favour of bis daughter Donna 

 Maria da Oloru, reserving to himself the regency, with the title of 

 king, during her minority. The succeeding years of bis r, ign were 

 ned by continual disturbances of a political nature throughout 

 the ouui.try In 1880 the French revolution uavo a new impulse to 

 the democratic*! party, and an affray which took on the Oth of April 



1 831 , determined Don Pedro upon abdicating the throne in favour of 

 his son, to whom, being under age, h appointed a guardian, ninl the 

 following day he left the country. 



The throne of Portugal, which Don Pedro bad resigned in favour 

 of Donna Maria, had been usurped by hi* brother Don Miguel, whom 

 in 1887 be had appointed regent of the kingdom. His object was now 

 to recover th country from the usurper, and to reinstate his daughter 

 in the rights of which she had been deprived. The plan of the 

 enterprise was matured during a somewhat lengthened sojourn in 

 Paris, where he was joined by the exiled Portuguese who had espoused 

 his cause, at the head of whom was General Saldanhs, and a great 

 number of foreign adventurers. It is unnecessary here to enter upon 

 the detaiU of the civil war which ensued ; it will be enough to state 

 that on the 26th of May 1 832, Don Miguel was reduced to the necessity 

 of signing a convention, which left the young queen in quiet possession 

 of the throne of Portugal under the regency of Don Pedro. 



The acts of his short administration were calculated to secure for 

 him the good will of the more liberal party in his dominion* ; but 

 many of them, though they may have been expedient, were certainly 

 unjust. He strengthened the external relations of Portugal by a close 

 alliance with England and France, and in order to give on interest to 

 the people in the new revolution he confiscated for thu use of the 

 state the property of the numerous moncstic establishment* in his 

 kingdom. The anathemas of the Vatican were the natural result of 

 these sweeping measures, and they were soon followed by his own 

 excommunication. In September 1832 the declining state of hi* 

 health compelled him to resign the regency, and his daughter, having 

 been declared of age, was placed in full possession of the royal autho- 

 rity. He did not long survive to assist the young queen with his 

 counsels, and the palace where he had been born was the scene of his 

 death on the 24th of September 1884. 



PKKL, SIR ROBERT, the first baronet, was born 25th April IT.'.O, 

 1's Cross, near Lancaster, a small property belonging to his 

 father, Mr. liobert Peel, whose third son he was. The family, though 

 not wealthy, appears to have been of some respectability for several 

 generations. It is said that the subject of this notice early gave 

 evidence both of remarkable business talents, and of a decided ambi- 

 tion and determination to raise himself in the world. He and most of 

 his brothers were brought up to different branches of the cotton-trade, 

 then fast extending under the effect of the inventions of Arkwright, 

 whose personal success in the acquirement of wealth and station was 

 also of course operating as a powerful example and incentive. The 

 mechanical processes of the trade are said to have early engaged much 

 of Peel's attention, though they were never indebted to him for any 

 improvement, so far as we are aware. He made his fortune by his general 

 ingenuity and sagacity, by his unremitting activity and attention, by 

 his comprehensive boldness of enterprise, and by his admirable conduct 

 of business, alike in its largest scope and in its minutest details. 



In 1773 Mr. Robert Peel entered into partnership with Mr. William 

 Yates in an extensive factory at Bury, in Lancashire ; and on the 8th 

 of July 1783 he married Ellen, daughter of Mr. Yates, who had then just 

 completed her seventeenth year. His career from this time was one of 

 great and uninterrupted prosperity. About the time of his marriage 

 he purchased a considerable estate in Lancashire; and in the course 

 of a few years he invested large additional Bums of money in laud in 

 the counties of Stafford and Warwick. 



It ha* been asserted that Mr. Peel's principles were originally favour- 

 able to the French revolution, or at least to the class of opinions in 

 which that movement originated ; but this, we apprehend, must be a 

 mistake. He appears to hare first come forward as a politician in 1 780 

 by the publication of a pamphlet entitled ' The National Debt produc- 

 tive of National Prosperity,' a title which may be taken as evidence 

 that hi* views at that date were the very reverse of revolutionary or 

 disaffected. In 1790 he was returned to parliament as one of the 

 members for Tamworth, in and near which borough he had acquired 

 large property; and it is indisputable that from the moment ho 

 entered the House of Commons", in which he sat for the same borough 

 in seven successive parliaments, or to the end of the reign of Qeorge 

 III., he was a steady and zealous supporter of the government 



In 1797 Messrs. Peel and Yates distinguished themselves by the 

 considerable subscription of 10,0002. to what was called the Loyalty 

 Loan. In 1798 Mr. Peel further showed his loyalty and public spirit 

 by the part which he took iu encouraging the volunteer system. 

 Beside* assisting in tho formation of the Lancashire Feucibles, and 

 the Tamworth Armed Association, he raised, chiefly from among hia 

 own workmen, six companies of what were called the Bury Loyal 

 Volunteers, and got himself commissioned as their lieutenant-colonel. 

 On the 14th of February 179V, he made a speech in tho House of 

 Commons in favour of the Union with Ireland, which was soon after 

 printed and extensively circulated in that country. On tho 29th of 

 November 1800, he was created a baronet. 



Sir Robert Peel, the number of persons employed by whom is paid 

 to have amounted in 1803 to fifteen thousand, lived for ten yean after 

 his retirement from parliament in 1820, dying at his seat of Dray ton 

 Park, in Staffordshire, on the 3rd of May 1830. On the 18th of Octo- 

 ber If 05, he had married a second wife, Susanna, sister of the Rev. Sir 

 William Henry Clarke, Bart., Rector of the parish of liury, who died 

 on the 19th of September 1824. By his first wife, who died on the 



