PEEL, SIU ROBERT. 



PEEL, SIR ROBERT. 



reform. 



bit ministry 



Prior to the time of Lord LiTi>rpool't 

 broken iototwo parties the Old Tory or 



i- Peel party who *tood oppoied to the Roman Catholic claim*, ami 

 of whom Mr. Peel wu the active leader; and the more liberal party, 

 who, with Canning aa their leader, were approximating to the Whip. 



The question, on Lord Liverpool's retirement, wu whether by th 

 appointment of a nobleman of high rank and influence, such as the 

 Duke of Wellington, to tuooeed him, the two parties could be held 

 together, or whether a new ministry chould bo formed of which 

 Canning should be the head. The second was the alternative which 

 actually came to pas*. The king, though personally hostile to the 

 Roman Catholic claims, empowered Mr. Canning to form a ministry in 

 which the Roman Catholic question should be an open one, but which 

 should be pledged to resist parliamentary reform or any repeal of the 

 Tet and Corporation Act In this ministry, the formation of which 

 was regarded as a new epoch in the political history of the country, 

 and was accordingly welcomed by many of the leading Whigs, Mr. 

 Canning held the chancellorship of the Exchequer together with the 

 premier'* usual office of first Lord of the- Treasury; and the blanks in 

 the administration canted by the aeoemon of Lord Eldon, Mr. Peel, 

 the Duke of Wellington, Lord Melville, and others, were filled up by the 

 flection of men willing to act along with Mr. Canning among whom 

 was Mr. Robinson (now created Lord Goderich) as colonial secretary. 

 and Mr. Copley (now Lord Lyudhurst) at lord chancellor (April 1827) 

 [CASKIXO, GEORGE ] 



On Mr. Canning's death (Aug. 8, 1827), his anomalous ministry, so 

 delicately poUed between the Tories and the Whi^, was continued for 

 a few months by Ix>ni Qoderich ; but on his resignation, in January 

 1828, a new miniitry wu formed of the old Tory construction, with 

 the important and significant exception, that Lord Eldon was not 

 rr-in'tatcd in the chancellorship, but Lord Lyndhurst continued in it. 

 The following wu the composition of the cabinet of this memorable 

 administration, which, from the names of its two chiefs, is now 

 usually called the Wellington-Peel Administration : First Lord of the 

 Treasury, the Duke cf Wellington ; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 Mr. Ooulburn; Lord-Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurat; Presidrnt of the 

 Council. Earl Batburst ; Lord Privy Seal, Lord Elleuborough ; Foreign 

 Secretary, Lord Dudley and Ward; Colonial Secretary, Mr. Hus- 

 kiaoon ; Home Secretary, Mr. Peel ; Master of the Mint, Mr. Henries ; 

 President of the India Board, Lord Melville ; President of the Board 

 of Trade, Mr. Grant; Secretary at War, Lord Palmeraton. The 

 ministry was afterwards modified by the secession of Mr. Huskissou. 

 It* great act wai the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill a 

 measure the evmtual necessity of which Mr. Peel had been prepared 

 for ; which was now pressed to an if sue by the overwhelming influence 

 of the Catholic Association in Ireland, as shown in the election of 

 Ur. O'Connell to the House of Commons for the county of Clare, and 

 which the ministry determined on as soon as the king had given his 

 reluctant consent. On the 6th of March 1829, Mr. Peel who hod in 

 the meantime been rejected by the University of Oxford in favour of 

 Sir Harry Inglis, whose anti-Roman-Catholic principles recommended 

 him brought forward the Relief Bill in the Commons, as member 

 for the close borough of Weatbury. His speech on this occasion was 

 not only powerful at the time, but is interesting now as revealing what 

 may be called the cardinal principle of Mr. Peel's career as a statesman. 

 " We are placed," he raid, " in a position in which we cannot remain. 

 We cannot continue stationary. There is an evil in divided cabi- 

 net* and distracted councils which cannot be longer tolerated. . . . 

 Supposing this to be established, and supposing it to be conceded that 

 a united government must be formed, in the next place I say that 

 government must choose one of two course*. They must advance or 

 they mart recede. They must grant further political privileges to 

 the Roman Catholics, or they must retract those already given. . . . 

 I am asked, what new light bu broken in upon me ? Why I see a 

 necessity for oouoeasion now which wu not evident before ? The same 

 events, I am told, have happened before, and therefore the same con 

 sequences ought to follow I Is this the fact f Are events in politics 

 like equal quantities in numbers or mathematics, always the same 1 

 Are they, like the preat abstract truths of morality, eternal and invari- 

 able in their application f May not the recurrence the continued 

 recurrence -of the very same event totally alter it* character, at leaat 

 it* practical rarolu 1 ' Mr Peel on this occasion spoke out, as a states- 

 man, the general Mn se of the nation ; and the, Emancipation Act, after 

 running the gauntlet of the Upper House, became law. Besides this 

 great roeamre, lir. Peel, u Home Secretary, introduced other measures, 

 including the Xew Metropolitan Police Act, which provided London 

 with it* efficient body of ' Peelers,' subject to the Home Office, in lieu 

 of the oil ' Charlies.' Question* of currency also occupied him during 

 this administration. 



Though tb* Wellington- Peel government had yielded on the Roman 

 Catholic Relief question, they were not prepared to yield on the gnat 

 ofMtitatiooal question of Parliamentary Reform. When in February 

 1SJO, Lord John RiiMell moved the question of disfranchising on* or 

 two corrupt small boroughs, and transferring the representation to 

 oat* of the Urge commercial town* then unrepresented, Mr. Peel 

 opposed UM motion, because it introduced a principle into the 

 v-tra of representation -that of mere numbers -which he said wu 

 the ultra-democratic principle, and with which the aristocratic and 



monarchical principle could not long co-exist." The death of 

 jeorge IV. however (June 26, 1830), and the accession of William 1 \ ., 

 followed as it was by on immediate dissolution of parliament, and a 

 reneral election (not to speak of the concurrent influence of the 

 r'reuch Revolution of July), rendered the continued refusal of Par- 

 litmentary Reform impossible. After the re-assembling of parliament 

 on the 2nd of November 1830, the Duke again repudiated reform 

 absolutely ; but Mr. Peel's language, though also negative, wu more 

 guarded. Amidst violent excitement, the minister* resigned ; and a 

 Reform ministry the first Whig ministry since 1807 wu constituted 

 the same month under the premiership of Earl Grey. Lord Brougham 

 became Lord Chancellor ; Lord Paliuerston, Foreign Secretary ; the 

 Marquis of Lansdowne, President of the Council ; Lord John Russell, 

 Paymaster of the Forces ; Lord Al thorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer ; 

 and Mr. Peel wu succeeded in the Home secretaryship by Lord Mel- 

 bourne. It wu at thin juncture that the death of Mr. Peel's father 

 raised him to the baronetcy and the estates. 



For the first time in his life Sir Robert Peel was now in open 

 opposition. He opposed with great determination the Whig schemes 

 of reform, but in such a manner a* to indicate his private conviction, 

 from an observation of public opinion, that tome change in the repre- 

 sentative system was inevitable. His conduct in fact, during the 

 whole of the Reform Kill crisis, had an important influence on the 

 re-ult. He declined at the list moment to jin with the Duke of 

 Wellington in the attempt to form a ministry to supersede that of 

 Earl Grey. The Duke of Wellington withdrew his opposition : on the 

 4th of June 1832 the Reform Bill pawed the Lords, and three days 

 afterwards it was law. In January 1833 the first reformed parliament 

 met. Sir Robert Peel was returned for Taui worth, which he continued 

 to represent during the rest of bis life. 



Acquiescing in the new state of things, and abandoning all idea of 

 abrogating the constitutional change which had occurred, it was now 

 Sir Robert's aim to organise, what ho called a ' Conservative ' party, as 

 distinct either from that of the Whigs, or that of the inveterate Torie*. 

 Supported in this aim by the Duke of Wellington and others, whose 

 views took the same shape, he acted as a vigilant, but not factious, 

 critic of the various important measures introduced by the Whigs into 

 the Reformed Parliament ; first, under the premiership of Earl Grey ; 

 and, next, under that of Lord Melbourne. He gave his support to the 

 Irish Coercion Bill; he advocated the abolition of negro slavery in the 

 colonies, but advised great caution in the practical steps for carrying 

 it into effect; and he acted a cautious port in the debates on tli 

 Law Amendment Act of 1834, but, on the whole, approved of that 

 momentous change. These measures were carried while Earl Grey 

 was still premier ; but before the prorogation of Parliament in August, 

 1834, Lord Grey had been succeeded by Lord Melbourne, with Lord 

 Altborp as his Chancellor of the Exchequer. The death of l.-i.l 

 Althorp's father, Earl Spencer, in November, 1834, having raised him 

 to the Upper House, the King, to the surprise of all, availed himself 

 of the ministerial difficulty thus occasioned to dismiss the Whig 

 Ministers altogether, and call the Dtika of Wellington to his coi 

 Sir Robert Peel, who had not expected any such event, was then at 

 Rome with his family. Being sent for, however, ho hasten. <1 kick to 

 London, where he arrived on the 9th of December; the Duke, who 

 had, in the meantime, acted provisionally as minister, imm< -duti'ly 

 consulted with him, and a Conservative Ministry was arranged as 

 follows : First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exch> 

 Sir Robert Peel ; Lord Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst ; President of the 

 Council, Lord Rosslyn ; Privy Seal, Lord Wharnclill'u; K< 

 tarv, the Duke of Wellington ; Home Secretary , Mr. Ooulburn 

 uial Secretary, Lord Aberdeen; First Lord of the Admiralty. Karl .! 

 Grey ; Master of the Ordnance, Sir George Murray ; 1 "f the 



Board of Trade anil Master of the Mint. Mr. Alexander Baring; Pic 

 of the India Board, Lord Ellenborough ; Paymaster of the For. 

 E. Knatchbull ; Secretory at War, Mr. Homes; Secretary for Ireland, 

 Sir Henry Hardiuge. 



Sir Robert Peel's first premiership was but short It began in 

 December 1834, and in April 1835 it was nt an end. On assuming 

 office, Sir Robert, in a letter to the electors of Tamworth, had made 

 a manifesto of the intended policy of his ('n*ervativc ministry. 

 " With regard to tho Reform Bill," he said, " I will now re|>eat tho 

 declaration which I wade when I entered the House of Commons as a 

 member of the Reformed Parliament, that I consider the Reform Hill 

 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, cither by indirect or by insidious means." 

 Proceeding on this u a fixed principle, the new ministry was to govtru 

 the country in a Conservative spirit, but with a readiness to carry into 

 effect certain minor domestic reforms which were indicated. This 

 policy however, while perhaps it was not satisfactory to the remnant 

 of the old Tories, was certainly not aati-factory to the country at 

 large. The Reform Bill bad not, indeed, produced all the results that 

 the more eager bad anticipated ; the Whig* had not, in all respecta, 

 come up to the mark of popular expectation, and tho dwappoiri 

 hd begun to show itself among the Radical parly, who iriticiseil t!i.- 

 Whigs severely and were bent on carrying farther contitr 

 change*. Still, the re-action against Whig rule was not such that 

 Sir Robert Peel's " Conservative " ministry could stand its ground. 



